Vampires are frequently represented in popular culture across various forms of media, including appearances in ballet, films, literature, music, opera, theatre, paintings, and video games.
Though there are diverse and creative interpretations and depictions of vampires, the common defining trait is their consumption of blood for sustenance. They are represented using different mediums, including comic books, films, games. Examples of notable vampire-themed works, span from classic films like Nosferatu, to modern franchises like Twilight and Underworld. The role of vampires in role-playing games, particularly Dungeons & Dragons and Vampire: The Masquerade, is noteworthy. Vampires appear in vampire-themed manga and TV shows.
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These were derived from the writer Rudyard Kipling who was inspired by a vampiress painted by Philip Burne-Jones, an image typical of the era in 1897, to write his poem 'The Vampire'. Like much of Kipling's verse it was incredibly popular, and its refrain: A fool there was . . . , describing a seduced man, became the title of the popular film A Fool There Was that made Theda Bara a star, the poem being used in its publicity. On this account, in early Americanslang the femme fatale was called a vamp, short for vampiress.[1]
A vampire features in the landmark Nosferatu (1922 Germany, directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau), an unlicensed version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. The Stoker estate sued the production and won, leading to the destruction of most copies of the film. It would be painstakingly restored in 1994 by a team of European scholars from the five surviving prints that had escaped destruction. Nosferatu is the first film to feature a Vampire's death by sunlight, which formerly only weakened vampires.
The next classic treatment of the vampire legend was in Universal's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. Five years after the release of the film, Universal released Dracula's Daughter, a direct sequel that starts immediately after the end of the first film. A second sequel, Son of Dracula, starring Lon Chaney Jr. followed in 1943. Despite his apparent death in the 1931 film, the Count returned to life in three more Universal films of the mid-1940s: 1944's House of Frankenstein, 1945's House of Dracula and 1948's Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. While Lugosi had played a vampire in two other movies during the 1930s and 1940s, it was only in this final film that he played Count Dracula onscreen for the second (and last) time.
Dracula was reincarnated for a new generation in the celebrated Hammer Horror series of films, starring Christopher Lee as the Count. The first of these films Dracula (1958) was followed by seven sequels. Lee returned as Dracula in all but two of these.
A distinct subgenre of vampire films, ultimately inspired by Le Fanu's Carmilla explored the topic of the lesbian vampire. The first of these was Blood and Roses (1960) by Roger Vadim. More explicit lesbian content was provided in Hammer Studios Karnstein trilogy. The first of these, The Vampire Lovers, (1970), starring Ingrid Pitt and Madeleine Smith, was a relatively straightforward re-telling of LeFanu's novella, but with more overt violence and sexuality. Later films in this subgenre such as Vampyres (1974) became even more explicit in their depiction of sex, nudity and violence.
Race has been another theme, as exemplified by the blaxploitation picture Blacula (1972) and several sequels.
Since the time of Bela Lugosi's Dracula (1931) the vampire, male or female, has usually been portrayed as an alluring sex symbol. There is, however, a very small subgenre, pioneered in Murnau's seminal Nosferatu (1922) in which the vampire is depicted in the hideous lineaments of the creature of European folklore. Max Schrek's disturbing portrayal of this role in Murnau's film was copied by Klaus Kinski in Werner Herzog's remake Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979). In Shadow of the Vampire (2000, directed by E. Elias Merhige), Willem Dafoe plays Max Schrek, himself, though portrayed here as an actual vampire. Dafoe's character is the ugly, disgusting creature of the original Nosferatu. The main tradition has, however, been to portray the vampire in terms of a predatory sexuality. Christopher Lee, Delphine Seyrig, Frank Langella, and Lauren Hutton are just a few examples of actors who brought great sex-appeal into their portrayal of the vampire.[neutrality is disputed]
The 1973 Serbian horror film Leptirica ("The She-Butterfly") was inspired by the story of Sava Savanović.
Other notable Vampire movies also include the following, but not limited to:
"Dracula" (1931) starred Bela Lugosi as well he starred in "Vampire Over London" (1952) both of which are B/W films.
"The Horror of Dracula" (1958) starring Peter Cushing (playing Dr. Van Helsing) and co-stars with Christopher Lee. Christopher Lee's saga of vampire films also includes the following as he personified Dracula in "Dracula" Prince of Darkness" (1966), "Dracula Had Risen From the Grave" (1968), "Count Dracula" plus "Taste the Blood of Dracula," and "Scars of Dracula" all in (1970). Followed up with "Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) -co-starring again with Peter Cushing, as Van Helsing- then "The Satanic Rites Of Dracula" with Peter Cushing (1973), and "Dracula and Son" (1976). While Peter Cushing was also in "Vampire Lovers" (1970), "The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires" and "Tender Dracula" (1974).
"Atom Age Vampire" (1960) B/W film aka "Seddok, l'erede di Satana" starring Alberto Lupo, Susanne Loret, and Sergio Fantoni. Directed by Anton Giulo Majano with both an Italian and English version of this film released. A girl Jeanette Moreneau (Susanne Loret) who gets her face mangled in a car accident. Only the mysterious Dr. Levin (Alberto Lupo) can save her face...but at what cost? (A 70-minute cartoon animated version of this film reflecting its story line was released in 2009).
