Vampire Invitation

Beware; such hospitality is likely to come back to bite you.

It's not like Dawn hasn't grown up in this house knowing all the rules. Especially the big-y, Number 1-0: Do not invite blood-sucking dead people into our home!

—Buffy, "The Real Me"

Going back in various mythologies is the idea that supernatural beings - such as vampires, ghosts, demons, witches, what have you - cannot enter into a home unless invited to do so. Often such beings will try to gain entrance by tricking a person into believing they are someone else.

This trope is very old although, oddly enough, its application to vampires begins with Bram Stoker - Varney and Lord Ruthven, for example, never had this problem. More often than not the original conceptions of these mythical creatures are identifiable by this trope. Other creatures strongly associated with it are Ghosts, Demons, and The Fair Folk.

Traditionally, this trope applied to mythical creatures in general, as well as vampires. But there's a load of things that are supposed to invite them in, like putting new shoes on the table, or bringing white hawthorn into the house. Now you know.

For any story that examines the trope in detail, expect to see vampires dealing with common buildings where the public is invited, invitations are explicit or implied, who exactly counts as "inhabiants" of a dwelling for this purpose (such as owners, tenants, guests or captives) and the concept of revocation of invitation to be played with.

Related to Sacred Hospitality, which also treats the etiquette of hospitality as Serious Business.

Examples of Vampire Invitation include:

Anime & Manga

• Princess Resurrection:
  • Reiri required an invitation to enter Hime's home, but was free to enter at will once that invitation was given. This trope also came to bite Duke Kinski in the butt, when he seeks to replenish his supply of Royal Blood using Hime's corpse, only to find out that she's alive and well, and denying him entry to her home.
  • This trope is almost exaggerated later on, when Riza and Hiro enter a long-abandoned shack, and still need to invite Reiri inside.
• In Shiki, vampires are subjected to this limitation. Unfortunately, they can Mind Control a victim they have already bitten once.

Comic Books

• This showed up in a Generation X Annual, when Dracula gained entry to the school. In fact, each individual room required its own separate invite, as each was the domain of whoever lived in that room. However, it didn't do the Gen Xers much good, since their first response to a knock at the door was to say, "Come in."

Film

• Let the Right One In. The title pretty much gives it away. When Oskar finally gets Eli to tell him what happens if she tries to enter a place uninvited, she finally demonstrates by stepping inside. Ten or so seconds later, she begins bleeding from every orifice. She coulda just told him, but this is emotional blackmail.
  • Depends on how you view the film. if you subscribe to the belief that Eli's only using Oskar, then yes, it's emotional blackmail. If you subscribe to the belief that she truly does love him, however (as the book makes explicit), then it's a case of putting his/her life in Oskar's hands.
• In Fright Night, the protagonist counts on being safe in his home but his mother ends up inviting the vampire neighbour to the house anyway.
  • In the 2011 remake, the Brewsters take shelter in their house, thinking this rule will save them, only for Jerry the vampire to rip the gaslines out and ignite them.

Jerry: Don't need an invitation if there's no house.

• The Lost Boys: This is a plot point, revealing the identity of the real head vampire.
• Occurs in Habit, when the protagonist brings his girlfriend back to his apartment for the first time.
• Lair of the White Worm: This rule seemingly works both ways. Lady Marsh also invites people into her home in order to kill them.
• In Nosferatu, it's implied that Ellen had to open the window to invite Orlok in for her sacrificial ploy.

