From capes to Tuffskin jeans: Stephen King’s vampires and 1980s angst

Abstract

The central premise of this article is that Stephen King’s use of the vampire as a figure of horror transforms across three texts: ‘Salem’s Lot, ‘The night flier’ and ‘Popsy’. Drawing upon Reagan-era anxieties, King brings us to the conclusion in ‘Popsy’ that the prototypical vampire is not necessarily the one people need to fear since it is the human monster who preys on the vulnerable.