For the most part, it’s how many people perceive vampires today. Vampires Today The Truth about Modern Vampirism by Joseph Laycock May 2009, 200pp, 6 1/8x9 1/4 1 volume, Praeger Hardcover: 978-2-3 75, 58, 66, A103 Add to cart eBook Available: 978-3-0 Please contact your preferred eBook vendor for pricing. The black-and-white movie established Dracula as a wealthy, debonair vampire whose immortal kiss is desirable instead of deadly. In Vampires Today: The Truth about Modern Vampirism, Joseph Laycock argues that today's vampires are best understood as an identity group, and that vampirism has caused a profound change in how individuals choose to define themselves. Francois Duhamel / Sygma / Getty Images Famous vampires in pop cultureīela Lugosi’s “Dracula” set the bar for all other vampire movies. And while Bram Stoker gets a writing credit, the film is actually based on a 1920s stage play adapted from the Bram Stoker novel and not the book itself. The modern-day vampire that most of us relate to comes from the 1931 film “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi.

“He has hairy palms he has bad breath and he’s more like a corpse,' Laycock said. Nearly 80 years later, Bram Stoker published 'Dracula.' Based on Vlad the Impaler, the real-life Romanian prince with a thirst for bloody warfare, Stoker's Count Dracula is a far cry from Byron's sexy, womanizing vampire. It's the first of its kind to make vampires seem aristocratic and seductive, not unlike Byron himself. In fact, Laycock sees Twilight as just the latest example of how vampires shape shift. Joseph Laycock is is a PhD student in religion and society at Boston University, and the author of Vampires Today: The Truth About Modern Vampires (Praeger Publishers, 2009). In 1819, vampires became mainstream when John William Polidori wrote “The Vampyre,” a fictional story taken from the story of Lord Byron.

Vampires Today by Joseph Laycock