Literature

• Dracula. Tricking one of the inmates of an insane asylum into inviting you in apparently counts.
  • Also Inverted: The Count is apparently forbidden from doing anything that could be construed as forcing Jonathan Harker to enter his castle or forbidding him from leaving, so stays firmly behind the threshold until he chooses to "Enter freely and of your own will," and when Jonathan insists on leaving, Dracula is quite willing to open the gates, but when Jonathan hears the wolves outside, he asks Dracula to close the doors again. Or Dracula could've just been a dick on a power trip.
  • Another possibility is that since it's ambiguous whether Dracula (at this early stage of the book) is genuinely Affably Evil or Faux Affably Evil, his invitation might be some form of courtesy that modern readers don't get; while his famous invitation may stand out a lot nowadays, Jonathan does not seem to think there is anything strange about it.
  • It's possible that Dracula doesn't realise that humans are not bound by similar rules about invitations; Van Helsing talks at some length about how Dracula is ignorant about the full extent of his own abilities (something which never seems to make it into the films), so maybe Dracula thought Jonathan required an invitation just like he would.
  • Dracula's invitation to Jonathan is never brought up again, not even in the form of Jonathan lamenting the irony that he willingly entered the castle, so it might not have been intended to be particularly important. As noted in the intro, the idea that The Fair Folk etc. could not exercise their full power over humans without some kind of consent is Older Than Dirt, so maybe Stoker was deliberately trying to invoke this trope?
• Played completely straight in 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. In fact, the converse is also true: at least one character drives a vampire out of his house by ordering it to leave and stating "I revoke my invitation." (With a brandished cross as backup, of course.)
• In Artemis Fowl, the fairies follow this trope. If a fairy tries to enter a house uninvited, they become violently ill, and repeat offenders (such as Mulch Diggums) eventually lose their magical powers entirely. Holly deconstructs this by using a 'welcome' mat as a loophole.
  • It also brings on a CMOA on Holly's part: Can't chase the villain inside the house? Pull the friggin' house down.
  • There really are an awful lot of loopholes. For example, in an emergency a cry for help counts as an invitation. The characters also use various verbal tricks to get invitations from unsuspecting marks.
    • In the first book, Artemis tells Root, "None of your race have permission to enter here while I am alive." The fairies take this to mean they can enter when he's dead. Artemis knows this full well and purposely leaves the loophole as part of his Xanatos Gambit.
    • In The Eternity Code, Artemis asks Corrupt Corporate Executive Jon Spiro if he thinks Artemis is going to swoop in with his fairy friends and take back the C Cube. Spiro laughs and says, "Bring all the fairy friends you want." Big mistake...
    • Later in The Eternity Code, Juliet gets Holly into a building by calling about public tours and asking, "Hey mister, can I bring my invisible friend?"
    • In the later books, this limitation no longer applies. No1, one of the most powerful warlocks the fairies have seen in a long time, dispels the curse with what amounts to a wave of his hand.
• The Fetchers from Keys to the Kingdom follow this trope.
  • Though, none of the other denizens do, and apparently one doesn't need to OWN the house to invite a Fetcher inside... Monday's Dawn simply waltzed inside Arthur's house and invited his fetchers.
• In Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, Greg thinks of this trope, and wonders if the same thing works for his weird neighbor kid. (The accompanying illustration of a vampire trying to trick its way into Greg's house by asking to borrow a cup of sugar would be a good page image.)
• In Night Watch this is one of the few traditional beliefs about the vampires that is actually true, most of the other being spread by vampires themselves to give targets a false sense of security. Moreover the invitation can be withdrawn by the host or renounced by the vampire, which is expected from them after a one-time visit unless the host extend it. The rule doesn't help human victims much though, since the vampires can use a sort of "siren song" to hypnotize their target into coming outside.
• In The Dresden Files, there are two factors that determine whether supernatural creatures can enter. Buildings have a "Threshold" - the more a dwelling is a home rather than just a house, e.g. a well-loved home that has been part of the family for generations has a much stronger threshold than a second house that is rarely used by the bachelor owner. Thresholds are also temporarily weakened by the intrusion of strangers, even ordinary Muggles, or being used as a business-place. The second is how magical the creature is. A wizard can enter any home without damage, but their magical abilities will be weakened while in there. Creatures like demons use bodies of magical ectoplasm to exist in the world and so trying to enter uninvited disrupts their magic, weakening their abilities much more than wizards, and can destroy their bodies entirely. The strength of the threshold determines how severe this effect is.
  • Although, Dresden makes a point of asking for an invitation, not because of magical ramifications, but just because it's polite.
• Carpe Jugulum: The trope appears as a plot point when Verence, king of Lancre, makes the mistake of sending an Überwaldean noble family an official invitation to his daughter's christening.^[1]
• Played with in Blindsight, along with other elements of vampire mythos. It's not like they are not able to enter the house without invitation—they just get an epileptic fit if they see a right angle, so wouldn't even bother.
• In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero Lost, Mab warns Miranda and Theo that his magic circles will only keep out uninvited spirits, and so they must not speak at all. (Spirits have been known to take a liberal interpretation of what constitutes an invitation.)
• In an early Anita Blake novel, Anita has decided she's had enough of Jean-Claude's manipulative crap, and revokes his invitation. Cue a mystical gust of wind blowing him out of her apartment and slamming the door behind him with all the ire that she would have used herself.
• When Sookie Stackhouse gets ticked and revokes her boyfriend Bill's invitation into her house, it seems to put him under a compulsion to leave, as he "walked out with a sort of helpless look on his face."
• Andre Le Brel, from Children of the Night, can enter public buildings freely but cannot enter Diana's apartment building (not just her apartment) until invited to come in. Once the invitation is given, though, he can break in at a later time to take shelter from the sun.
• Played straight in Kitty Norville. Commercial buildings and public spaces are fair game, of course, but any place that is a "home", no matter how metaphorical of one it is, can block a vampire from entering. This leads to a rather funny moment when Rick, one of Kitty's friends, tries to walk through the door of the werewolf restaurant/bar, resulting in a "running into a glass door" moment. As he puts it, although the building is a business, the pack has made it a home as well. Kitty teases him by threatening to not let him in, but eventually does.
• In Devon Monk's Dead Iron, Mae explicitly refuses permission to enter her home, though the effect appears to be more her spells than the refusal.

