Thanks to Technicolor, those of a certain age will first remember Peter Cushing's Dr Van Helsing, energetically pitting himself against Christopher Lee's Count Dracula, in Terence Fisher's Hammer productions. And although the famous Count had bared fang long before Hammer House, it's arguable that Fisher's adaptations were responsible for the birth of a cinematic icon.

But without Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, 'Dracula', Fisher's interpretation of the Dark Prince would not exist. Stoker's novel provided Fisher (and scores of other film makers) with the blue print of the legend that we are all so familiar with today: a breed of super-humans known as vampires.

These Gothic immortals need blood to survive, which they drain from their hapless victims with the aid of two menacing fangs - but don't worry,they have their weaknesses too. Firstly, they have no reflection and ironically cannot be captured on film; they have an aversion to garlic, holy water and sunlight, and if you are of a mind to want to kill one, a wooden stake through the heart will do the trick. But are these potential Achilles heels based on any known lore, or are they merely the tools of good fiction.

Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Bathory are two of Stoker's most notable sources of inspiration, but apart from Vlad's sadistic tendencies and Bathory's penchant for bathing in her victims' blood in the vane hope she would remain forever young, there is no evidence of the existence of vampires, let alone the amusing ways in which you can spot one, irritate one, or kill one.

So we can agree that it's good fiction, and what better way of presenting it than through the medium of film.

If we look at Dracula and the vampire genre as a product, the inevitability of that product needing repackaging every once in a while is also inevitable. In fact, it's been the constant reinvention of the bloodsucker that has given it longevity. It's been a long time since we've seen the clichd Bela Lugosi leering over a beautiful maiden, and that's all down to a diverse consumer appetite.

The movie industry satisfies this appetite by coming up with different flavours - something to suit every palate. You may like your vampires with a Tarantino twist, as depicted in the 1996 cult hit, From Dusk Till Dawn, or with allegorical undertones, such as Abel Ferrara's 1995 offering, The Addiction, which broaches the sensitive subject of the AIDS virus. Maybe you like your vampires to be the hero of the piece - the Blade trilogy and the Underworld films have both proved to be popular if box-office takings are anything to go by - or you may favour the sensibilities and moral complexities of an Anne Rice creation. Rice's Vampire Chronicles have completely detached themselves from traditional legend, and yet, at the same time, managed to evoke the gothic essence of what we imagine a vampire to be.

One thing is certain: as long as we keep handing over our hard-earned money to be told stories about vampires, and that thanks to the advent of computer generated images (CGI) these stories are being told more richly than ever, the movie industry will keep making them.

Vampires may only be creations of fiction, but they have still achieved something of which we can only dream: Immortality!

Learn more about this author, Darren Guest.
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