"Queen Of Blood" (1966) starred John Saxon as well as Basil Rathbone and shared two elements in common (that being a derelict spaceship that harbors a female vampiric alien played by Florence Marly as the Alien Queen) as is the case too in the much later 1985 Sci-Fi thriller called "Lifeforce."
"Requiem for a Vampire" (1971) while a mainstream film not widely shown due to its dubious odd-ball content, the film containing full frontal nudity regarding a bizarre tale that includes bats engaged in coitus with women. This film starred Marie-Pierre Castel, Mireille Dargent, and Piilippe Gaste.
"Horror Express" (1972) is not a vampire movie in the eyes of some, and then again it is a vampire film in the eyes of others. Like the movie "Lifeforce" that breaks the mold of one's lifeforce or i.e. blood being drawn from a person by biting them, mysteriously drawn from their mouths, or as in this film a person's soul or spirit if you will is removed from them leaving them dead with their essence all that they were being drawn out through their eyes... This film has a sinister character, call him vampiric or prehistoric man, or demon or devil if you will! The idea is not rightly spelled out with this sinister character attacking passengers aboard a rail road passenger train (an idea that appears likewise to be shared to some degree in Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's "The Strain" with its original vampire character -in this horror TV series- bearing the marks of the devil too, if you will). "Horror Express" stars Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas, and Christopher Lee.
"Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter" (1974) featuring Caroline Munro (in the starring role as Carla) in this UK film which also starred (Captain Kronos) Horst Janson, (Dr. Marcus) John Carson, (Grost) John Cater; as well as Shane Briant as (Paul Durwood), and others.
"Nosferatu the Vampyre" (1979) "Werner Herzog's Nosferatue, the Vampyre portrayed by Klaus Kinski as Count Dracula a well meaning replica of Max Schreck's vampire in F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu. As well "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000) picked up the gauntlet and went further being inspired by the classic too in its attempt to pay homage to F.W. Murnau's silent horror classic Nosferatu, while including comic elements to the classic. All of which is also outlined above.
A TV film called "Salem's Lot" (1979) was made starring David Soul, who was more popularly known from his TV series "Starsky and Hutch" (1975-1979). This movie was then again remade in (2004) with the same title in (2004) starring Rob Lowe.
"Lifeforce" (1985) film that contained a lot of nudity throughout the film as a female vampire seduces and kisses men to drain out their life force and leaves them dried out like some mummified corpses. This film has different bases for vampire folklore and has them seeded here from another planet coming here on a spaceship. Starred Steven Railsback and Mathilda May.
One of the first popular vampire films of its decade there came out at the theaters a movie called "Lost Boys" in (1987) which quickly became a teen hearttrob film of girls at the time. It starred Corey Haim, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jason Patric.
"Near Dark" (1987) starred both Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen then in (2009) Lance did another vampire movie that shared a similar plot twist although the film itself with respect to the entirety of the script was different. However, if you've seen "Near Dark" this second film may not hold as much of a novelty as far as the plot twist goes; or vice versa if you've seen "Daybreakers" Lance's second vampire movie before "Near Dark." Both of these actors Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen have also prominently starred together in the (1986) Sci-fi film "Aliens."
"Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992). This film is based on the 1897 book. The film starred Keanu Reeves, Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, and Anthony Hopkins.
"Innocent Blood" (1992) contains brief nudity in a scene in opening of the feature in its theatrical release. The film is what is considered a 'dark comedy' with the female vampire having a moral angle to kill but bad people, and thus her involvement with the mob. This film starred: Anne Parillaud (Marie the vampire), David Proval (Lenny), Robert Luggia (Sal "The Shark"), Rocco Sisto (Gilly), Chazz Palminteri (Tony), Anthony LaPaglia (Joe Gennaro), Don Rickless (Emanuel Bergman), and Christopher Lee (as Count Dracula).
A somewhat more popular of the light hearted vampire films was "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in (1992), featuring a high school girl who found herself gifted with fighting skills to kill vampires, and its spinoff TV series mentioned above.
"Interview With the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles" (1994) starred Tom Cruise with Brad Pitt, and co-starred actors Antonio Banderas, Kirsten Dunst & Christian Slater. (This film is based on an Anne Rice book as is also the movie "Queen of the Damned" mentioned below).
"Embrace of a Vampire" (1995) a cable TV movie contains some nudity involving a human and her vampire lover with the human girl being played by Alyssa Milano in her most revealing role.
"From Dusk till Dawn" (1996) over the top Quentin Tarantino film story which inspired a sequel film and in 2014 inspired a TV series spinoff. This movie was notably starring Salma Hayek, George Clooney, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo, Harvey Keitel, and John Saxon.
The "Blade" (1998) and its saga of three films starring Wesley Snipes, one begins to noticeably see a change in the genre of what has been considered the original origins of vampires in popular culture (from that of its original folklore).