Live Action TV

• True Blood
  • Bill, a vampire, cannot enter into Sookie's house until she invites him inside. Later she got angry at him and rescinded her invitation, forcing him to leave.
    • The show makes it seems as if an invisible force is pushing him out.
  • During a confrontation in the second season, Bill glamors a young girl into inviting him into the house when her parents refused.
  • This is only true for homes owned by non-vampires, as demonstrated by Franklin entering Bill's house despite Jessica's objections. A public place (a non-dwelling) is fair game.
  • The invitation can also be forced. In a later episode, Sookie and Eric are talking on the porch, when Eric hears something inside with his super-hearing. He nearly slams Sookie into the wall and pretty much forces her to invite him in. This was to protect her, though, as there was a werewolf waiting inside.
  • Poor Jessica had her invitation rescinded from two different houses in the same night, it didn't seem to matter that she lived in one of them.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: Vampires have this limitation. The Buffyverse established an elaborate sense of Magic A Is Magic A with the invite: it must be an actual residence (house, apartment, dormitory) and not merely a "public accommodation" (a motel room), only a resident can give the invitation, the invitation must be clear (just saying "come in" is enough), the invite requirement is voided when the occupant is dead (Angel once watched a man get killed by vampires when the man had invited them in earlier and refused to invite him), the invite is only needed once unless a certain "uninvite" spell is cast (This was done for Angel, Spike and Harmony) and once Cordelia lost a special "Invite Angel into Her New Apartment" moment because long ago she said he could visit while she was apartment-shopping.
  • This applies to the 1992 movie as well, leading to this exchange at the senior dance:

Buffy:They can't get in unless they're invited.
Kimberly:I already invited them.
Buffy:What?
Kimberly:Well, they're seniors!

