69 Fun Facts About Vampire

Which pungent plant is the classic folk ward against vampires?

Garlic is the classic ward: in Stoker's Dracula, Van Helsing hangs garlic flowers around Lucy's room and neck to keep the Count out, echoing Balkan folk practice.

Which actor played the Count in Universal's 1931 film Dracula?

Bela Lugosi played Dracula in Tod Browning's 1931 Universal film, reprising the role he had created on Broadway in 1927; his Hungarian accent became the template for later imitators.

In Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels, what do vampires do when the sun hits them?

It is one of the series' most-mocked and most-loved inventions, and the reason the Cullens keep to the perpetually overcast Pacific Northwest.

Which Sesame Street Muppet is a purple vampire obsessed with numbers?

Count von Count, performed first by Jerry Nelson, debuted on Sesame Street in 1972; each time he finishes counting, thunder cracks and lightning flashes behind him.

Vampire bats are the only mammals that feed exclusively on what?

Vampire bats are the only mammals that live entirely on blood; they make a small incision with razor-sharp incisors and lap the blood rather than sucking it.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is set in which fictional California town?

Buffy is set in Sunnydale, California, whose high school sits on the Hellmouth, a gateway to demon realms; the school is blown up in the season-three graduation finale.

In which year was Bram Stoker's Dracula first published?

Dracula was published by Archibald Constable and Company in London on 26 May 1897, while Stoker was business manager of Henry Irving's Lyceum Theatre; his working notes date from 1890.

Which real 15th-century ruler is often cited as the inspiration for the name Dracula?

Vlad the Impaler, Vlad III of Wallachia, was called Drăculea, 'son of Dracul', after his father's membership of the Order of the Dragon; the blood-drinking link was added by later novelists.

Who played the vampire Lestat opposite Brad Pitt's Louis in the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire?

Anne Rice publicly objected to Tom Cruise's casting, then took out a two-page ad praising his performance after seeing the film.

True Blood, following telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse in small-town Louisiana, aired on which US network from 2008 to 2014?

HBO ran it for seven seasons, adapting Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries under creator Alan Ball.

Kiefer Sutherland led a gang of teenage vampires in which 1987 film?

The Lost Boys (1987) stars Kiefer Sutherland as gang leader David; the title nods to Peter Pan's boys who never grow up, and the boardwalk scenes were shot in Santa Cruz.

In Bram Stoker's novel, Jonathan Harker visits Count Dracula's castle in which mountain range?

The Carpathians were built entirely from library books and travel accounts; Stoker never visited the region.

The Vampire Diaries is set in which fictional Virginia town?

Mystic Falls hosted eight seasons and spawned the spin-off The Originals.

In Twilight, Bella Swan moves to which rainy Washington town?

Forks, on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, was chosen after Meyer searched for the rainiest place in the United States; the town later built a tourism trade around the books.

The 1922 German silent film Nosferatu renamed the vampire Dracula as what?

F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu renamed Dracula as Count Orlok, played by Max Schreck; Stoker's widow Florence sued anyway, and a German court ordered every print destroyed.

The 2014 mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows follows vampire flatmates in which city?

The flatmates share a house in Wellington, New Zealand; Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement wrote, directed and starred, and the film later spawned an American TV series.

Which anti-hero, played by Wesley Snipes in 1998, is a human-vampire hybrid with vampire strengths but none of the weaknesses?

Blade quietly launched Marvel's cinematic run two years before X-Men, with Stephen Dorff's Deacon Frost as its upstart villain.

Who directed the 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula starring Gary Oldman?

Francis Ford Coppola directed Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), banning computer effects in favour of in-camera tricks from early cinema; it won three Oscars, including costume design.

In Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, which vampire narrates his life story to a reporter?

Louis de Pointe du Lac tells his story to reporter Daniel Molloy; Rice wrote the novel after her daughter Michele died of leukaemia, and the child vampire Claudia was inspired by her.

