History Main / FeralVampires

* ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'': Demitri Maximoff has all the traits of the ClassicalMovieVampire: Handsome, powerful and arrogant, with a throng of beautiful Lady worshippers on every arm. Well in some of his moves, his real shape is shown: A monstrous bat/gargoyle thing with enormous teeth and big veiny wings who tears and gnaws at his opponents throat like he hasn't drunk blood in days.

* ''Literature/EmpireOfTheVampire'': Those vampires whose ''Becoming'' occurs later, after their body and brain has decayed significantly, wind up as animalistic, mindless walking corpses more in line with original Eastern European myths about the undead. These beings are named ''wretched'' by mortals, who view them with hatred, and ''foulbloods'' by ''ancien'' vampires, who view them with contempt. Originally they were merely the unfortunate victims of a vampire's feeding, discarded after death and left to fend for themselves should they happen to reanimate, for to sire a ''foulblood'' by accident was seen as a mark of shame within ''kith'' circles. Even without a hunter's intervention, most ''wretched'' were left so feral and brain-damaged that their hunger completely consumed them, and they were often simply caught out in the open by sunrise, swiftly burning to a crisp. However, after [[TheNightThatNeverEnds Daysdeath]], their numbers began to naturally surge as the sun could no longer harm them. This led Fabién Voss to discard the traditional ''kith'' stance on siring ''wretched'' and begin spawning an army of Dead under his command, an approach which was quickly emulated by the other bloodlines. Currently, the ''wretched'' form the bulk of the [[NightOfTheLivingMooks Endless Legion]], a [[TheHorde mindless, starving horde]] forever enthralled in service to their callous creators.

* ''Literature/EmpireOfTheVampire'': Those vampires whose ''Becoming'' occurs later, after their body and brain has decayed significantly, wind up as animalistic, mindless walking corpses more in line with original Eastern European myths about the undead. These beings are named ''wretched'' by mortals, who view them with hatred, and ''foulbloods'' by ancien vampires, who view them with contempt. Originally they were merely the unfortunate victims of a vampire's feeding, discarded after death and left to fend for themselves should they happen to reanimate, for to sire a foulblood by accident was seen as a mark of shame within kith circles. Even without a hunter's intervention, most ''wretched'' were left so feral and brain-damaged that their hunger completely consumed them, and they were often simply caught out in the open by sunrise, swiftly burning to a crisp. However, after [[TheNightThatNeverEnds Daysdeath]], their numbers began to naturally surge as the sun could no longer harm them. This led Fabién Voss to discard the traditional ''kith'' stance on siring ''wretched'' and begin spawning an army of Dead under his command, an approach which was quickly emulated by the other bloodlines. Currently, the ''wretched'' form the bulk of the [[NightOfTheLivingMooks Endless Legion]], a [[TheHorde mindless, starving horde]] forever enthralled in service to their callous creators.

** Varghulfs and Vargheists are vampires of any bloodline who stop embracing the trappings of aristocracy (willingly in the former case, unwillingly in the latter) and end up devolving into feral, monstrous forms as a result. While still somewhat intelligent, they are too bestial and indulgent in their blood thirst to even function as army commanders and count as monsters in-game; Vargheists' desperate thirst for blood also gives them the [[TheBerserker "Frenzy" rule]].

[[quoteright:316:[[TableTopGame/VampireTheEternalStruggle https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mitru_the_hunter_2.jpg]]]]

* ''Series/MidnightMass2021'': Downplayed. The Angel -- the bat-winged, Orlock-featured vampire that began the series' woes -- is smart enough to work with Fr. Paul, shush him when he's panicking, and [[spoiler:take part in a mockery of Easter service]]. Outside of these incidents, however, it acts more like a wild beast than anything else, stalking the night to prey on animals until the chaos in the finale allows it rampage through the island and ravenously devour any uninfected human that it can catch. It also never speaks, and instead only growls, snarls, and shrieks like a beast.

* ''Film/IAmLegend'': The Darkseekers are essentially this as well as {{Technically Living Zombie}}s: they feed on meat (such as blood), and they're severely burned by UV rays such as those present in sunlight, which forces them to shelter in dark ruins throughout the day and only come out at night.

