A sharp, sweet tooth: Vampires, junk food, and dangerous appetites in the lost boys and the hunger

Abstract

Next to blood, fast food and junk food make up the most common meals in ‘80s vampire fiction. Whether munching on chips, devouring a Big Mac, or slurping down soda, humans use these foods to satisfy hunger, assuage anxiety, provide a needed jolt of caffeine, and pass the time between sunset and sunrise. The vampires in these works tend to function in one of three ways. They can serve as metaphors for the food industry, preying on young and old with products designed to foster overconsumption and addiction. They can symbolize the country’s addiction to processed foods and the excesses of consumerism more broadly. And finally, they can even emerge as ironic images for healthy eating as they seek a natural, more organic diet than their junk-food addicted victims. In each case, these creatures indict an industry that profited from turning consumers into junkies, craving foods that promised heart disease, high cholesterol, and obesity. Films such as Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys (1987) and Whitley Strieber’s novel The Hunger (1981) offer two examples of the way this genre explored the nation’s appetite for junk food and challenged audiences to find a way to save themselves from this addiction before it was too late.