"Queen of the Damned" (2002) regarding a queen vampire played by the beautiful and late actress Aaliyah. Part of the film's plot deals with a rockstar vampire named Lestat (Stuart Townsend) whose music wakes up the Queen of the damned. The film is based on Anne Rice novels called "The Vampire Chronicles" with the one bearing the title of this movie was published in 1988. Her writings are also responsible for the film "Interview with the Vampire" and the book by the same title was published in 1976 the first of her vampire book series.
"Underworld" (2003) with its saga of films - are very popular including a story line of wolf Lycans fighting vampires in a well brushed out visuals and CGI effects not completely unlike the "Twilight" saga of films that likewise have the same conflict occurring between rivaling factions of wolves and vampires. Starring Kate Beckinsale as the leding role in this series of movies.
"Van Helsing" (2004) starred Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale (more popularly known in the Sci-fi community for her portrayal of Selene in the "Underworld" saga of films); while this films is said to get a remake starring Tom Cruise.
"30 Days of Night" (2007) film directed by David Slade about an Alaskan town plunged into darkness with the misfortune of there being vampires there and all mayhem breaks out.
"I Am Legend" (2007) film starring Will Smith with a sequel in the works. Original film is called "The Last Man on Earth" starring Vincent Price available in its original B/W release or now in a colorized version as well. A more well known first remake was "Omega Man" starring Charlton Heston, or which inspired "I Am Legend" film that contained vampires as well as dog vampires all of which had slight zombie features too. These films are all from a book by the title of this film outlined here; and none of the films follow what is contained in the last couple of pages of the book. Another interesting point to note in the "Omega Man" film we find Chuck a white gentleman being the last man on earth as he meets his love interest, or passion a black woman (Rosalind Cash) the last woman on earth that has not become infected with the virus as is the rest of humanity. While in the film version of "I Am Legend" Will Smith a black man meets a Latina women, who is the last woman apparently on earth; and they don't really get along very well. There is a DVD of "I Am Legend" which includes an alternative ending version.
Then there are the "Twilight" saga films beginning in (2008) which also featured Native American flashbacks in time as the film deals with what it calls werewolves (but would be technically 'skinwalkers') verses or in conflict with a vampire clan with one of each of them, a vampire (Robert Pattinson) playing Edward Cullen, and Native American changeling (Taylor Lautner) bidding for the hand of a mortal girl Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart). Notably there are other Native American actors in this saga of films besides Lautner with Native ancestry of (Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes, on his mother's side) playing Jacob Black, they -other natives- include Gil Birmingham (Comanche) who played Billy Black, and Julia Jones (Choctaw and Chickasaw) who played Leah Clearwater. A difference in vampires portrayed in these films (and the book series) is that they don't burn up in the sun—their skin sparkles. They live in Washington because it is almost always overcast, so their secret is safe. While this film became a heartthrob film for a new generation of young girl moviegoers like "Lost Boys" was of previous generations it is also a notable film to modern day Generation X and Millennials who are hardcore vampire film buffs.
"Dracula Untold" (2014). Directed by Gary Shore, and also starring Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon, Charles Dance, as well as Art Parkinson. The film is based on the character in Bram Stoker the novel.
What We Do In the Shadows (2014). Originally a short film made in 2005, the feature film version is a mockumentary that follows a group of vampires, Viago, Vladislav, Deacon and Petyr, living together in Wellington, New Zealand. The film follows the daily lives of these flatmates on the run up to an event called the Unholy Masquerade, a masquerade ball where all of the cities undead (vampires, zombies and witches) come together once a year, and how they're shaken up after modern, reckless vampire Nick joins their flat. Directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, this indie originally premiered at Sundance and over the years has gained a firm cult fanbase, getting two spinoffs including the show of the same name, What We Do In The Shadows.
Games
In many vampire-centered games, players may take on the role of vampires themselves.
These include a number of games where vampires are either incidental villains, or the primary villain of the game, as well as games that allow players to play as a vampire. It has been noted that vampires are "supernatural beings with a laundry list of fantastic abilities and a need for feeding on the living, which would presumably give numerous options for a plot".[2] As late as 2014, however, it was lamented that there were not enough video games featuring vampires, with one commentary noting that "Vampires have never lent themselves readily to video games" due to their combination of cerebral and passionate characteristics, which "need something that most video games can't handle at the best of times, great writing".[3]
Board games and card games
The Fury of Dracula is a board game for 2-4 players designed by Stephen Hand and published by Games Workshop in 1987. Fantasy Flight Games released an updated version in 2006 as Fury of Dracula, and a third edition in 2015 by the same name. WizKids Games released a fourth edition in 2019. In the April 1988 edition of Dragon (Issue 132), Jim Bambra liked the first edition of the game, saying, "[It] takes some of the best elements of role-playing games and neatly transposes them into an intriguing and fun board game." Bambra recommended the game, concluding, "Steeped in Gothic atmosphere and tinged with the unexpected, The Fury of Dracula game deserves to be in every gamer’s collection."[4]
Vampires are generally presented as evil monsters in Dungeons & Dragons.
