This study investigates vampire narratives in literature and in film, from early vampire stories such as Polidori’s The Vampyre , J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s lesbian vampire tale Carmilla and Bram Stoker’s Dracula , the most famous vampire narrative of all. It compares these stories to contemporary American vampire blockbusters by writers such as Stephen King, the historical vampire chronicles of Anne Rice, post-Ceausescu vampire narratives, and films such as F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu and Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula . The text places vampires in their cultural contexts, showing how vampire narratives reproduce the anxieties and fascinations of their times: from the 19th-century investments in travel and tourism, to issues of colonialism, national identity and obsessions with sex.