How many living species of vampire bat exist?

Three: the common, hairy-legged and white-winged vampire bats, all of Central and South America and none in Transylvania.

In Stoker's Dracula, the Count arrives in England aboard a ship named after which Greek goddess?

The Demeter, a Russian schooner, runs aground on the Yorkshire coast with its captain lashed dead to the wheel, and a large dog is seen leaping ashore.

Which studio's 1958 Dracula first paired Christopher Lee with Peter Cushing's Van Helsing?

Hammer Film Productions made Dracula (1958) for about £81,000 with Terence Fisher directing; it was released in the United States as Horror of Dracula.

In the FX series What We Do in the Shadows, what unusual type of undead is Colin Robinson?

Colin Robinson is an energy vampire, played by Mark Proksch: he feeds by boring and irritating people and lives in the basement of the Staten Island house.

Stephen King's 1975 vampire novel 'Salem's Lot is set in which US state?

'Salem's Lot is set in the fictional town of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine; it was King's second published novel, written after he taught Dracula to high-school students.

Which 'Blood Countess' was accused of killing hundreds of girls between 1590 and 1610?

Elizabeth Bathory, a Hungarian countess, was confined in Csejte Castle from 1610 until her death; the tale that she bathed in virgins' blood was first written down over a century later.

According to Stephenie Meyer, the Twilight vampire idea came to her in what form?

Meyer says the idea came in a dream on 2 June 2003, of a girl and a sparkling vampire talking in a meadow; that scene became chapter 13 of Twilight.

Which family member of Vlad III earned the name 'Dracul' through the Order of the Dragon?

His father, Vlad II, was inducted into the Order of the Dragon in 1431 and took the name Dracul; Dracula, or Drăculea, means 'son of Dracul'.

In What We Do in the Shadows (2014), how old is the Nosferatu-like vampire Petyr?

Petyr is 8,000 years old, far older than his flatmates; he sleeps in a stone crypt in the basement, and Ben Fransham played him under heavy prosthetics.

Bram Stoker was born in which city?

Stoker was born in Clontarf, Dublin, in 1847, bedridden with an unknown illness until age seven; he later managed Henry Irving's Lyceum Theatre in London for 27 years.

The 2004 vampire novel Let the Right One In comes from which country?

John Ajvide Lindqvist set it in a Stockholm suburb in the 1980s; the 2010 American remake was titled Let Me In.

Vlad III ruled which historical principality?

Wallachia, south of the mountains, was his domain, though he was probably born in Transylvania; he reigned in 1448, 1456–62 and 1476.

In What We Do in the Shadows (TV), which vampire is the self-appointed leader of the Staten Island house?

Nandor the Relentless, played by Kayvan Novak, is a former Ottoman warrior who declares himself leader of the house; his familiar Guillermo waits years for the promised bite.

Who wrote The Vampyre (1819), the tale that introduced the aristocratic vampire Lord Ruthven?

John Polidori, Byron's physician, wrote The Vampyre after the 1816 ghost-story contest at Villa Diodati that produced Frankenstein; it was first printed under Byron's name by mistake.

The 1872 vampire novella Carmilla is set in which region of Austria?

Le Fanu set Carmilla in a lonely castle in Styria; the novella beat Dracula into print by 25 years, and its vampire keeps adopting anagrams of her own name.

Which folk practice was meant to keep a vampire busy all night counting?

Scattering seeds on the grave exploited the folk vampire's compulsion to count: poppy seeds, millet or sand would occupy it until dawn, the same trait Sesame Street's Count parodies.

The most famous American 'vampire' exhumation, in 1892, took place in which state?

Nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown was exhumed in Exeter, Rhode Island, in 1892 after dying of tuberculosis; her heart was burned and the ashes fed to her sick brother Edwin as a cure.

Nosferatu (1922) is credited as the first film to show a vampire destroyed by what?