• • There's also plenty of discussion on how clever vampires will get around the restriction. In the first Angel episode, "City of," a rich vampire, Russell Winters, would set pretty girls up in apartments he owned. Since technically they were his guests, he could come and go as he wished – and eat them. When Spike showed up later in the first season, the characters tell Cordelia she shouldn't go back to her place, as Spike could just burn it down to get to her.
  • It should also be noted that this only applies to human residences; vampires and other demons have no such protection. Angel, in the episode "Somnambulist" from the first season, breaks into the apartment of his vampiric ex-protégé Penn with no trouble.
  • The Buffyverse vampire invitation rules are also particular about how a building is used. For instance, when Angel briefly stays in the Hyperion Hotel in the 1950s, he can enter any room because the hotel is a public accommodation and no one's home. Half a century later, however, when Fred moves into the long-closed Hyperion with Angel's other friends, she must invite the vampire into her room because the hotel is no longer open to the public.
  • It was played for comedy in an the second-season episode "Untouched" in which, while the human Gunn could enter an apartment and snoop around, Angel was left leaning against the invisible barrier of the doorway. He then fell into the apartment when the owner died in the hospital.
  • It's also played for laughs in a Buffy episode where Harmony and her vampire gang confront the Scoobies at Buffy's house. In reaction to Harmony's taunting, Dawn yells at her, "why don't you just come in here and-" before she is muffled by Xander. Too late.
  • They even pay careful attention to it in first-season episodes of Buffy before it's revealed that Angel is a vampire. Buffy and Angel are being chased by The Master's goons, and Buffy leads Angel to her home and tells him to "Get in, come on!"
  • Willow also learns the price of carelessness in the Season 4 episode "The Initiative" while at her college dorm. Spike knocks on the door and, without thinking, Willow replies, "Come in." Fortunately for her, Spike had just had his Restraining Bolt installed.
  • One episode had Angelus enter a school and kill a teacher that was helping the Scoobies by taking the plaque outside the school to heart: All who seek knowledge may enter. How a school is considered a residence is another question...
    • Wellll, in season 1 there was an invisible girl living in it, so...
  • Angelus was always pretty good about slipping or tricking his way around this little inconvenience. In one episode he convinced Holtz's daughter to invite him inside by claiming to be friends, asking for an invitation inside, and making certain she voiced it verbally.
  • And after he was first made a vampire, he tricked his own baby sister into inviting him in on the pretense that he was an angel taking the form of her beloved dead brother. Cue aversion of Infant Immortality.
• Being Human (UK): This limitation appears. In one episode, George and Annie save a friend from a vampire attacker by simply closing the front door, leaving him screaming "Invite me in! Invite me in!"
  • Cutler in the series 4 finale breaks into Honolulu Heights without an invitation. Although only small bits of him actually burst into flames, such as his fingers when they cross the threshold, when he enters he starts to basically get cooked. He eventually suffers third degree burns all over his body and terrible pain, but we don't find out if he would have eventually died.
  • In the American version, a vampire can enter a house uninvited, but he starts burning and very quickly dies. On one occasion Bishop breaks into the trio's house and attacks them, and flees before suffering permanent harm.
  • This only applies if the location belongs to a living human (werewolves count). If the owner or resident of a location changes, the invitation lapses. On one occasion, someone arranges for a house to be legally sold while a vampire is trapped inside; the vampire no longer has a valid invitation to the house, and is destroyed.
• The limitation also applies in The Vampire Diaries.
  • In a Fridge Logic moment, one man who became a vampire suddenly found himself barred from his own home. Since he lived alone, there was nobody who could invite him inside, and apparently the rules don't regard a vampire as a rightful owner. Gets especially odd when it is confirmed that a vampire can enter a house whose sole inhabitant is dead. The general fan assumption is simply that someone else owns the house.
  • The vampires themselves have taken advantage of this, by living with a severely compulsed human in order to create a threshold to keep out unfriendly vampires.
  • The opposite is a problem for Damon: He killed the only human in his house, so now hostile vampires can come and go whenever they please. He doesn't even bother locking the door anymore.
  • In the second season Elijah is killed, his body is moved into a house he hadn't been invited into, and comes back to life. In apparent pain he mutters "I can't be here" and runs outside.
• In the Supernatural episode "Everybody Loves A Clown," the Rakshasa is shown to have this limitation. It gets around it by dressing up as a clown and tricking children into letting it in.
• An episode of The Dresden Files has this about a dragon. When Harry remembers this fact, he also recalls that the only person who asked his permission to enter was Connie Murphy, revealing her to be the dragon. The others just barged in. At the end of the episode, the real Connie asks his permission to enter. He is hesitant to answer, at which point she brushes him off and enters anyway, much to his relief.
• Completely averted in Moonlight. Vamps can come and go wherever they please. Kinda hard to be a private investigator when you have to ask someone's permission to enter a crime scene when you're trying not to attract attention.
• Also averted with Forever Knight for the same reason. Kinda inconvenient if a cop can't enter a perp's place without an invite.
• In another series with a vampire played by Geraint Wyn Davies, Dracula: the Series, this is played straight where Dracula, though knowing where Gustav von Helsing lives, he can't go there without an invitation. On one occasion, Gustav's nephew Max puts out an ad in the newspaper looking for anyone with information on the whereabouts of his uncle; Chris and Sophie point out that the Big Bad would know, and the ad could count as an invitation, which would let him walk right into their house. Dracula saw the ad, but doesn't take them up on it.