* The ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' "Season Nine" comics introduced "zompires", animalistic and unintelligent vampires who were sired [[spoiler:during the period when the Earth had no Seed of Wonder]].

* The vampires in ''Film/ThirtyDaysOfNight'' are animalistic in their mannerisms, being vicious and brutal in how they attack and feed on people. In fact, not including Barrow residents who have been recently turned, only their leader Marlow is ever shown speaking coherently (albeit in the vampires' BlackSpeech), the rest only snarling and howling. This is likely by choice, they can act civilized if they want to, but the whole point of their assault on the town is to openly revel in their predatory nature.
* After being turned into a vampire in ''Film/{{Afflicted}}'', Derek refuses to drink human blood. After he can't eat ordinary food or animal blood, and fails to steal blood from the hospital, the only option left is to kill a human, which Derek flatly refuses. After ten days, he degenerates into a mindless primitive vampire and attacks his best friend. After that, he gets his mental powers back. When he refuses human blood for another ten days, he degenerates again to the point of killing a police officer and drinking his blood. Audrey finally tells him that if he doesn't kill a human every four or five days and drink his blood, sooner or later he will permanently degenerate into a mindless beast. To avoid this fate, Derek then hunts down [[AssholeVictim vicious humans]].

* In ''Film/BloodRedSky'', people who get turned into vampires lose all sense of humanity and go into a mindless bloodlust. Nadja was only able to stop it with medication, [[spoiler:and when she loses access to that, she loses her mind as well]].
* The vampires in ''Film/BoysFromCountyHell'' are effectively mindless, animalistic predators. Even the master vampire, Abharthach, displays an intelligence that could more be described as predatory cunning than any kind of charm or wisdom. He's not a man who is a monster, he's a monster that is more-or-less the same shape as a man. Ironically, the legend of Abharthach (both in-universe and in real life) is supposed to have been the inspiration for ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'', one of the antitheses of this trope.

* ''Literature/{{Pale}}'': While no appearances have been made, vampires are likened to drug addicts. And given how TheMasquerade works, there's no hope of improvement for their conditions unless they transform themselves into a different form of Other.
** A vampire is eventually seen on-screen in passing - reliant upon the grace of the [[BorrowinSamedi Sable Prince]] to manage her condition and sucking her own blood in a self-soothing manner likened to smoking.

* The Turok-Han from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' are an ancient and powerful breed of vampires which seem to have the intelligence and communication abilities of predatory animals. Modern vampires, by contrast, are demons in the bodies of dead humans, and retain the intelligence and memory of the deceased. Giles even says that the Turok-Han are "as single-minded as animals."
** That being said, modern vampire also qualifies. While some of them do blend in with humans, many of them live in pack in dark secluded places (sewers, crypt, caves, abandoned buildings) and, furthermore, when showing their monstrous GameFace they often let out a roar similar to that of a lion, making them appear quite animalistic when they let loose.

* The vampires in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' operate in nests and act bestial when they are overcome with bloodlust. Some vampires like Lenore and Benny try to avoid killing innocents by feeding on cattle or living on blood bags, respectively. Most vampires, though, don't care enough to do this and will feed on any human they get their hands on. It gets even worse if they get deprived of blood, being reduced to savage monsters that [[LooksLikeOrlock Look Like Orlock]].

* As mentioned above, in Medieval vampire lore, vampires were seen as mindless, animalistic {{Flesh Eating Zombie}}s with little or no remainder of their human personality.

** When vampirized, Mind Flayers devolve into mindless monstrosities, roaming the Underdark for the blood and brains they crave.

** One ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' article about variant vampires includes "savage vampires" who rely on brute force to subdue their victims, and mostly feed on animal blood since they lack the tactical thinking to deliberately target humanoids.
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': This trope has been fairly cyclical. Some sets and settings have made vampires as a whole more feral and less civilized, while others have played the "vampires are aristocrats" trope to the hilt instead. Innisrad, in particular, contains examples of both, with "traditional" vampires usually being associated with Black while the feral ones are more commonly Red. For example, the [[https://scryfall.com/card/tpr/118/skyshroud-vampire Skyshroud vampires]] are essentially gigantic, monstrous bats and little more than feral predators, sheltering within the thick Skyshroud Forest to avoid the light of the sun.

