The Logic of a Magic Trick

The entire plot of the 2000 movie The Little Vampire revolves around the search for a missing amulet called the Stone of Attamon, because as Rudolph describes, "It is the piece of the comet which fell to Earth. A great magician made it into an amulet of power". The comet he describes he calls the Comet Attamon, or the Comet of the Lost Souls, from which the amulet derives its name (and at this point, let's be frank. Comet of the Lost Souls is infinitely more poetic than Comet Forsey (or however Tony's teacher pronounces it)). The first piece in the LiveJournal series touched on two subjects: symbolism and the actual magical act itself, so that is what I shall do here.

Symbolism:

When Tony reaches to touch Frederick's amulet, what Frederick is wearing around his neck is silver, with a matching core, with sapphires (or similarly colored gems) placed periodically about the circumference. By contrast, when Rookery is conversing with the cemetery caretaker and holds up the amulet around his neck, what he is holding is almost black, with an amber core, with jades (or other green stones) placed periodically around the circumference (in both cases by fourths). It could just be the light, but this is a case where similar lighting has created a remarkable difference in color and color scheme between two objects supposedly exactly identical to one another.

But this is beside the point. What truly matters to this discussion is that the color scheme of the amulets signifies the true intentions and characters of those bearing them, in spite of any misconceptions (intentional or otherwise). The amulet in the vampires' possession is silver, just slightly darker than outright white and perhaps the closest precious metals can come. The vampires have good intentions and want to shed their curse of spending eternity as bloodsucking fiends, but by being such, they face the reality that regardless of whether people think they exist or not, they are universally regarded as monsters. Therefore, the color choice of silver for the amulet possessed by the vampire family marks a good family plagued by the facts of their existence but still retaining the desire and drive to escape from it.

Rookery's amulet, on the other hand, is, as I said, close to black. Let me preface the rest of this by stating that in typical vampire works, the vampire hunter is usually considered the good guy, and the vampire is the monster that must be dealt with for the good of the village/humanity/whathaveyou. In this case, the vampires are being actively persecuted by a hunter/s who want/s to "send them straight to Hell", to use Rookery's words. This therefore makes the vampire hunter the bad guy of the movie, but it isn't only his motivations. It's his methods, as well. The man is dangerously sadistic. When he could simply slip into the vampires' crypt during the day and stake them all in their sleep, he waits until the sun sets, baits the vampires with the caretaker, and shines a giant light down in their cave in an effort to fry them all alive. He has also been shown to, without remorse, cause property damage and kidnap a young boy from within said young boy's own bedroom. And speaking of the young boy, Rookery, even after knowing Tony is just a sympathizer and not a vampire outright, still shuts him up in a coffin and leaves him to die. The black amulet around his neck symbolizes his black heart and cruel ways.

The Magic Trick:

The actual act of turning vampires into humans via magic or similar means is as unique to this universe as sparkling vampires are to the Twilight Saga, but that does not mean it cannot be explained or analyzed.

In the original piece, I came to the conclusion that the Stone of Attamon serves to amplify the natural abilities of vampires, but only at a special point, for instance when it's in conjunction with the moon. Vampires can turn into bats and close doors without even looking at them (for proof, watch Frederick right after he and Freda meet the Thompsons), are telepathic (as the vampires never seem to need to ask for anyone's names), can fly, etc. It has also been established that the Stone of Attamon is an artifact of great power which can (and does) turn the vampires back into humans again.

But the stone could do something else, as well. It could essentially destroy the vampires where they stand. This ability of the stone serves as Rookery's motivation for spending the entire movie hunting it down, busting doors, kidnapping, and committing several attempted murders, as well as extortion of the local lord, but that's irrelevant. His sole purpose is to send the vampires "straight to Hell", and a man who wants something badly enough is just as deadly a weapon as twenty vampires trying to get away from him.

So it is concievable for a single man to banish from existence a clan of roughly twenty vampires (if, of course, they all stood by and watched), but it is also possible for said clan, either collectively or trusting the will of a single chosen leader, such as Frederick Sackville-Bagg, to have the will necessary to turn themselves back into humans. Because when it comes right down to it, no matter the mechanics of a spell, it only works if you have the desire for it to work.