• Optional@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          A less-known and less horror-movie centric bit of vampire canon is that they suffer from arithmomania, a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder that presents itself as a need to count objects in your surroundings. This crossed even cultural boundaries, with tales of number-crunching Counts existing from Slavic lore all the way to the Chinese jiangshi.

          As the lore goes, the vampires could be distracted from your pulsing, delectable carotids by a surplus of something in the surroundings that demanded to be counted. Holes in a fishing net, seed scattered at the door, Chinese folklore even recommended tossing out a handful of rice grains in front of a vampire as a functional defense against getting feasted on.

          One! One grain of rice!

          • usernamefactory@lemmy.ca
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            5 days ago

            The crummy direct to video sequel to Dracula 2000 totally endeared itself to me by including the vampiric OCD in its narrative. As far as I know, it and Sesame Street are the only film/tv media to do so. An unlikely club.