True Blood and Philosophy: We Wanna Think Bad Things with You

Want to take a bite out of philosophy? Here's you chance with Alan Ball's hit show 'Trueblood'.

The book takes a looks at philosophical issues behind Charlaine Harris's New York Times bestsellers The Southern Vampire Mysteries and Alan Ball's adaption True Blood television series.

Teeming with complex, mythical characters in the shape of vampires, telepaths, shapeshifters, and the like, True Blood has a rich collection of themes to explore, from sex and romance to bigotry and violence to death and immortality. The goings-on in the mythical town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, where vampires satiate their blood lust and openly comunicate with ordinary humans, presents no shortages of juicy metaphysical morsels to sink your teeth into.

Now True Blood and Philosophy calls on the minds of some of history's greates thinkers to perform some philosophical bloodlettting on such topics as Sookie and the metaphysics of mindreading; Maryann and sacrificial religion; werewolves, shapeshifters and personal identity; vampire politics, evil, desire, and much more.

True Blood and Philosophy is the perfect companion to the start of the third season on HBO and the release of the second season on DVD. It is smart and entertaining, and provides food--or blood--for thought, and a fun, new way to look at the series.

For all of our Trubies out there, True Blood and Philosophy, will be out for purchase June 2010.

Take a bite out of that!!!

Vampire Travels

On the trail of vampires

Even before 'Twilight' and 'True Blood' helped raise their pop-culture profiles, vampires had left their marks in many places. The garlic is optional.

By Krista Simmons | LATimes.com

Vampires have long been objects of fascination in history, literature and lore. With the Nov. 20 release of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," HBO's "True Blood" and their countless imitators, Americans are welcoming vampires into their homes again. Though many consider Transylvania to be the lair of vampirism, there's plenty of vampire culture right here. Whether you have just come out of the coffin or long thirsted for night life, these locations offer plenty of opportunities to explore the dark side.

Exeter, R.I.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries in New England, many believed vampires were the source of the rampant transmission of tuberculosis. According to folklorist Michael Bell, author of "Food for the Dead," there are at least 40 documented cases in which corpses were exhumed and their vital organs burned and stakes driven through the hearts in attempts to halt the alleged vampires from spreading the disease.

The most famous case of exhumation is that of Mercy Brown of Exeter, whose brother Edwin had contracted tuberculosis. Because of the cold temperatures and the fact that she had recently died, Mercy's heart still contained blood that was not frozen or blackened. It was decided that she was a vampire, Edwin was forced to drink her blood, and Mercy's vital organs were burned. H.P. Lovecraft, who's buried in Providence's Swan Point Cemetery, wrote about Mercy's case in "The Shunned House." It's also said that Bram Stoker used Mercy as reference for "Dracula."

The Providence Biltmore, a historic building with imposing chandeliers and a giant '20s-style ballroom, is an ideal spot to stay while visiting. The hotel is near Swan Point Cemetery and 20 minutes from the more bucolic Exeter, where Brown is buried in Chestnut Hill Cemetery. With the advent of winter, this New England sojourn will undoubtedly supply plenty of darkness for the photosensitive.

Providence Biltmore Hotel:

11 Dorrance St., Providence, R.I.; (800) 294-7709, www.providencebiltmore. Doubles from $119.

New Orleans

Whether it's the fictional town of Bon Temps in the "True Blood" series or the setting of Anne Rice's vampire novels, New Orleans and environs are well-known in vampire lore.

Oak Alley Plantation, built in 1839, was the location for Lestat's mansion in the movie version of "Interview With the Vampire." Its antebellum plantation cottages now have been converted into a bed-and-breakfast at this house on the banks of the Mississippi River about an hour from New Orleans.

Though "True Blood's" Fangtasia bar has no true brick and mortar, there are plenty of other watering holes for the undead in New Orleans' historic French Quarter: Sip a Dragon's Blood cocktail at Ye Olde Original Dungeon, which is decorated with coffins and cages.

