The article begins with a captivating visual: a cinemagraph video depicting a performer in motion on a stage, adorned with a large red heart-shaped door and bathed in the ethereal blue glow of a projected face.
Ever since Bram Stoker’s Gothic novel ‘Dracula’ shattered the horror genre in 1897, the vampire has consistently proved itself a ‘dramatically generational’ survivor, a concept eloquently articulated by Nina Auerbach in her seminal 1995 work, ‘Our Vampires, Ourselves.’
In a cultural landscape overflowing with these creatures, it’s hardly a shock that artists as diverse as Bela Lugosi and Ryan Coogler are drawn to vampires like fangs to necks. These mythological beings tap into our deepest anxieties about what it would mean to become ‘otherly’ human, even if, like the charming bloodsuckers on ‘The Munsters,’ they seem like perfectly amiable neighbors. As horror author Grady Hendrix aptly put it: ‘Vampires are the only monster that looks like us.’
This spring, the theatrical world is certainly sinking its teeth into the craze. Cynthia Erivo is currently captivating audiences in London’s West End with a powerful one-woman adaptation of ‘Dracula,’ while on Broadway, ‘The Lost Boys’ — a new musical based on Joel Schumacher’s 1987 supernatural thriller — is set to begin performances on March 27 at the Palace Theater. New York audiences can also catch ‘Blood/Love,’ an intriguing vampire pop opera running Off Broadway.
An accompanying image shows Cynthia Erivo, illuminated by blue light, in a dramatic stage setting with a large red heart-shaped door. She embodies 23 distinct roles in her solo ‘Dracula’ performance currently running in the West End.
Michael Arden, the director of ‘The Lost Boys,’ suggests that our enduring obsession with vampires stems from their provocative challenge to mortals: ‘Is it better to live a never-ending life or is the meaning of life predicated on its brevity?’
So, how precisely did vampires manage to embed themselves so profoundly into the fabric of pop culture? The answer, it seems, boils down to blood – and the myriad forms these iconic figures have taken.
### Evil: True Bloodsuckers
The most thrilling vampires are those beyond redemption, driven by primal, insatiable thirsts. No character embodied this more chillingly than Count Orlok, the iconic rat-faced antagonist in F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent masterpiece, ‘Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.’ Orlok’s ruthless and remorseless portrayal by Max Schreck established a formidable standard for all cinematic vampires to follow. Filmmakers continue to be drawn to this dark wellspring, with Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake, ‘Nosferatu the Vampyre,’ featuring a ghastly Klaus Kinski, and Robert Eggers’s 2024 interpretation, also titled ‘Nosferatu,’ presenting a gruesome, hulking Bill Skarsgard.
Less monstrous but equally sinister was Bela Lugosi in Tod Browning’s ‘Dracula’ (1931). Lugosi’s elegant, cape-draped bloodsucker became a monumental stylistic influence on future pop vampirism, inspiring everything from Bauhaus’s 1979 Goth anthem ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ to the beloved ‘Count von Count’ on ‘Sesame Street’ and even ‘Count Chocula’ cereal.
The 1979 CBS mini-series ‘Salem’s Lot’ left a lasting scar on Gen X viewers with its nerve-rattling bedroom sequences, featuring grinning, hollow-eyed vampires desperately scratching at windows. These terrifying ‘stranger-danger’ vampires resonated deeply, especially as the series was based on a Stephen King novel and directed by Tobe Hooper, the visionary behind ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’
A video clip shows a scene of Reggie Nalder as the grotesque vampire in ‘Salem’s Lot.’
Vampires come in all guises, including the merciless Eli, a creature trapped in a 12-year-old’s body, whose story made ‘Let the Right One In’ (2008) such a profoundly barbaric love story.
### Sex and Romance: Thirst Traps
The blend of evil and sophistication makes the vampire a ‘dream antagonist,’ as Stephen Graham Jones, author of the 2025 vampire novel ‘The Buffalo Hunter Hunter,’ observed.
‘The vampire can be both an animal, fighting tooth and claw, but it can sit back and have a very measured conversation with its prey, too,’ he explained.