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the vampire is an undead creature. A humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature can become a vampire, and looks as it did in life, with pale skin, haunting red eyes, and a feral cast to its features. A new vampire is created when another vampire drains the life out of a living creature. Its depiction is related to those in 1930s and 1940s Hollywood Dracula and monster movies.[11] In writing vampires into the game, as with other creatures arising in folklore, the authors had to consider what elements arising in more recent popular culture should be incorporated into their description and characteristics.[12]
The vampire was one of the first monsters introduced in the earliest edition of the game, in the Dungeons & Dragons "white box" set (1974),[13] where they were described simply as powerful undead. They appeared again in the Greyhawk supplement.[14] The vampire later appeared in the first edition Monster Manual (1977),[15] where its description was changed somewhat to a chaotic evil, night-prowling creature whose powerful negative force drains life energy from victims.
The role-playing gameVampire: The Masquerade has been influential upon modern vampire fiction and elements of its terminology, such as embrace and sire, appear in contemporary fiction.[17]
GURPS Cabal, a book that features a customizable campaign setting for the GURPSrole-playing game system, depicts a modern-day secret society composed of vampires, lycanthropes and sorcerers who study the underlying principles of magic and visit other planes of existence and was integrated into Infinite Worlds, the "default" (core) setting for GURPS's 4th Edition. The Third Edition GURPS supplement Blood Types lists 47 different "species" of vampires describing 30 of them from both folklore and fiction in 23 listings (several are simply different names for the same type of vampire; for example the Burma's Kephn is considered a male version of the Penanggalen)
Shadowrun features vampires whose existence is explained by a resurgence of the Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus. As such, the afflicted are not undead, but instead are still alive but radically changed by the retrovirus. They normally do not suffer from the supernatural limitations such as crosses, but still are vulnerable to sunlight. In the tabletop wargame Warhammer Fantasy, Vampire Counts are one of the playable forces.
The 1986 French video game Vampire was one of the first video games to feature vampires, along with the similar 1986 Spanish game Vampire.
One of the earliest video games featuring a vampire as the antagonist is The Count, a 1979 text adventure for various platforms, in which local villagers send the player to defeat Count Dracula.[19]
A number of video game developers "have taken inspiration from the vampire myth to create unique gaming experiences that have players hunting down the beasts as well as playing as a member of the undead".[20] Popular video games about vampires include Castlevania, which is an extension of the original Bram Stoker novel Dracula, and Legacy of Kain.[21]
While most vampire-themed games involve some kind of combat between the player (either fighting vampires, or as a vampire fighting other foes), some games incorporate vampires without including those elements. In particular, The Sims 4 features the game pack, The Sims 4: Vampires, which includes Vampires as a life state, with Gothic-themed objects, outfits, interactions, aspirations, foods, and a Vampire Lore Skill. It is only available for digital download. The pack also features a new neighborhood called Forgotten Hollow which, fitting with the vampiric theme, has longer nighttimes than other neighborhoods. It takes elements from The Sims 2: Nightlife, The Sims 3: Late Night and The Sims 3: Supernatural.[23]
Marilyn Manson has a song entitled "If I Was Your Vampire." It is the opening track on the band's sixth studio album, "Eat Me, Drink Me," which has several other songs that deal with vampiric themes. The band also has a song called "No Reflection" (from the album "Born Villain") in direct reference to the belief that vampires do not have reflections.
Blue Öyster Cult has a song titled "Nosferatu", and another called "I Love the Night", in which the narrator succumbs to a female vampire's seduction and becomes one himself. They are the last two tracks on the original release of the band's Spectres album.
Cuban singer Lissette has a song title "Vampiro" on her 1989 album Maniqui.
"The Vampire" (1897) by Philip Burne-Jones depicts an alluring female vampire crouched over a male victim. The model was the famous actress Mrs Patrick Campbell. This femme fatale inspired a poem of the same name (also 1897) by Rudyard Kipling. Like much of Kipling's verse it was incredibly popular, and its inspired many early silent films whose "vampires" were actually "vamps" rather than being supernatural undead blood-suckers. The 1913 film The Vampire features the famous and controversial "Vampire Dance", which takes inspiration from the painting.[24] The poem's refrain: A fool there was . . . , describing a seduced man, became the title of the popular film A Fool There Was (1915) which made Theda Bara a star, and the archetypal cinematic "vamp".[25]
Television
Hellsing (2001–2002)" manga and TV series and the later anime remake "Hellsing Ultimate" (2006–2012): An anime series about a vampire named Alucard. He is the main protagonist in the Hellsing series and the most powerful weapon of the Hellsing Organization which works against vampires and other such supernatural forces. Alucard is no mere vampire; it has been implied that he is the most powerful vampire alive and may be the most powerful character in the series.
Dark Shadows (1966–1971), a gothic horror-themed soap opera featuring vampire Barnabas Collins. This presentation carried over the traditional lore of vampires as creatures of the night who sleep in coffins, cast no reflection and wear black capes. However, the series was one of the first to humanize its vampire, depicting Barnabas Collins as a sympathetic, emotionally conflicted anti-hero.