Before you head out into the night, you might want to stock up on some vampire gear at Boutique du Vampyre, where you can get the Vamp N.R.G. drink or vampire-attracting perfume. Historic New Orleans Tours offers twilight excursions through the French Quarter that visit locations in Rice's novels as well as for "Interview With the Vampire" and "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant."

Oak Alley Plantation: 3645 Highway 18, Vacherie, La. (225) 265-2151, www.oakalleyplantation. Doubles from $200. Ye Olde Original Dungeon, 738 Toulouse St., New Orleans; (504) 523-5530, www.originaldungeon.com. Boutique du Vampyre, 712 rue Orleans, New Orleans; (504) 561-8267, www.feelthebite.com/home.html; Historic New Orleans Tours, (504) 947-2120, www.tourneworleans.com.

New York

Its dark, monochromatic interior makes Gotham's Night Hotel an ideal haven for bloodsuckers and night dwellers. Designed three years ago by Mark Zeff, the hotel's décor is accented with giant Gothic-style pillars, black-and-white leather chairs, black horsehair couches, pillows, antique wooden armoires, bookshelves and black-and-white erotic photographic prints.

Inside the hotel's lounge, Nightlife, a jail cell door keeps the bartender behind the bar. Check out the NewGothCity website at www.newgothcity.com for goth events and parties.

For a less vamp-sclusive outing, a must-do is Death & Co., which features cocktails such as the Sleepy Hollow Fizz (rum, lemon juice, maple syrup, pumpkin purée and egg yolk) and the aptly named 18th Century cocktail (Batavia Arrack, crème de cacao, vermouth and fresh lime juice). You might also stop by the Vampire Freaks clothing store to pick up new threads and info on the East Village's gothic and vamp parties.

Night Hotel: 132 W. 45th St., N.Y.; (212) 835-9600, www.night. Doubles from $199. Death & Co., 433 E. 6th St., N.Y.; (212) 388-0882, www.deathand. Vampire Freaks, 189 Ave. A, New York; (212) 505-8267, http://vampirefreaks.com/store.

Forks, Wash.

The success of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" saga has turned this town batty, and the Pacific Inn Motel is no exception. The six "Twilight" rooms offer fans an unusual overnight experience. Each is painted black and red, embellished with posters of the characters and are stocked with apples to munch on (they're meant to recall the novel's cover). The bathrooms have black towels with "Twilight" embroidered on them, but you'll have to bring your own glitter soaps and lotions if you want to get a glow like Edward's.

Dazzled by Twilight leads daily theme tours through Forks and the seaside town of La Push, but the innkeepers recommend that you take a trip through the stunning Hoh Rain Forest, where the giant trees and ominous fog dominate the scenery in the movie.

You can also stop for a meal at Bella Swan's favorite eatery in Port Angeles, Bella Italia (watch the garlic!), and take a picture next to Bella's cool old truck at the Chamber of Commerce.

Yet another "Twilight"-oriented restaurant is scheduled to open early next year. Now called the Lodge, it originally was named Volterra after the "New Moon" location. It will include a downstairs bar appropriately named the Dungeon.

Pacific Inn Motel: 352 S. Forks Ave., Forks, Wash.; (360) 374-9400, www.pacificinnmotel.com. Doubles from $66. Bella Italia, 118 E. 1st. St., Port Angeles, Wash.; www.bella. Dazzled by Twilight, 61 N. Forks Ave., Forks, Wash.; (360) 374-8687, www.dazzledbytwilight.

Santa Cruz, Calif.

The view from the Cliff Crest Bed & Breakfast Innoverlooks West Cliff Boulevard and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, two prominent locations in the '80s vampire flick "The Lost Boys." The rooms in this Queen Anne Victorian have king-size beds with hand-carved posts and canopies, lace-covered windows and fireplaces.

Although gentrification and the expansion of UC Santa Cruz have transformed the city, the movie's motorcycle culture is very much alive.