* Demitri Maximoff in VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} has all the traits of the ClassicalMovieVampire: Handsome, powerful and arrogant, with a throng of beautiful Lady worshippers on every arm. Well in some of his moves, his real shape is shown: A monstrous bat/gargoyle thing with enormous teeth and big veiny wings who tears and gnaws at his opponents throat like he hasn't drunk blood in days.
* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' vampires generally disguise themselves to live within the society. However, if discovered, they may flee to the wilderness, where they live in burrows and attack everyone on sight.

* The feral Vampyres in ''VideoGame/RuneScape''. Creatures that can be found in the Haunted Woods of [[{{Uberwald}} Morytania]] and in the God Wars Dungeon with the forces of Zamorak. It is revealed in the quest "The Lord of Vampyrium" that vampyres evolved from predatory animals called venators. Lord Drakan wants vampyres to return to being beasts because he believes that becoming civilized has made them weak.

* In ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKainSoulReaver'', Kain has conquered the world of Nosgoth and created an unstoppable empire of vampires, but his neglect of the setting's CosmicKeystone leaves Nosgoth unable to sustain natural life in the long term. By the time the game begins properly, centuries have passed and Nosgoth has deteriorated into a desolate wasteland. As a result of blood starvation, the remaining vampires have been reduced to animalistic scavengers haunting the ruins of their clan holdings.

* In the first episode of ''WebAnimation/HunterTheParenting'' the dysfunctional family of hunters fights a group of Sabbat vampires, including a Gangrel with clawed gorilla-sized arms, a Brujah biker, a barely-human looking Nosferatu, and a crazy-haired Tremere. Sabbat members are usually squarely feral and this lot is no exception, though at least one of them is later confirmed to act like a complete maniac as a coping mechanism to deal [[BeingEvilSucks with the awful side of being a vampire]].

* Website/TaerelSetting: Zigzazed: Some kin'toni clans are feral monsters that are savages or are mindless killers, but many clans avert this as they are sapient beings that can reason and act in a human-like manner. The Ja Anarath Kin'toni Clan are a savage clan that cut out their own tounges and the Loremdra Kin'toni Clan. The Roh Kin'toni Clan is anotehr savage feral clan.

In many settings, it also makes more sense than the alternative: [[FridgeLogic what peasant in their right mind would tolerate having a literal bloodsucking predator for a Lord or Lady]]?

* The vampires in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' operate in packs and act bestial when they are overcome with bloodlust. Some vampires like Lenore and Benny try to avoid killing innocents by feeding on cattle or living on blood bags respectively. Most vampires though don't care enough to do this and will feed on any human they get their hands on. It gets even worse if they get deprived of blood, being reduced to savage monsters that [[LooksLikeOrlock Look Like Orlock]].

* The vampires in ''Film/ThirtyDaysOfNight'' are animalistic in their mannerisms, being vicious and brutal in how they attack and feed on people. In fact, not including Barrow residents who have been recently turned, only their leader Marlow is ever shown speaking coherently (albeit in the vampires' BlackSpeech), the rest only snarling and howling.

* ''Literature/IAmLegend'': While not completely mindless, the vampires do seem to be quite a bit dumber than the typical depiction. They do [[ItCanThink show some signs of intelligence]] -- they seem to retain the ability to speak, and female vampires will sometimes flash their breasts at Neville in an attempt to get him to leave his house. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that the "feral" part is because the vampires were already dead when they were infected. Those were still alive when infected have managed to retain their sanity, and they see Neville as their equivalent of a vampire -- a remorseless monster who kills dozens in their sleep.]]

* The feral Vampyres in ''VideoGame/RuneScape''. Creatures that can be found in the Haunted Woods of [[{{Uberwald}} Morytania]] and in the God Wars Dungeon with the forces of Zamorak.