Star Trek (1966): In the original series episode titled "The Man Trap", there is a creature that lives on a remote planet that Captain Kirk and the away team encounter, which appears to be a female human but is otherwise a hideous chameleon-like creature that can take on human appearance. This creature makes its way aboard their starship, the Enterprise, and kills several crew members. The creature is a pseudo-vampire, as it looks nothing like a vampire but draws others' life force from them by sucking all the salt from their bodies.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1972–1975): This was a television series in which Kolchak discovers an overlooked victim from a crime scene, now turned vampire, has made her way from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in episode #4, titled "The Vampire" (1974) which is a sequel of the first of the two TV movies, the series being inspired by "The Night Stalker" movie which also had vampires (a TV movie made in 1972). See List of Kolchak: The Night Stalker episodes. There was a very short-lived remake of this series simply called "Night Stalker" (2005).
The Curse Of Dracula (1979): Count Dracula is alive and well and teaching college in 1979. The series lasted one season and featured flashback memories of Count Dracula, using sepia-tone to show scenes in a different era of time.
Dracula: The Series (1990): This show was a Saturday morning feature with Van Helsing's descendants and vampires.
Forever Knight (1992–1996): A Canadian TV series featuring a vampire known as Det. Nicholas 'Nick' Knight, who works at night and is a detective on the police force. In some episodes of this series, Nick's eyes would change to a silver-white color.
Outer Limits: The New Series (1995): In an episode called "Caught In the Act", a small-town girl encounters a mysterious object that crashes through her ceiling into her bedroom. She is then turned into a lustful girl with a vampiric-type entity inhabiting her which demands sex from everyone she meets, and in the process, then absorbs their energy from them until they die. Will it be any different with her boyfriend, with which they were both previously waiting to have sex until marriage?
Kindred: The Embraced (1996): This series features a conclave of vampires highly organized like a mob.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997): Inspired by the movie of the same title. The vampires in this series are presented as strong but fundamentally 'fragile' walking corpses, vulnerable to sunlight, decapitation, and stakes through the heart, and are clearly established as being demons possessing human corpses rather than humans corrupted by their vampire instincts. The vampire Angel is an exception to this rule, as he was cursed with his soul over a century ago, restoring his capacity for compassion and grief, driving him to seek redemption for his sins in the spin-off series "Angel".
Earth: Final Conflict (1997–2002): In the fifth and final season of this series, there is an episode, in a departure from the current storyline, that replaces the Taelons with the newly born and more aggressive alien race of energy vampires called the Atavus.
Angel (1999): A spinoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Unlike most vampires in the Whedonverse, Angel was cursed with a soul. If he was ever to experience a moment of perfect happiness, he would lose the soul and become Angelus, the ruthless and bloodthirsty vampire that he was in the past. Angel seeks redemption for his crimes by helping others who have supernatural problems.
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000–2001): Several episodes feature an energy vampire named NOS-4-A2, created by Zurg, who controls machines that he bites.
Blood Ties (2006–2008): Based on the "Blood Books" by Tanya Huff. This series was a supernatural drama that revolved around Vicki Nelson, a former homicide cop now a private investigator, and Henry Fitzroy, a 470-year-old vampire. Together they form a team which solves cases and deals with the supernatural world.
Moonlight (2007–2008): In this TV series, the vampire Mick St. John has a love interest who is a mortal woman.
Blade: The Series (2008): Inspired by the "Blade" saga of films (minus Wesley Snipes in the lead role). Like the movie, Blade is only half-vampire so he can effortlessly walk in the daylight to slay vampires. He is called a "daywalker", since sunlight doesn't bother him in the least.
Being Human (2008–2013): A British television series about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost sharing a flat in Bristol. While a lot of vampires give into their nature, drinking blood and killing people without remorse, other vampires in the series feel guilty. These vampires try to give up their blood drinking addiction; however, their true nature usually comes through at some point.
True Blood (2008–2014): A cable TV series about vampires as well as a host of other supernatural beings. This series continues the folklore that vampires cannot walk in the daylight.
The Vampire Diaries (2009–2017): The TV series plot eventually has two brothers biding over the hand of a mortal girl who looks just like a vampire girl they knew generations ago. The vampires have 'daylight rings' made by witches that allow them to walk in the daylight.
Being Human (2011–2014): An American remake series of the British TV series of the same name. The show included vampires, werewolves, disembodied spirits, and witches.
The Originals (2013–2018): A spinoff of "The Vampire Diaries" TV series, dealing with a family of vampires, a brooding faction between witches of the court of New Orleans and the vampires, as well as some shapeshifter wolves.
Dracula (2013–2014): The mysticism of Count Dracula as a wealthy and seductive force to be reckoned with is further embellished in this drama, telling the story of his character and genius as both an entrepreneur and an inventor, a Tesla of his times. Also, this drama's sub-theme deals with his obsession to permanently walk in sunlight, while seeking a romantic liaison with Mina Murray, who appears to be a doppelganger or reincarnation of his past lover. He carries out his business transactions while hiding from a secret society cult that has sought to destroy all vampires for centuries.
From Dusk till Dawn (2014): A series inspired by the movie of the same name.
