The vampire is often depicted as a thwarted lover. A common image hitched to the vampire and other monsters is the threshold carry. Like a groom bearing his new bride through a portal, the character is depicted with a woman draped over his arms. This scene is recognizable as a precursor to the consummation of a marriage, a time of anxiousness and anticipation. Death intervenes with love.
Death looms over the potential of bliss.
However, the above poster complicates our reaction by disturbingly depicting the vampire as the embodiment of the taboo of necrophilia. The woman, now deceased, is still bourn as a bride on her way to her wedding bed. This hint at forbidden conduct adds macabre titillation to the horror of the walking undead. Regardless of the resulting ethos, the vampire is a melancholy entity denied love in penance for his worldly or other-worldly sins. A predator is frightening only when it has the power to obtain its prey.