Check out riding with the Vampires Motorcycle Club, or visit the Red Restaurant & Bar, whose lounge is decked out with blood-red walls, roaring fireplaces and seductive low lighting that makes even the whitest pallor look delicious.

For a mid-morning feed, have brunch at the reputedly haunted Brookdale Inn & Spa, just north of Santa Cruz on Highway 9, which is said to be visited by the spirit of a former owner's niece who drowned in the creek that runs through the dining room.

Make sure you check out some of the rocky caves at Panther Beach, which look strikingly similar to the "vampire hotel" where the Lost Boys resided.

Cliff Crest Bed & Breakfast Inn: 407 Cliff St., Santa Cruz; (831) 427-2609, www.cliffcrestinn.com. Doubles from $145. Red Restaurant & Bar, 1003 Cedar St., Santa Cruz; (831) 425-1913. Brookdale Inn & Spa, 11570 Highway 9, Brookdale; (831) 338-1300, www.brookdaleinnandspa. Vampires Motorcycle Club, www.vampiresmc.com

krista.simmons@latimes.com

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

Vamp Diaries fits nicely

CW's 'Vampire Diaries' lands in space between 'Twilight' and 'True Blood'

Read more: NYDailyNews.com
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, Thursday night, CW

In its unending quest for new ways to dramatize the thrills and dangers of teen romance, the CW tonight poses this question: What happens if the really hot new guy in school turns out to be a vampire?

It's a situation where a simple "OMG!" might not seem sufficient.

For the network, though, the larger question may be whether young women, the target audience for the new "Vampire Diaries," like their romantic drama sprinkled with bloody corpses and near-corpses.

While the producers hope the female audience for the "Twilight" films suggests that's the case, tonight's opening "Vampire Diaries" feels more graphic and menacing than "Twilight."

It's not as graphic and menacing as HBO's "True Blood," a similar work, but the tension here is lethal, not just romantic.

It also would be a shame if the neck-biting part proves too discomforting because the core teen couple is a winner.

Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) hasn't been looking forward to the new school year in Mystic Falls, Va. Her parents were killed in a car crash in May, leaving her and her brother in the care of a largely clueless aunt. Despite the pleas of her best friend, Bonnie (Katerina Graham), Elena really isn't ready to face the world again.

On the first day back, though, Bonnie spots that hot new guy, Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). He has the dark, brooding, mysterious fascination that's been quickening teenage girls' pulses since Elvis Presley and James Dean, and he has eyes for Elena.

For reasons only he and the viewers know.

Seems that when he was 16, in 1864, he was bitten by, and thus turned into, a vampire. At that time, there was a girl named Kathleen who looked exactly like Elena. Now, Stefan is ready to get back in the game.

That's okay up front, since Stefan is a good vampire who means no harm. But he has a brother, Damon (Ian Somerhalder), who does, and since Damon has followed Stefan to Mystic Falls, Stefan's quest for love will create complications for some folks there.

In overall tone, "Diaries" tilts more toward menace than humor - which could create either fascinating romantic tension or the bad feeling that someone's neck is always about to get tapped like a maple tree in syrup season.

By staking turf between "True Blood" and "Twilight," "Vampire Diaries" hopes it has found the promised land. The danger is it could also be no man's land.

dhinckley@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/09/10/2009-09-10_cws_vampire_diaries_lands_in_space_between_twilight_and_true_blood.html#ixzz0QnjkgZG2

Need FangFloss or perhaps SunScream? CW is cheesing up the Vamp swag

Is America vampired out? The CW network hopes not.
By STUART ELLIOTT | NYTimes.com

CW begins an ambitious campaign this week to promote a new series for the 2009-10 TV season, “The Vampire Diaries.” The campaign includes offbeat elements intended to attract attention, which include a blood drive, giveaways of mock products like “fang floss” and online games.