Grimm season 3, episode 14 titled “Mommy Dearest” (2014): This show centres around Nick Burkhardt, an American police officer who can see people who have an alternative animal side, which can in some cases be evil. This episode uses a figure taken from Filipino folklore, the Aswang, a creature (someone with an evil side let loose) something like a cross between a vampire and a werewolf, a humanoid shape-shifter that feeds on unborn infants of pregnant women.
American Horror Story: Hotel (2015–2016), the fifth season of the FX anthology series American Horror Story: The season focuses on the fictional Hotel Cortez and its inhabitants, vampire-like creatures that are immortal, feed on blood, and are adverse to sunlight. Countess Elizabeth Johnson is the owner of the titular hotel. Her brood of children is infected with the blood virus, as is her lover Donovan and arch-nemesis Ramona Royale. Throughout the season, references to pop culture vampires, such as Count Orlok, are frequently made.
Vampirina (2017): A Disney Junior original series about Vampirina "Vee" Hauntley moving from Transylvania to Pennsylvania with her family, all of whom are benevolent vampires.
Many regional vampire myths, or other creatures similar to or related to vampires have appeared in popular culture.
Darkseekers
In the film I Am Legend, a mutated virus turns some humans and dogs into vampiric beings, called "Darkseekers", that prey on unmutated humans and dogs.
Mike Mignola's Right Hand of Doom, from the Hellboy series, features a female vampire proclaiming that the vârcolac (singular entity here) is the master of the moroii and strigoi.
Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series features Moroi as the protagonists and Strigoi as the antagonists.
The Witch with Flying Head (Fei taugh mo neuih, literally "Flying Head Devil Woman"), 1977 film by Lian Sing Woo (Though from Hong Kong, bootlegs are usually of the Thai-dubbed version, which also is rescored with Basil Poledouris music from Conan the Barbarian, which debuted several years after this film's first release. Principal photography had to have begun before April 1970, due to the presence of Peter Chen Ho, who died April 16, 1970.[26])
Gong Tau; both Penanggalan and Mystics in Bali feature actorW. D. Mochtar as the priest who fights the Penanggalan. Both The Witch with Flying Head and Mystics in Bali depict an innocent transformed into a penanggalan against her will. In the former film, there is an effort to save her, and her attempt at suicide upon learning her condition is thwarted. In the latter film, she is considered irredeemable, and her neck is spiked to destroy her. Both characters are monstrous only at night and unaware of their nocturnal behavior until informed.
Print media
The Dragon Warriors pen and paper RPG features a monster called the Death's Head, with a similar modus operandi to the Penanggalan, although the detached head has tiny wings and a horn.
The penanggalan may be found described as a Dungeons & Dragons monster in the Fiend Folio (TSR, Inc., 1981). The vargouille is similar to the penanggalan in that both are vampire-like creatures in the form of a flying, detached head.
A more recent Dungeons & Dragons penanggalan appears in the Oriental Adventures setting. Even more recent Dungeons & Dragons penanggalan appears in the Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale supplement.
The penanggalan may be found described as an example of a vampire as well as the Kephn (a male counterpart from Burma) in the GURPS third edition supplement GURPS Blood Types (Steve Jackson Games, 1995)
The short Guro fetish/comedy manga story "Head Prolapse Elegy" by Shintaro Kago revolves around the travails of a penanggalan who desires a normal love life with a man but is constantly thwarted by her condition.
The TV series Supernatural features a shtriga in the season 1 episode "Something Wicked". In a homage to The Simpsons, the shtriga in 'Supernatural' was said to have moved through Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, the same towns taken in by the monorail conman in the episode Marge vs. the Monorail.
In the 10th book of the Spook's series by Joseph Delaney, the main character master is placed under the control of a "Strigoi" and "Strigoica".
Strigoi play a major role in James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell's series, The Order of the Sanguines: City of Screams (2012), The Blood Gospel (2013), Innocent Blood (2013), Blood Brothers (2013), and Blood Infernal (2015).
The term is used to describe vampires in general in the book series The Hunt by Susan Sizemore.
The Strigoi play a central role in Graham Masterton's 2006 book, The Descendant.
In the Guardians of Ga' Hoole book series, an evil owl whose ancestors were witch owls called hagsfiends renames herself the Striga after her escape from the Qui' Dragon Palace.
Guillermo del Toro's 2009 book The Strain references vampires as strigoi.
Strigoi is the preferred name of vampires in Susan Krinard's Roaring Twenties series.
Mike Mignola's Right Hand of Doom from the Hellboy comic series features a female vampire proclaiming that the vârcolac (singular entity here) is the master of the moroii and strigoi.
In The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien, vampires are mentioned. However, only one, Thuringwethil, is described. She is the messenger of the evil Vala Morgoth, and is a bat-like creature. During The Tale of Beren and Lúthien, another servant of Morgoth, Sauron, takes the form of a vampire.
Terry Pratchett wrote a novel, Carpe Jugulum, that revolves around a feud between vampires and witches. The novel is also a tongue-in-cheek reversal of popularized traditional vampire myths.