The quintessential vampire sophisticate was undoubtedly actor Christopher Lee, whose ‘noble, ravenous’ Dracula in U.K.-based Hammer Studios films (1958-1973) ‘exuded a certain lascivious sex appeal,’ as noted by this newspaper.
Another unforgettable charmer was Frank Langella, who captivated audiences on Broadway in the successful 1977 production of ‘Dracula’ and, two years later, in its critically acclaimed film adaptation. One can hardly forget the ravenous intensity in Langella’s eyes when his butler inadvertently cuts his finger!
A video clip features Frank Langella as Dracula, in a moment of intense allure.
Modern vampires now ooze sex more overtly than their predecessors, often without the same coercive undertones. While opinions vary on the 1994 film adaptation of Anne Rice’s best-selling novel ‘Interview With the Vampire,’ Brad Pitt certainly delivered a charming Louis, contrasting with Tom Cruise’s Lestat. Similarly, Jacob Anderson’s portrayal of Louis as a debonair gay man in the 2022 adaptation of ‘Interview With the Vampire’ was highly praised. And who wouldn’t want eternal life if they could look as alluring as Alexander Skarsgard’s Eric on ‘True Blood’?
Female vampires, too, have risen to prominence. Salma Hayek’s mesmerizing snake dance in Robert Rodriguez’s testosterone-fueled ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ (1996) stands as one of horror’s most scintillating five minutes. Unlike many earlier female vampires, her character, Santanico Pandemonium, was far from a passive object; her supernatural power turned men into her willing minions.
A video clip captures a vibrant scene with Salma Hayek from ‘From Dusk Till Dawn.’
Vampire chic—characterized by body-hugging black leather and floor-sweeping silhouettes—has long graced the runways of designers like Viktor & Rolf, offering an aspirational, dark-sided allure. If fashion truly has a vampire muse, it must be Lady Gaga, who epitomized bloodsucker eleganza in a black corseted Vivienne Westwood ensemble at last year’s Grammys.
However, no one quite mastered the ‘va-va-voom’ like Vampira (born Maila Nurmi), a renowned 1950s television horror host. Drawing inspiration from the evil queen in Disney’s ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,’ Nurmi’s iconic fitted black gowns and long, dark hair influenced generations of villainous vixens, from Morticia Addams to Elvira.
### Queerness: Shadow Dwellers
For many vampires, their hunt is for blood, not gender—an ‘equal-opportunity approach to bloodsucking’ that resonates deeply with queer narratives, according to film scholar Payton McCarty-Simas.
One of the earliest queer-coded vampires was Jonathan Frid’s distinguished Barnabas Collins on ABC’s supernatural soap opera ‘Dark Shadows’ (1966-1971). Horror historian Jeff Thompson noted that Barnabas’s appeal lay in his connection with young people who, though perhaps not understanding the term ‘homosexual,’ recognized a shared sense of being ‘different,’ much like Barnabas.
‘When they watched Barnabas struggle with his strange desires, gay youth took notice,’ Thompson said.
Queer vampires weren’t exclusively male; however, early portrayals of queer female vampires were often problematic, depicting them as purely predatory. ‘Dracula’s Daughter’ (1936) served as a cautionary tale of predatory queer vampirism, a distorted theme that unfortunately persisted in ‘The Vampire Lovers’ and other lurid lesbian vampire films of the 1970s.
Bisexual characters, a historically underrepresented group in cinema, found slightly better footing when Catherine Deneuve, Susan Sarandon, and David Bowie’s characters navigated the most stylish vampire love triangle in ‘The Hunger’ (1983).
A video clip shows a stylized, artistic moment from the opening credits of ‘The Hunger.’
### Warriors: High Stakes
In the latter half of the 20th century, vampires evolved beyond the singular image of a male predator, becoming ‘carriers of social anxieties and metaphors for the things we fear or are told to fear,’ as articulated by horror scholar Leah Richards.
Due to their immortal desire for mortal flesh, vampires frequently become protagonists—and victims—of star-crossed, forbidden romances, exemplified by Buffy and Angel in the series ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ On a more metaphorical level, the ‘Twilight’ films captured the intense, suppressed desires and teenage longing through their vampire narratives.