“The Vampire Diaries,” scheduled to make its debut on CW stations on Sept. 10, is tailored to appeal to the network’s target audience: younger women who dote on its shows like “One Tree Hill” and “Supernatural” and were fans of series like “Dawson’s Creek” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which were from its predecessor, WB.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the promotions is the blood drive, sponsored with the American Red Cross. It is to take place on more than 230 high school and college campuses around the country, said Stephanie Millian, director for biomedical communications at the Red Cross in Washington.

Posters feature the three principal cast members of “The Vampire Diaries” — Paul Wesley, Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder — sprawled languidly under this headline: “Starve a vampire. Donate blood.”

The Red Cross is working with CW “to produce a public service announcement that will feature members of the cast,” Ms. Millian said, and there will be commercials promoting the blood drive on the Channel One high school TV network owned by Alloy Inc.

The partnership is “an opportunity to engage the younger members of our communities,” she added, noting that Americans ages 16 to 22 represent “25 percent of our donors.”

“The Vampire Diaries” arrives as TV sets, movie theaters, Web sites and bookstores are awash in all things vampiric.

On television, there already are the HBO series “True Blood” and the BBC America series “Being Human.” The popular film “Twilight” is to get a sequel, “New Moon.” And online, the Web site Crunchyroll (crunchyroll.com) is starting to stream a vampire drama, “RH Plus,” from Japan.

To be sure, when it comes to the entertainment media jumping aboard bandwagons, too much is often never enough. But can CW executives be sure they are not overestimating the American public’s taste for blood?

“I don’t look at it as necessarily competing,” said Rick Haskins, executive vice president for marketing and brand strategy at CW, which is owned by the CBS Corporation and Time Warner. The HBO audience, for instance, is “very different” from CW’s, he added.

And while each of the “Twilight” movies is “a once-a-year mega-event,” Mr. Haskins said, “The Vampire Diaries” can be marketed as “a once-a-week event.”

“One is going to feed off the other,” he added, “no pun intended.”

(Giving Mr. Haskins a moment to get all the vampire wordplay out of his system, he also offered that the CW series is “going to be on Thirstdays.”)

Matt Diamond, chief executive at Alloy, which is a producer of “The Vampire Diaries,” said he was encouraged that CW executives were selling the series as “a good show that has vampires in it” rather than as a vampire-fest.

“We’re not naïve,” said Mr. Diamond, whose company publishes the “Vampire Diaries” books on which the series is based and is in business with CW on the “Gossip Girl” hit series. “If vampires become yesterday’s news, there will be an element of the show that will not be as popular.”

In the meantime, “in this demographic, you want to be hitting on what’s popular,” Mr. Diamond said. “It’s not always great to try to be the trendsetter if you want mass appeal.”

Steve Sternberg, a media analyst, said he believed that “The Vampire Diaries” had the best chance for success of all the new series arriving on CW for 2009-10, which also include an updated version of “Melrose Place” and “The Beautiful Life,” a show about young models.

“The Vampire Diaries” also lends itself to the “out-of-the-box promotions” that CW is planning, said Mr. Sternberg, who recently left his post as executive vice president for audience analysis at Magna, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

•

Among other elements of the campaign being developed by Mr. Haskins are trinkets to be distributed in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. They include packages of dental floss bearing the words “fang floss” as well as sunscreen for vampires, relabeled as “sunscream” with a V.P.F. — Vampire Protection Factor — of 1,000, because “sun damage is the No. 1 killer of the undead.”

The online game, called “Race Against the Dawn,” will be available on the Mochi Media Web site (mochimedia.com/games). And a “Vamp Yourself” online widget, or small application, enabling computer users to create and share with friends vampiric versions of photographs, will be on aol.com and the CW Web site (cwtv.com).

Although promotional commercials for “The Vampire Diaries” are now running on CW, the myriad efforts off the network are particularly important because CW viewership falls significantly during the summer when almost all its programs are reruns.