Games
In the 2008 adventure video game A Vampyre Story, one of the more prominent characters is named Madam Strigoi and, although she is not herself a vampyre (as far as is known), she has great insight into vampires.
The video game Ace Combat 6 features an elite enemy fighter squadron called "Strigon Team" formally known as the "Vampire Team", whose insignia and paint scheme contains death motifs and whose commander flies an experimental aircraft named "Nosferatu".
The Underground adventure game Ben Jordan: Case 3 features a Strigoi who goes by the name of Zortherus.
In the Disgaea video game series, there is a class of vampires called Strigoi.
In the 2008 video game Soul Calibur 4, the French fencer (and vampire) Raphael Sorel has a move called the Strigoi Envelopment.
The 2007 video game The Witcher, based on the novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, features a vampiric female creature known as a striga.
In Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, Strigoi are encountered as enemies after the defeat of the main boss. They look like large, blood-red gargoyles and attack by draining blood from the Arisen and their pawns using their tail.
One of the playable heroes in Defense of the Ancients, Strygwygr the Bloodseeker, is based on Poltergeist, a variant of vampire.
Darkstalkers heavily features vampires, such as Demitri Maximoff (a classic Dracula-type of vampire) and Hsein-Ko who is a Jiang-shi (a type of Chinese vampire), and other monsters.
Movies
One of the villains in the 30 Days of Night (2007) film is listed as "Strigoi" in the end credits.
In the film Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993), some of the characters refer to vampires as "strigoi".
In the Dracula 2000 movie, Count Dracula calls his wolf pet by the names of "strigoi" and "moroi".
The 2009 film Strigoi involves vampires in Romania, which are referred to as "strigoi".[29]
The strigoi was featured in the Animal Planet TV series Lost Tapes.
In the ABC television series Scariest Places on Earth, strigoi are discussed in an episode called "Return to Romania Dare." The episode originally aired on April 21, 2002.
The vampires in the 2014 television series The Strain are referred to as strigoi by the character Abraham.
In "Earth Final Conflict" (1997–2002), energy vampires as such are called the Atavus. They are not the traditional style vampires of folklore.
In the TV series "Vampire Dairies" and "The Originals" the vampires have what are called 'daylight rings' made by witches allowing them to walk in daylight. There is even one ring made that allows the user any mortal to bet death if killed. (Even the werewolves in "The Originals" series were seeking to get 'moonlight rings' to keep them all from turning into wolves when they do not want to).
Strix
The Stirge was presented as a popular monster in Dungeons & Dragons. In the game, it took the form of a many-legged flying creature which sucked the blood from its victims through a sharp, tubular beak.
A version of the striga makes an appearance in The Witcher video game based on the works of Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. As a demonic undead creature, which transforms from the corpse of a dead child conceived via incest, striga in the Witcher's universe does not look like insects or vampires but looks similar to a ghoul with a muscular quadrupedal body, big claws, and a fang-filled mouth.
The strix make an appearance in the Vampire: The Requiem historical book Requiem for Rome. In contrast to the more traditional vampires presented in the line, the strix are disembodied spirits who commonly take the shape of owls and can possess both humans and torpored vampires. It is rumored that the strix restored Remus to undeath, and corrupted a sixth clan of vampires who were destroyed en masse. The strix believed themselves to be betrayed by the vampires of Rome, especially those of the Julii clan, and swore to bring about their ruin. They reappear in Night Horrors: Wicked Dead as heralds of disaster, mainly unbound by their former oath (although they still occasionally pursue such activities for personal reasons). Immensely amoral libertines, they view vampires clinging to humanity as weak, and as such will often serve as tempters in order to make them lose themselves to the Beast.
Strix are also described in the GURPS third edition Sourcebook for Vampires Blood Types. They are described as witches who, having made pacts with dark entities, gained the ability to become blood-drinking birds at night. What their pacts with these dark forces require of them is not described.
The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if alive. Most commonly the term refers to corporeal forms of formerly alive humans, such as mummies, vampires, and zombies, which have been reanimated by supernatural means, technology, or disease. In some cases, the term also includes incorporeal forms of the dead, such as ghosts.
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods which they inhabited while they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. Vampiric entities have been recorded in cultures around the world; the term vampire was popularized in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria of a pre-existing folk belief in Southeastern and Eastern Europe that in some cases resulted in corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism. Local variants in Southeastern Europe were also known by different names, such as shtriga in Albania, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania, cognate to Italian 'Strega', meaning Witch.
A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes terror and fear, often in humans. Monsters usually resemble bizarre, deformed, otherworldly and/or mutated animals or entirely unique creatures of varying sizes, but may also take a human form, such as mutants, ghosts, spirits, zombies, or cannibals, among other things. They may or may not have supernatural powers, but are usually capable of killing or causing some form of destruction, threatening the social or moral order of the human world in the process.
Vampire literature covers the spectrum of literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. The literary vampire first appeared in 18th-century poetry, before becoming one of the stock figures of gothic fiction with the publication of Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), which was inspired by the life and legend of Lord Byron. Later influential works include the penny dreadful Varney the Vampire (1847); Sheridan Le Fanu's tale of a lesbian vampire, Carmilla (1872), and the most well known: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). Some authors created a more "sympathetic vampire", with Varney being the first, and more recent examples such as Moto Hagio's series The Poe Clan (1972-1976) and Anne Rice's novel Interview with the Vampire (1976) proving influential.