Black vampires emerged at the forefront of the tragically misunderstood narrative. In the Blaxploitation film ‘Blacula’ (1972), William Marshall’s titular vampire unleashed a trail of carnage across Los Angeles in his desperate quest to reunite with his wife. Later, Wesley Snipes’s half-vampire hunter, ‘Blade’ (1998), carved his own path, fighting against the supernatural forces of evil.
A video clip displays a scene from the Blaxploitation film ‘Blacula.’
Not all conflicts are easily won. Addiction is a powerful and pervasive metaphor in many vampire myths, a theme Bill Gunn explored over 50 years ago in ‘Ganja & Hess,’ his groundbreaking treatise on African-American identity. Since then, addiction has fueled some of horror’s most emotionally brutal vampire films, including ‘The Addiction’ (1995) and ‘My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To’ (2020).
In the 1980s, vampires reflected widespread anxieties surrounding AIDS, not only as a symbol of blood-borne illness but also as a means to grapple with the ‘inescapable reality of death at an early age,’ as film scholar David J. Skal detailed in his book ‘The Monster Show.’ Notable examples from 1985 include Ping Chong’s play ‘Nosferatu,’ set at the onset of the crisis, and Kathryn Bigelow’s vampire Western ‘Near Dark,’ which served as an allegory for the American response to AIDS.
Credit is also due to vampire killers, especially the Black heroes of Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners,’ a profound exploration of race and vampirism that has garnered a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations.
### Humor: Fangs a Lot
No joke: Vampires have been a source of humor since at least 1948, when Bela Lugosi hilariously parodied his own ‘Dracula’ in ‘Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.’ This is the cathartic power of horror comedy: making fear seem less imposing.
Gag vampires entertained audiences in Roman Polanski’s slapstick spoof of Hammer horror, ‘The Fearless Vampire Killers’ (1967), and in the grindhouse classic ‘Dracula: The Dirty Old Man’ (1969), a sexploitation romp featuring a vampire with the voice of a Borscht Belt comedian. The tradition of comedic vampire antics continues today, with Adam Sherman’s action-comedy ‘Vampires of the Velvet Lounge,’ starring Mena Suvari, hitting theaters on March 20.
Goofball vampires have also graced the small screen, most notably in the Emmy Award-winning mockumentary series ‘What We Do in the Shadows,’ which charmingly chronicles the lives of lovably dimwitted vampire housemates.
A video clip showcases humorous moments from the mockumentary series ‘What We Do in the Shadows.’
Cute, friendly vampires teach children that monsters aren’t always antagonists. The 1960s sitcom ‘The Munsters’ showed Eisenhower-era audiences that an unconventional family with a vampire mother and grandfather could be just as loving and wholesome as any other. Similarly, the animated ‘Hotel Transylvania’ films taught the TikTok generation that even tough-acting dads can be softies at heart.
Perhaps the most unintentionally amusing aspect of the vampire myth is its ‘curse’ on Broadway musicals. Theater has famously struggled to capture horror effectively onstage, and vampires have suffered some of the worst luck, starring in notorious flops like ‘Dance of the Vampires’ (2002) and ‘Lestat’ (2006).
However, Michael Arden remains optimistic that ‘The Lost Boys’ will finally break the musical vampire’s string of misfortunes.
‘It’s not Victorian lace and candelabras,’ he said of the upcoming show. ‘It’s squirt guns filled with holy water and kids dressed up like Rambo.’
Credits: Produced by Jolie Ruben and Rebecca Lieberman. Additional production by Anna Ruch. Photos and videos sourced from: Warner Bros., Hammer Film Productions, Kevin Mazur/Getty Images, Prana-Film, CBS, Daniel Boud, Focus Features, Universal Pictures, Archive Photos/Getty Images, John P. Johnson/HBO, Miramax Films, Bettmann/Getty Images, MGM, FM, WB, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, AIP, Universal Pictures (via AMPAS), Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures, FX.