Story 1, America's Vampires

Over the decades, successive literary and cinematic offerings have gradually

bastardised the original interpretation of the vampire

from that of a terrifying and murderous monster into a somewhat romanticised and almost

comedic caricature.

But the reality behind the concept of vampirism is far removed from the fantasy,

born out of a flurry of brutal and truly horrifying murders.

We meet America's vampires. So, So, The earliest references to Vampirism can be found in the folklore of Eastern European and Baltic cultures.

These stories told of nocturnal creatures endowed with

supernatural powers which had the ability to be which and enthrall in order to

drain the blood of those unlucky enough to encounter them. All of that changes are not. the The story achieved international success and acclaim and introduced the world to the most iconic

portrayal of the vampire legend, the enigmatic Count Dracula.

Almost overnight, the vampire ceased to be a cannibalistic forest dwelling entity

and morphed into a charming yet sinister European nobleman.

Successive interpretations of the vampire legend have

almost universally utilized Stoker's source material as the

blueprint to work from. Audiences have been invited to fear this creature, in some cases to sympathise and in others to ridicule it.

But the central message has always been that vampires are easy to detect when you look for the telltale signs and equally as easy to defeat using appropriate techniques.

Whilst the medical ailment of vampirism itself is a work of pure fiction, it does bear striking similarities to some existing diseases.

The maddening psychological effects of rabies on the human body and the need for sufferers of

porphyria to ingest large amounts of hem into their bloodstream have both been identified

as being similar to the core concepts of the vampiric condition.

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