The vampire is a mythological creature in human form who feeds on the blood of humans. These creatures have incredible strength and super powers, but only at night. The sun will kill them, as will a wooden stake through the heart, but those are the only things. Barring death by those methods, they are immortal. They are the main characters in vampire movies, a genre of film which began in the “Silent Era”.

Unless it was someone who grew up and lived far from civilization, it would be hard to find a person who had not seen one of these scary films. People are thrilled by things which scare them, and these movies are very popular. Throughout film history this is a subject which has never failed to draw crowds to the box office. Many have become a type of cult classic.

It is believed that many of these stories are based on persons who lived in Europe centuries ago. There are legends of certain people who thought that drinking human blood and perhaps even eating flesh would give them immortality. The stories usually centered around an eccentric person who preferred to live removed from society.

The older films usually depicted a count who lived in a dark castle on a hill far away from town. His victims often visited him due to some unfortunate situation which forced them to seek shelter in the castle.

The main focus of the count interest and desire was usually a beautiful young woman. The evil count wanted to drink her blood, and in the process make her his consort for eternity. She would become a creature like himself through his bite. The lady was usually accompanied by a gentleman, perhaps her lover, who would then save her and destroy the evil creature.

Over the years the genre took several turns. The evil creature would be a handsome young man, a royal leader of a band of beings like himself. He would fall in love with a beautiful human and begin to attempt to woo her to his way of life.

Later depictions of these beings often included a handsome, troubled young man who was turned to the bloodsucking way of life by some event in his past. His conscience troubled him, and he fought his desire for blood. He usually also had to fight a band of his own kind to stop them from killing.

In the beginning these creatures were depicted as scary individuals who had a certain charm. They were recluses, hiding their secrets by having contact with humans only in their hunt for blood.

Modern creatures are usually depicted as beautiful, tormented creatures trying to adapt to society. Some attend public schools, and attempt to protect friends and love interests from their kind.

Vampire movies, no matter the story, fascinate audiences of all ages. Television has jumped on the bandwagon with series based on these creatures which air every week and have a huge following among the young. An extremely popular film has released several sequels, with hundreds of young people clamoring to get tickets to the first screenings in their area.