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is a 1922 silent German Expressionist vampire film directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on the wife of his estate agent and brings the plague to their town.
The manananggal is a mythical creature in the Philippines that is able to separate its upper torso from the lower part of its body. Their fangs and wings give them a vampire-like appearance.
Professor Abraham Van Helsing is a fictional character from the 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula written by Bram Stoker. Van Helsing is a Dutch polymath doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: "MD, D.Ph., D.Litt., etc.", indicating a wealth of experience, education and expertise. He is a doctor, professor, lawyer, philosopher, scientist, and metaphysician. The character is best known through many adaptations of the story as a vampire slayer, monster hunter and the arch-nemesis of Count Dracula, and the prototypical and the archetypical parapsychologist in subsequent works of paranormal fiction. Some later works tell new stories about Van Helsing, while others, such as Dracula (2020) and I Woke Up a Vampire (2023) have characters that are his descendants.
Count Orlok, commonly but erroneously known as Nosferatu, is a fictional character who appears in the silent film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) and in its remake Nosferatu (2024), which is based on Bram Stoker's character Count Dracula.
Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker is a fictional character and the main female character in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula.
Vampire films have been a staple in world cinema since the era of silent films, so much so that the depiction of vampires in popular culture is strongly based upon their depiction in films throughout the years. The most popular cinematic adaptation of vampire fiction has been from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, with over 170 versions to date. Running a distant second are adaptations of the 1872 novel Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. By 2005, the Dracula character had been the subject of more films than any other fictional character except Sherlock Holmes.
A moroi is a type of vampire or ghost in Romanian folklore. A female moroi is called a moroaică. In some versions, a moroi is a phantom of a dead person which leaves the grave to draw energy from the living.
The penanggalan or penanggal is a nocturnal vampiric entity from Malay ghost myths. It takes the form of a floating disembodied woman's head, with its organs and entrails trailing from its neck. From afar, the penanggalan is said to twinkle like a ball of flame, similar to the will-o'-the-wisp phenomenon.
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a vampire is an undead creature. A humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature can become a vampire, and looks as it did in life, with pale skin, haunting red eyes, and a feral cast to its features. A new vampire is created when another vampire drains the life out of a living creature. Its depiction is related to those in the 1930s and 1940s Hollywood Dracula and monster movies. In writing vampires into the game, as with other creatures arising in folklore, the authors had to consider what elements arising in more recent popular culture should be incorporated into their description and characteristics.
Count Dracula is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula. He is considered the prototypical and archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some to have been inspired by the 15th-century Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler, who was also known as Vlad Dracula, and by Sir Henry Irving, an actor for whom Stoker was a personal assistant.
The character of Count Dracula from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, has remained popular over the years, and many forms of media have adopted the character in various forms. In their book Dracula in Visual Media, authors John Edgar Browning and Caroline Joan S. Picart declared that no other horror character or vampire has been emulated more times than Count Dracula. Most variations of Dracula across film, comics, television and documentaries predominantly explore the character of Dracula as he was first portrayed in film, with only a few adapting Stoker's original narrative more closely. These including borrowing the look of Count Dracula in both the Universal's series of Dracula and Hammer's series of Dracula, including include the characters clothing, mannerisms, physical features hair style and his motivations such as wanting to be in a home away from Europe.
GURPS Blood Types (ISBN 1-55634-113-X) is a 128-page soft-bound book compiled by Lane Grate and published in 1995 by Steve Jackson Games as a supplement for the third edition GURPS role-playing game system. It contains biographies and gaming statistics for 23 vampires, vampire-like beings, and guidelines on creating more for various campaign settings.
Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron, or simply The Bloody Red Baron, is a 1995 alternate history/horror novel by British author Kim Newman. It is the second book in the Anno Dracula series and takes place during the Great War, 30 years after the first novel.
Legends of vampires have existed for millennia; cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demonic entities and blood-drinking spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. Despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity known today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century Central Europe, particularly Transylvania as verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or a living person being bitten by a vampire themselves. Belief in such legends became so rife that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires.
Jiangshi fiction, or goeng-si fiction in Cantonese, is a literary and cinematic genre of horror based on the jiangshi of Chinese folklore, a reanimated corpse controlled by Taoist priests that resembles the zombies and vampires of Western fiction. The genre first appeared in the literature of the Qing dynasty and the jiangshi film is a staple of the modern Hong Kong film industry. Hong Kong jiangshi films like Mr. Vampire and Encounters of the Spooky Kind follow a formula of mixing horror with comedy and kung fu.
Mummies are commonly featured in horror genres as undead creatures wrapped in bandages. Similar undead include skeletons and zombies.
References
↑ Per the Oxford English Dictionary, vamp is originally English, used first by G. K. Chesterton, but popularized in the American silent film The Vamp, starring Enid Bennett
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