“Fewer people have the opportunity to see network promos on CW’s own air,” Mr. Sternberg, the media analyst, said.

And coming fall shows like “The Vampire Diaries” are getting less attention than usual in the entertainment media, he added, because of the considerable coverage for new summer series like “Project Runway” and “Mad Men.”

Perhaps the next big TV idea is “The Mad Men Diaries,” about vampires on Madison Avenue. Their competitive advantage: they work nights.

Vampire Diaries vs. Twilight and True Blood Comparisons

'Vampire Diaries' team discusses those 'Twilight,' 'True Blood' comparisons
By Daniel Fienberg | HitFix.com

L.J. Smith's "The Vampire Diaries" was first published as a trilogy in 1991. That was a full decade before Charlaine Harris published the first book in her Sookie Stackhouse series and 14 years before Stephenie Meyer first begin making vampires sparkle in "Twilight."

However, because of the variable journeys from page-to-screen, "The Vampire Diaries" will be premiering on The CW this fall and on Tuesday (Aug. 4), the show's producers and cast had to explain to the Television Critics Association how this latest uber-swoony undead romance is different from the ones filmed before it.

[Publication chronology aside, it would be disingenuous to claim that just because its source preceded the sources for "True Blood" and "Twilight," "The Vampire Diaries" isn't utterly and completely indebted and beholden to those burgeoning franchises.]

With much of the cast off filming in Atlanta, stars Paul Wesley, Nina Dobrev and Katerina Graham, plus co-creators Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec faced the comparisons.

Wesley, who has previously played werewolves and fallen angels, got the first query, regarding the influence of Robert Pattinson when it comes to brooding teen vampire archetypes.

"Well, prior to shooting the pilot, I had never seen 'Twilight,'" Wesley noted. "And I specifically went out of my way to not watch 'Twilight' because I didn't want it to in any way influence me because I knew that it was a similar subject matter. And now, I've actually never watched the movie in its entirety, but I've seen parts of it. And, you know, I don't think that it would be wise for any actor to make any judgments on their character or decisions based on anyone else. I think if there are similarities to Robert Pattinson's character in 'Twilight,' so be it. I take the scripts that Kevin and Julie write, and I do my honest, best portrayal. And then anything else — any, like, similarities, that's sort of an aftereffect."

Lest you think Wesley is diminishing "Twilight," the "Everwood" and "24" and "Wolf Lake" veteran added, "I was impressed because it has this — not to make this about 'Twilight,' but it has this super sort of youthful following. And I found it pretty engaging, so I was kind of relatively surprised. You know what I mean? I didn't think — I thought it would be a lot campier. I actually liked it, what I saw."

Williamson, who created the temporarily oft-imitated "Dawson's Creek" for the old WB admitted that the basic similarities are unavoidable.

"The premise is the same: you know, girl meets vampire," he noted.

This gave him pause when he was originally brought the books.

"I worried a lot," he acknowledged to the assembled critics. "I was like, 'Oh, God, we're the ripoff. That's so great.' No one wants to do that. And I actually said, like, 'No way.' And then we read the books. And Julie and I wanted to work together on a project. Julie and I have worked together on and off since 'Scream.' So we wanted to work together on a project. 'Kyle XY' was coming to an end, and I was just sitting around... Just tweeting. And so I was like, 'Sure, let's do it.'"

Wiliamson urges a little patience before immediately pushing "Vampire Diaries" aside as a "Twilight" knockoff, especially after the pilot.

"The pilot was very tough because it does have a lot of similarities to 'Twilight,' and there's no way around it," he said. "We had to introduce — we had the story as he comes to town, the first day of school. That is the book. So we sort of are telling it in sort of that fashion, but we're switching things around. Once we get into it and we can establish all the characters, which is what — you know, the pilot, we had 10 characters to get out in 42 minutes. It's tough. And so now we can get — sort of sit back and start telling stories on a weekly bases. Then it all changes. That's when you'll see the differences, because you're watching a weekly show. We're not a movie with a beginning, middle, and end. We're actually evolving, and we get to evolve and just tell the stories, and it just sort of unrolls."

