The Vampire: From Mysterious Count to Rock Star and Back to the Coffin

This paper presents a brief review of the evolution of the myth and archetype of the vampire from its roots in European folklore to our days, being Polidori’s vampire its first literary appearance and The Strain’s vampire the last example from popular culture. So the European legendary, Western literature and TV and films culture from the last decades of the 20th and 21st centuries integrate in a paper whose aim is to outline the evolution of an ancient archetype which survives thanks to adaptation and change. To conclude, an evolution hypothesis is sketched from the last appearance of vampires on screen: The Strain