The contrast between human (homely) and inhuman (alien, hostile) is strongly present in most of Montague Rhodes James’ stories. In the story ‘Casting the Runes,’ the protagonist, Professor Dunning is being slowly but inevitably hunted down — “haunted down” — by unseen demonic forces. He is not yet fully aware of it, but his night in a lonely house is restless. Trying to find a box of matches under his pillow, he suddenly, in complete darkness, touches what he later described as “a mouth, with teeth, and with hair about it, and, he declares, not the mouth of a human being.” It is unclear why Montague Rhodes James had to specify that it was not the mouth of a human being — surely, the presence of such an entity under one’s pillow would not have been less unpleasant if it was human. But the distinction — non-human, alien — is emphasised. Montague Rhodes James connects this encounter with the acute sense of loneliness experienced by Dunning in the scene leading to this episode. “It seemed to him that something ill-defined and impalpable stepped in between him and his fellow-men.” It appears that loneliness makes humans easy prey for the haunting hunters.

The British author Gina Wisker argues that “not everything that is Gothic is horror.” The terminology blurs and contradicts, and particular meanings can be hard to separate. Scholarship struggles with content-based definitions and often subsumes horror within Gothic (or vice versa), depending on the writer’s critical perspective or the medium being discussed.

The folklore related to vampires has a lengthy historical timeline and remains one of great fascination which continues today. Within literary novels of the past like Abraham Stoker’s “Dracula”, to present day books, films, movies and television the theme continues and has woven itself into distinct subcultures. These words and recordings show people through depictions and paintings that even in today’s world images of a ravenous reanimated corpse both frightens and terrifies us. The vampire rises from the grave under cover of night to return to steal the life force from his family, friends or neighbours.