That unrolling includes a closer look at the impact of a vampire incursion on a small town, especially a small town that begins to realize that it's got a vampire problem.

That actually brings to mind more of a "True Blood" tie and Williamson admitted that at a recent Comic-Con party, he and Dobrev stalked (and met) Alexander Skarsgard of the HBO hit. [This reporter was witness to this meeting-of-the-vampire-minds.]

This led to a discussion of the enduring fascination with vampires, particularly for female audiences.

Dobrev began by stating, "There is something about a man who lurks in the dark."

Plec added, "It's, to me in my head, if Jordan Catalano was a vampire or Dylan McKay, that naughty-bad boy that just... you want to believe, like in reference to Jordan, you want to believe there is so much going on behind those eyes. You want to believe that they have epic amounts of knowledge and soul and spirituality and intelligence lurking behind those eyes. And in the real men, you often don't get that. So in a vampire, just by definition you are getting the bad boy with the brain."

Does that sound right, Fangbangers?

Anyway, right or wrong, I'll give Graham the last word when she declares, "It's not 'Twilight.' It's not 'True Blood.' It's 'The Vampire Diaries.' It's completely different, and you'll have to watch it

"The Vampire Diaries" will premiere on Thursday, September 10 on The CW.

Deborah Ann Woll (TB Jessica) on becoming a Vamp

'True Blood' Star Deborah Ann Woll On Becoming A Vamp: 'I Watched A Lot Of Animal Attack Footage'

by Amy Wilkinson MTV Hollywood Crush

Bon Temps has seen a lot of changes during the second season of "True Blood." Jason left town to bunk at Jesus camp. Sam has a potential love interest in fellow shapeshifter Daphne. And orgies are all the rage thanks to mysterious Maryann. But one of the best additions to the small Louisiana town has got to be newborn vampire Jessica, played by Deborah Ann Woll.

The 24-year-old Brooklyn native spoke with H Magazine(see her full cover after the jump) about preparing to play Jessica, on-set antics and her favorite horror flicks.

For Deborah, portraying a sheltered-teenager-turned-mischevious-bloodsucker took both mental and physical preparation. "Research is a great tool," she said. "The more I know about my surroundings and the situations I am in the more creative I can be. So there is the culture of Louisiana, the primal vampire animalistic qualities, the awkward home schooled teenager syndrome. Even sometimes looking up precisely what a word means can be very eye opening."

Wildlife footage was also a great tool for mastering the "alien/animal" movements of a vampire. "I watched a lot of animal videos and often attack footage. Stalking and attacking and killing are practices lost in most humans, so I needed to teach myself to do them."

The HBO series isn't all blood, guts and gore though. Deborah described the set's vibe as comical, even revealing that hunky Ryan Kwanten, who plays Jason, is quite the prankster, inciting a bit of revenge from the crew. "I heard they filled his car to the brim with tiny styrofoam balls," Deborah said. "I don't believe he will ever get them all out!"

So what horror flicks does a vampire (or a gal who plays a vampire) watch to give herself the willies? "Well, at present I would say Neil Marshall's 'Descent.' That really terrified me and it was shot so creatively," Deborah said. " 'His Dog Soldiers' is great too. But growing up I always loved 'Alien,' 'The Exorcist,' and the original 'Haunting' with Julie Harris. 'The Haunting' would keep me up at night."

The Vamps that make Dead "sexy" again

Bite Me! Why We Love Vampires

Is it the bad economy, or your secret desire for domination? Psychologists weigh in on our obsession with the bloodsuckers.

