Outstanding in this confrontation is the exchange between vampire and priest. It was only a piece of plastic his mother had bought in a Dublin souvenir shop…” “The cross trembled in Callahan’s hand and suddenly the last of its light vanished. Callahan’s refusal to drop his symbol of faith and trust in the faith itself proves his undoing, he has more faith in the symbol than the essence behind the symbol. Barlow challenges him to put aside his cross and face him faith against faith. When confronted by the source of the vampiric infestation, Barlow, Callahan’s faith falters.
This is an impressive show of faith, yet it is short lived. The curved fanlight above the door suddenly exploded outwards…” “There was a flash of light – afterward they all agreed there had been – a pungent whiff of ozone, and a crackling sound, as if the boards themselves had screamed. ‘I command the evil to be gone from this house! Spirits, depart!’ And without being aware he was going to do it, he smote the door with the crucifix in his hand ‘In the name of God the Father!’ he cried, and his voice took on a hoarse commanding note that made them all draw closer to him. An eagerness – the old eagerness he was sure had gone forever – seemed to seize him as he approached the door…. “When they got out, he led them without stopping to think about it. Yet when the protagonists investigate the Marsden House it is he who opens the way after the enormity of the situation rekindles his faith. In “’Salem’s Lot” the priest, Father Callahan, is a drunk who has lost his way.
Stephen King tackled these issues in his novel “’Salem’s Lot”. No matter what symbol is used, if the person who wields it has faith in it then it will be a potent weapon against the undead. The holy symbol is now nothing more than that it is the faith behind the symbol that is all-important.
As the vampire genre has grown, however, so the concept of why the holy symbol effects the vampire has developed.
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