The mounting popularity of vampire based TV shows in recent years is undeniable; you can barely cross the road these days without coming across an ad for the latest hit series based on our blood-consuming, fanged cousins.
But what has caused the recent explosion of popularity where vampire shows are concerned?
Well, most recently, we are all very well aware of The Twilight Saga, which has fuelled an unprecedented interest in vampire stories worldwide. It started with the series of four novels, cleverly appealing to both sexes: thrill and adventure for the male audience and romance and fantasy for the ladies.
The novel series has without doubt captured the attention of audiences the world over, but maybe not more than the movies, in which vampires are no longer unattractive and creepy, but beautiful, young and passionate beings for those who weren’t particularly interested in the novels, they will be now.
Take Robert Pattinson, for example, who plays Edward Cullen in the Twilight series. His chiselled jawline and handsome, Jude Law-esque white face have become the foundation of many a teenage crush since he was exposed to the spotlight following the release of the first movie. Clearly his screen counterparts have been carefully selected from a casting pool of equally genetically blessed creatures too.
The same theory could be attributed to TV shows like True Blood, the TV drama commissioned by HBO and The Vampire Diaries. The vampires who grace the scenes of these shows have evolved from Dracula into muscle-clad sex symbols, which surely must have at least a significant bearing on audience figures.
It isn’t just sex that sells though. Something about the storylines tends to grip audiences as they address the co-existence of vampires with humans. This generally ends up with two individuals from each of the species falling in love with each other forbidden loves that come with inevitable dramas and twists as the vampire fights the urge to suck the blood of his human lover in order to stay alive himself.
True Blood takes this idea that vampires and humans co-exist further with its storyline, in which the vampires are able fully admit what they are and integrate normally with humans thanks to the invention by Japanese Scientists of a synthetic type of manufactured blood.
The ability to drink the synthetic blood means vampires are no longer reliant on the blood of humans to stay alive and are therefore no longer a threat to the human race.