By Joan Raymond | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Jul 16, 2009

There are three things that Kendra Porter of Cleveland looks for in a man. She likes them smart, funny, and tall. Warm, conscious, and breathing are givens. That's why Porter, 27, says she's more than a little bewildered about her latest crush: a 1,000-year-old hunk of vampire Viking eye candy named Eric, just one of the incredibly beautiful creatures populating the HBO series True Blood, based on the bestselling "Southern Vampire Mysteries" of Charlaine Harris. "This is so embarrassing," says Porter, an interior designer, who plans her Sunday nights around the show. "I was never into that whole vampire thing. Now I'm like vampire central. I want to say, 'Bite me.' But, you know, in that really good way."

Poor Ms. Porter. She's missed out on years of the undead's appeal. But vampires have never been as hot as they are now—in a steamy, let's-step-in-the-shower-together way. Women are now so sexually attracted to vampires, advertisers are even getting in on the action. (And who wouldn't want a little vampire action on the side, especially if it involved Alexander Skarsgård?) In a new Gillette billboard, a vampire hunk caresses his cleanly shaven face next to the phrase "Dead Sexy." In another ad, for Marc Ecko cologne, a male vampire nibbles at a naked woman's neck with the line "Attract a Human." As if they needed any help.

Unless you've been sleeping in a coffin for the last few months—and if you have, lucky you!—you'll know that the hottest genre around is the bloodletter, with vampire-based movies, fan clubs, and, of course, the ever-popular vampire-based paranormal romance literature all competing for our attention. In the fall, the CW debuts Vampire Diaries, a teen soap opera that will make the Gossip Girl crowd want someone other than Chace Crawford to bite them. Next week's Comic-Con International, a celebration of all things pop culture held in San Diego, offers up a heavy dose of vampire-themed events, including a panel discussion with members of the True Blood cast and executive producer Alan Ball. And Southern California will see yet another vampire frenzy next month, with Vampire-Con. Billed as the first vampire-centric convention, the two-day Hollywood event includes a vampire-film festival, panel discussions, and a danse macabre featuring "vampirerotica" go-go girls and boys. "People are really excited about this," says Heidi Johnson, Vampire-Con's PR director. "Even my grandmother is into vampires now."

Vampires and sex have been inexorably intertwined since Bram Stoker's iconic sexual predator Count Dracula took a little nip of Mina and Lucy back in 1897. And well before Robert Pattinson (Twilight's Edward Cullen) or Stephen Moyer and Skarsgård (True Blood's vampire duo of Bill Compton and Eric Northman) set the female heart aflutter, a young, virile Frank Langella did the same thing with his sly portrayal of the count in John Badham's 1979 big-screen adaptation of the story. So did an oddly sexy, bespectacled Gary Oldman in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 Dracula, and Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt when they bared their fangs in the movie version of Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire in 1994. But there's something about the modern-day vampire that's even more alluring than any of these. It's not just that they're sexy. It's that every girl wants to have sex with them.

In some ways, these new vamps have been defanged—a few wear condoms and others sparkle in the sun like Abercrombie & Fitch models (OK, that's just the Twilight vampires). But these changes in the vampire myth also have helped to humanize the characters, turning them into modern-day Romeos for all the angsty Juliets in the tweenage world. True Blood's Ball says that his vampires are part of a "story of people trying to assimilate, trying to find a way in the world. The notion that a group like the vampire is feared and misunderstood, that they're outsiders, it's really very interesting." The hypersexuality, coupled with the potential for danger, makes some of the most unlikely women yearn for the vampire embrace.

But the current vampire obsession isn't all about the fangs. It may be an excellent balm for bigger issues, says Donovan Gwinner, assistant professor of English at Aurora University. In Gwinner's class "Got Blood? Vampires in Literature, Film and Popular Culture," students were required to read several vampire-related books, including Stoker's Dracula and popular literature by Rice, Harris, and Stephenie Meyer. "We talked a lot about how things suck," jokes Gwinner. "But in times of economic contraction, fear of job loss, and war, the vampire myth really speaks to people. What's so bad about being powerful, almost immortal, always in control, and incredibly desirable?"