Count Orlok crumbles in the morning sunlight at the end of Nosferatu, a cinema invention; Stoker's Dracula could walk about by day with weakened powers.

In Dracula, Lucy Westenra receives proposals from Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris and which doctor?

Dr John Seward runs the lunatic asylum beside Carfax, the estate Dracula buys; his patient Renfield eats flies and spiders while awaiting his master.

On which network did Buffy the Vampire Slayer air for its final two seasons?

Buffy moved from The WB to UPN in 2001 after five seasons; UPN paid a bigger licence fee, and season six opened with the resurrected heroine.

Robert Eggers's 2024 Nosferatu cast which actor as its title vampire?

Bill Skarsgård plays Count Orlok in Eggers's Nosferatu, adding to his Pennywise from It; Willem Dafoe plays the occultist von Franz and Nicholas Hoult plays Thomas Hutter.

Which feature of a decomposing corpse appeared to lengthen, fuelling vampire beliefs?

Teeth seemed to grow as gums receded after death; bloating gases also pushed blood from the nose and mouth, so a 'plump, well-fed' corpse looked freshly fed.

The star of the 1931 Dracula played the Count on film only once more, in which 1948 comedy?

Bela Lugosi's second and last film Dracula was Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948); he was buried in his Dracula cape in 1956, and Martin Landau won an Oscar playing him in Ed Wood.

In Le Fanu's novella, Carmilla is an anagram of which original name?

Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, reshuffles her letters each generation, appearing as Millarca and then Carmilla; the anagram trick was borrowed by countless later vampires.

The 'Blood Countess' spent her final years confined in a castle in which present-day country?

Čachtice Castle, then Csejte in Royal Hungary and in present-day Slovakia, is where Báthory was confined from 1610 and found dead in August 1614.

Bram Stoker did much of his research for Dracula in the library of which English seaside town in 1890?

Stoker holidayed in Whitby in summer 1890 and found the name Dracula in its library; he returned the favour by having the Count come ashore there as a large dog from a wrecked ship.

In 1985 biochemist David Dolphin linked vampire folklore to which rare blood disorder?

Dolphin suggested porphyria, whose sufferers can be light-sensitive, explained vampire legends; the theory drew huge press coverage but folklorists rejected it, since folkloric vampires were corpses, not patients.

The vampire panic that gave English its word 'vampire' erupted in the 1720s-30s in which country?

Austrian officials investigated the corpses of Petar Blagojević (1725) and Arnold Paole (1732) in Habsburg-ruled Serbia; their reports were reprinted across Europe and brought 'vampire' into English.

Makt Myrkranna, a heavily altered 1901 version of Dracula, appeared in which language?

Makt Myrkranna, Icelandic for 'Powers of Darkness', was assumed to be a plain translation until 2014, when scholar Hans de Roos found it was almost a different novel.

The 1931 Universal Dracula was based on a 1924 stage play by John L. Balderston and which actor-manager?

Hamilton Deane's 1924 stage play, revised by Balderston for Broadway in 1927, gave the Count his evening dress and opera cape; Stoker's novel mentions neither.

Draculin, a protein in vampire bat saliva, blocks which process in its victim?

Draculin is an anticoagulant: it blocks blood clotting by inhibiting factors IX and X, so blood keeps flowing from the small incision while the bat laps it.

Which ancient Greek creature, said to suck children's blood, is among the earliest vampire-like figures?

Lamia, a queen turned child-devouring monster in Greek myth, was later said to drink children's blood; alongside her were Empusa, daughter of Hecate, and Mesopotamia's Lilitu.

In 1462 Vlad III launched a night raid on the camp of which Ottoman sultan?

Vlad's night attack on Mehmed II's camp on 17 June 1462 failed to kill the sultan, but the 'forest of the impaled' Mehmed found on the road to Târgoviște did more to break Ottoman morale.

Roughly how long can a vampire bat survive without a blood meal?