* In {{VideoGame/DwarfFortress}} vampires generally disguise themselves to live within the society. However, if discovered, they may flee to the wilderness, where they live in burrows and attack everyone on sight.

* In VideoGame/{{DwarfFortress}} vampires generally disguise themselves to live within the society. However, if discovered, they may flee to the wilderness, where they live in burrows and attack everyone on sight.

** The Necrach bloodline is a downplayed example. They all [[LooksLikeOrlok Look Like Orlok]] and shun the company of humans or the trappings of civilization and nobility, living alone in the wilderness. However, they do this out of practicality more than anything else -- Necrachs are scholars and researchers by nature and avoid mortals in order to avoid having their libraries and laboratories set on fire by angry mobs, and with their appearance it's impossible for them to live near mortals anyway.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Red Court vampires will devolve into these (known as "blood slaves") when they can no longer control their hunger for blood. They also lose their ability to maintain a human disguise and are always in their monstrous true forms. They're seen as little more than animals and used as cannon fodder.
* In ''Come Twilight'', by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, the cultured vampire (and series protagonist) Saint-Germain takes pity on a dying Csiminae, a village woman. The only way to save Csiminae is to convert her into a vampire, but to Saint-Germain's dismay, she becomes one of these, terrorizing locals and forming her own pack of feral vampires.
* In ''Literature/{{Pale}}'', while no appearances have been made, vampires are likened to drug addicts. And given how TheMasquerade works, there's no hope of improvement for their conditions unless they transform themselves into a different form of Other.
* ''Literature/TheStrain'': While some of the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Strigoi]] are able to maintain human intelligence, the majority of them are portrayed as bestial predators.
* In ''Literature/TheyThirst'', it's revealed that the head vampire, [[WickedCultured Prince]] [[PsychopathicManchild Vulkan]], was originally turned hundreds of years ago by a barbaric, caveman-like band of vampires, and his ability to retain lucidity helped him organize and lift up vampires as a whole from being animalistic reanimated corpses into being the cunning, sophisticated monsters that he is the apotheosis of.
* ''Story of My Life'', the autobiography of Victorian writer Creator/AugustusHare, is probably best remembered for a sequence in which Hare recounts a vampire story told to him by a friend, a Cpt. Fisher. This story, "The Vampire of Croglin Grange" (or simply "The Croglin Vampire"), tells of a young female tenant of the captain's, who is repeatedly attacked in the night by a grotesque, {{mummy}}-like walking corpse. Eventually her brothers are able to track it to a local cemetery, where the townsfolk open a vault to find all the coffins but one have been gnawed to bones. In the remaining undisturbed coffin, they find the vampire, which they [[KillItWithFire burn]]. There's nothing romantic about this vampire, which comes across as an utterly inhuman, predatory ''thing''. The full story can be found [[https://www.nwf.org/~/media/PDFs/GABC/The%20Vampire.pdf here]] if you're curious. A retelling of this story appears as "The Window" in ''More Literature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark''.
* In ''Literature/TheSagaOfTheNobleDead'' some vampires choose ''the wild path''. They completely abandon human civilization and live deep in forests. The people they hunt are travelers or the residents of remote villages. Some of them also avoid all human contact and hunt animals instead. But despite having a wild lifestyle, they don't seem to be losing their human intelligence.

* ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' and its DirectToVideo sequels are set at the Titty Twister, a remote trucker bar used as a front for a vampire clan.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': In contrast to the more civilized main characters, a large portion of the vampires are nomads, feral savages with few concerns beyond themselves and their next meal.

* The vampires in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' operate in packs and act bestial when they are overcome with bloodlust. Some vampires like Lenore and Benny try to avoid killing innocents by feeding on cattle or living on blood bags respectively. Most vampires though don't care enough to do this and will feed on any human they get their hands on. It gets even worse if they get deprived of blood, being reduced to savage monsters that LooksLikeOrlock.

* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' also features the Gangrel (with the renamed Bruja as a bloodline thereof). In addition, the game provides the Oberlochs, a Gangrel bloodline, a clan of inbred mine-owning rural vampires who suffer from ageing even as vampires. Expect to see reenactments of the "sucking on bloody fingers" scene from ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre''.