Very little, as contemporary writers of vampire fiction can attest. The imagery has always been sledgehammer-subtle, says Laurell K. Hamilton, bestselling author of the "Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter" series. "It's fang, penetration, ecstasy," she says. "Our readers know that vampire sex is somehow going to be the very best sex a woman has ever had."

And why shouldn't it be? After all, "they've generally had centuries to practice," says author Charlaine Harris. Plus, her bloodsuckers are out, proud, and mainstreaming with humans due to a blood substitute they can buy at the corner store. But their appeal, she believes, is eternal youth. "We're obsessed with staying young," she says. "And vampires never worry about Social Security or knee replacements. That's almost irresistible to us."

While she has creative license to take her vampires any place she wants, she admits that there is a little pressure to keep at least some of them sexy, rather than portraying them solely as killing machines. She had to cut a scene from a book in which Sookie Stackhouse, the intrepid telepathic waitress, used a calculator to try to determine the number of people her vamp lover, Bill, had killed before he "mainstreamed" with humans. "It was a funny scene, and an awful scene, and I could see Sookie doing that," says Harris with a laugh. "But I understood that it was really going to be hard to see Bill as an attractive character after Sookie tallied six figures or something."

But it's that potential for death that gives vampires a lot of their sexual edge. "It's kind of like autoerotic asphyxia, except that's real," says Katherine Ramsland, professor of psychology at DeSales University. "In terms of fantasy, the vampire mystique is 90 percent sexual. It's a metaphor for dangerous sex. Because if it goes wrong, you're gone." For her book, Piercing the Darkness, Ramsland spent several years researching the rabid vampire fan, those folks who actually act out the Dracula fantasy. Many are professionals (lawyers, stockbrokers, politicians); some are simply lost. What struck Ramsland as rather odd was that most women wanted to be the victim rather than the hunter. "I think it's kind of weird to be the impaled one, the seduced one," she says. "There were so many women who wanted to lose control. And I thought women had come a little further than that."

If message boards, chat rooms, and fan clubs are any indication, the whole seduction, lose-control routine is a huge part of the fantasy. "I think a lot of women wouldn't mind someone else taking control of things for a while," says Melissa Lowery, 34, editor and co-owner of popular fan site true-blood.net. In the last 30 days, the site has had more than 140,000 unique visitors. And after wading through 3,700 comments, Lowery has noted at least one theme that keeps popping up: "Even if a vampire is your lover and gentle and kind, he still has the power to rip someone's leg off," she says. "Sometimes I think women just want to be protected, and that's not so bad."

That may have something to do with all the adolescent angst we still have bottled up. "I'm a short Jewish guy and I love vampires. It's all about the classic, tormented relationship, the otherness," says Dr. Steven Schlozman, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. In his paper "Vampires and Those Who Slay Them," published in the journal Academic Psychiatry, Schlozman argues that the Buffy-verse, for example, speaks to key developmental challenges of adolescents, some of which even many adults have never quite mastered. In the episode "Gone," Buffy teases bad-boy vamp Spike while she's invisible, which Schlozman sees as the "perfect" metaphor for the adolescent longing adults can feel for the vampire lover. "It's like you want to do it, but you sure don't want anyone to know that you are into vampires," he says. "But it sure can be a good time."

Marliese Engel Traver, a 25-year-old publicist from New York City, knows exactly what Schlozman means. She's been a fan of all things vampire since she was a teenage Buffy fan. She's since graduated to Twilight (she's read all the books and seen the movie three times), and on Sunday nights, she and her husband, Tom, watch True Blood. For her, it's the bad-boy connection, what she calls the "forbidden fruit" of the vampire that kind of turns her on. "I like Twilight vampires for romance, and True Blood for everything else," says Traver, with a giggle. "Let's just say that what you see on the screen can often translate to real life. My husband is happy I like this show."

Who knows? Maybe next we'll be seeing vampire marriage counselors.