I grew up in my life with minimal exposure to vampires, and apart from small bits here and there, I had little to go from. I was a little weary of the concept whenever it crept up, especially at Halloween, since the blood-suckers were one of the foremost examples in Halloween culture, at least when I was a kid. It would seem that Halloween has taken a turn from scary to sexy as of late, and that brings me to my point: vampires are no longer scary.
In 2003 the Underworld film came out and I'd say it largely redefined the cultural image of the vampire. I rather enjoyed it despite its flaws, it removed the concept of the villainous vampire yet preserved it. There was a love interest akin to Romeo and Juliet with a little lemon twist here or there. Soon thereafter came many other movies, books, and shows centered around the legendary vampire.
Apart from Underworld, a bit of a guilty pleasure, I've never been much for vampires. This is because of the melodramatic overtones that often follow them wherever they go, and the disconnection from most semblances of the tangible. The brooding loner of the night, not really for me. I've seen it far too many times that I can predict the narrative in my sleep. In leu of this I still have a sort of admiration for the earliest attempts to reinvent the genre, because I'll never argue with a fresh start, especially with the stagnation that has infected the media these days.
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