Tabletop RPG

• The 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons vampire had this restriction. Public buildings counted as an automatic invitation, and using hypnosis on the inhabitants was an easy way around it.
  • It should be noted that Van Richten's Guide to the Vampire points out that a vampire who is a feudal lord (Say... Strahd Von Zarovich) technically owns ANY home in his domain, meaning that he can come and go as he pleases. Also, they make the (somewhat logical) restriction that a vampire cannot enter another person's tomb - this being one's final "home", and them not being able to grant an invite. Provided the inhabitant was formally "given" the grave via burial rites - unhallowed mass graves and suchlike aren't prohibited. However, just like with a home and charm, this doesn't prevent a vampire from making the "inhabitants" come out (by animating the inferred remnants) or sending someone else to fetch them.
  • Wu Jen and (in 3.5) Warlock classes are required to have "taboos", this is suggested as a possibility.
• Vampire: The Requiem: The Zelani, a Daeva bloodline, have the weakness of being unable to enter a dwelling uninvited. If they try to, they take aggravated damage (equivalent to plunging your hand into fire or being exposed to sunlight). This isn't so much based on ancient tradition, as the fact that the bloodline's founder was horribly brutalized and tormented by a vampiric home invader.
• In Vampire: The Masquerade older members of Clan Tzimisce, who all suffer from extreme territoriality, believe in Sacred Hospitality and obey this trope as a matter of tradition. But a tradition is all it is, so don't press your luck. It's also a possible Flaw a player can choose for his character to have.

Video Games

• A Vampyre Story: Mona discovers this restriction applies when she tries to enter the house of a man who mistreats his wife. How does she get in? By tricking the wife into inviting her. Mona gets it double-hard; the home in question doubles as a shop for the seamstress wife, which should theoretically at least give Mona a little leeway (for example, with the sign saying, "We're open, please come in!") but she still needs to fool the lady of the house into giving her a verbal invitation.
• One Sim in My Sims, while he may or may not be a vampire, certainly makes reference to vampire tropes, including this one.

Web Comics

• Came up in Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name; Conrad smacked into the air when he tried to enter Ples's house with the rest of the crew, since technically all of them were trespassing.
• Sam in Sluggy Freelance has this restriction, but not every vampire in the Sluggyverse does. On one occasion, Sam tracks down Dr. Schlock, who is decked out with every anti-vampire trick possible. He then points out Sam can't even enter his motel room without an invitation. In a rare moment of intelligence, Sam pulls out a gun, shoots Dr. Schlock in the leg, and asks, "Can I come in?"
• Discussed in This Is the Worst Idea You've Ever Had. Cynthia and Nicole argue about whether or not a vampire could get into their car without being invited. Later, we see a vampire trapped outside of Nicole's house by some sort of forcefield while another is able to enter freely because Nicole invited him in.
• In Deep Fried, a kid who's afraid of clowns tries to pull this on Beepo. Beepo's response? "Our evil is too strong." Of course, Beepo is just being a Jerkass.
• Alluded to in Darken.
• In Thistil Mistil Kistil, Loki's valley is supposed to work like this.
• The Kingfisher features vampires that require invitation. There are degrees of invitation and other complications, most of which isn't explained in the comic unless it becomes an issue.
• Vampire Cheerleaders had Heather unable to enter her own home after "conversion". Her mom screaming at her pulls her hand, which only makes her suffer... however, Mrs. Hartley's lack attention to her daughter applies both to this and to the particulars of the resistance, so she of course orders Heather to enter... and after entering Heather herself is capable of inviting her new friends. After which senior Hartleys puzzle their acquaintances for quite a while by suddenly becoming a very hospitable couple.

Western Animation

• Jackie Chan Adventures: One of the demons released into the mortal world loses his tail. Jackie Chan and company manages to catch the tail, and takes it back to Uncle's shop. Knowing that the demon would want to come back for the tail, Uncle puts a Protective Charm on the shop which will keep all demons out unless invited inside. The demon tricks Jade into inviting him inside by pretending to be a boy at her school and pretending to be her friend.
  • Also played in reverse in another episode where the group is exploring an ancient temple, and stuck in this temple is a girl cursed to become a monster in order to keep out intruders. After the girl explains this, Jade reasons that they can't be intruding if the girl invites them in, allowing them to explore without triggering the curse.
• Scary Godmother: In the animated Halloween special, the eponymous Scary Godmother is throwing a Halloween party. A family of vampires arrive and is confused that they continue to stand outside. She forgot that vampires can't enter into someone's home without being invited inside. And they have to be invited in every time. In the second special, they try to enter and hit a magical barrier.
• This appears in Archie's Weird Mysteries, when Riverdale is under attack by a vampire. The gang are all warned about how vampires can't enter a house unless they're invited, so they figure that they're all safe at Veronica's Halloween costume party. Unfortunately, Smithers wasn't clued in on this in time.

1. ↑ This rule doesn't apply to all vampires on the Discworld.