A vampire bat can starve after about two days without blood, which is why well-fed roostmates regurgitate blood for hungry neighbours, a classic example of animal reciprocity.

Who designed the Oscar-winning costumes for Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)?

Eiko Ishioka, the Japanese designer, won the Academy Award for her costumes; the film's three Oscars were all technical: costume, makeup and sound effects editing.

What title did Stoker's typescript of Dracula carry before publication?

The typescript's title page read The Un-Dead; Stoker's early notes also had a Count Wampyr and a German professor called Max Windshoeffel before Van Helsing appeared.

In the 1998 film Blade, who plays Whistler, Blade's mentor and weaponsmith?

Country singer Kris Kristofferson played the gravel-voiced hunter Abraham Whistler, who survived into two sequels despite apparently dying at the end of the first film.

Stoker found the name Dracula in William Wilkinson's 1820 history of which two principalities?

Wilkinson's An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia carried a footnote saying 'Dracula' meant devil in the Wallachian tongue, and Stoker dropped Wampyr for good.

The 1970 British film The Vampire Lovers, based on Carmilla, starred which Polish-born actress?

Ingrid Pitt, born in Warsaw in 1937, played Carmilla for Hammer, then returned the next year as the Blood Countess in Countess Dracula, cementing her as the studio's queen of the undead.

Whose 1954 novel I Am Legend leaves one man alone in a world of vampires?

Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (1954) makes Robert Neville the last human in a vampire plague; it was filmed as The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971) and I Am Legend (2007).

In 1970 the London press spread rumours of a vampire haunting which cemetery?

The Highgate Vampire scare of 1970 drew rival amateur hunters with stakes and crucifixes to Highgate Cemetery; one, David Farrant, was later prosecuted for damaging tombs.

In the 1931 Dracula, who played the fly-eating Renfield?

Dwight Frye's unhinged laugh as Renfield made him Universal's go-to lunatic; he played Fritz the hunchback in Frankenstein the same year.

After his defeat, Vlad III was imprisoned by Hungary's Matthias Corvinus at which fortress from 1463?

Vlad was held at Visegrád, Matthias Corvinus's Danube fortress, for about twelve years; he married into the Hungarian royal family and was released for a final short reign in 1476.

The novel Let the Right One In takes its title from a song by which singer?

The title comes from Morrissey's 1992 song 'Let the Right One Slip In'; it doubles as a nod to the folklore rule that a vampire must be invited across a threshold.

On Sesame Street, the Count shares his castle with bats, a cat named Fatatita and a wolf named what?

Jerry Nelson voiced the Count from his 1972 debut, and each finished count still summons indoor thunder.

In True Blood, Eric Northman holds the title of Sheriff over which numbered vampire district?

Eric Northman is Sheriff of Area 5 in Louisiana; Alexander Skarsgård's 1,000-year-old Viking runs the vampire bar Fangtasia in Shreveport.

Which scholar duo's 1972 book popularised the claim that Ármin Vámbéry fed Stoker his Dracula lore?

Raymond McNally and Radu Florescu made the Vámbéry claim in In Search of Dracula (1972); later scholars such as Elizabeth Miller found no evidence Vámbéry gave Stoker any vampire lore.

Which empress sent her physician Gerard van Swieten to investigate vampire claims, then banned grave-opening?

Maria Theresa's physician Gerard van Swieten reported in 1755 that vampires did not exist; her decree against exhuming and desecrating bodies ended the Austrian vampire panic.

The jiangshi of Chinese folklore, sometimes called 'Chinese vampires', get around in what distinctive way?

Hopping is how these mindless reanimated corpses move as they drain life essence, or qi; their greenish-white furry skin may come from mould on corpses.

Varney the Vampire, the 1845–47 gothic serial by Rymer and Prest, appeared in what cheap format?

Collected in 1847, the story runs to 868 double-columned pages and helped give the vampire its protruding fangs.