Vampires are classic horror villains. They have centuries of folklore behind them and have been ubiquitous in pop culture ever since Dracula's publication in 1897. They're found across every medium, including television. Various television shows feature vampires heavily and have plenty of material to draw from.
This long history creates immense variation in how television shows portray vampires. There is no one default depiction. They might have different abilities, weaknesses, origins, or other traits. Even in the crowded landscape of television vampires, some manage to stand out. In certain shows, the vampires are unlike any other.
10 Fish-Like Aliens Who Trick The Human Mind
Doctor Who
Doctor Who has featured vampires several times. In each case, the show has applied science fiction tropes to the concept. Vampires have been creatures from other worlds or mutant descendants of humanity. The most recent example, in the episode "The Vampires of Venice", is by far the oddest depiction.
"The Vampires of Venice" aren't actually vampires. Instead, they're Saturynene; fish-like, carnivorous aliens. They appear human by using a perception filter that forces people to ignore their alien traits. There's nothing gothic, occult, or magical about them in the slightest.
9 Immortals With A Blood Disease
American Horror Story: Hotel
American Horror Story likes to draw on classic horror tropes but puts its own spin on things. Its writers happily include ghosts, slashers, and aliens, but never portray them like other shows. American Horror Story: Hotel best demonstrates this, with its very atypical vampire threat.
The vampire inspiration for this story is clear. The afflicted, as they're known, are ageless, supernaturally gifted, and have to drink the blood of others to survive. However, they don't have many traditional vampire weaknesses. Sunlight weakens but doesn't kill them. They're vulnerable to ordinary weapons and violent death. Most notably, they lack fangs and have to use other methods to extract blood from their victims.
8 Warped Drinkers Of Angel Blood, And The Angel Itself
Midnight Mass
In Midnight Mass, there are two types of creatures with vampiric traits. The 'Angel' is the creature at Midnight Mass's center. It is an animalistic, bat-like monster that only somewhat resembles a human being. It lacks several notable vampiric traits. It can never appear human and lacks intelligence or presence.
The people of the village who drink the Angel's blood come to resemble another kind of vampire. They become younger and healthier, with old injuries healing themselves. If they die with the Angel's blood in their system, they rise again with a thirst for blood. These people are more like classical vampires, but transforming based solely on drinking another creature's blood is rare in modern interpretations of vampire legends.
7 Very Human Creatures With A Fierce Craving
Being Human
Being Human focuses on the less monstrous side of its supernatural creatures. As a result, its vampires lack a lot of traditional traits associated with them, in favor of more human ones. However, they're still recognizably vampiric. They have no heartbeat, struggle with fierce cravings for blood, and can be repelled with religious symbols and killed with stakes.
However, the differences in Being Human's lore makes its vamps stand out. They still have human needs, such as eating, sleeping, and using the bathroom. They can survive perfectly fine without blood. However, blood empowers them in several ways, and they experience an intense need for it if they go without it.
6 Demons Inhabiting A Soulless Corpse
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer vamps are pretty stereotypical. They avoid sunlight, drink blood, have fangs, hate crosses, and die to stakes through the heart. The show doesn't try to rewrite the playbook. However, the actual origins of its vampires touch on rarely-discussed parts of their mythology.
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, vampires aren't the people they were in life. Instead, they're a demon puppeting the corpse of a vampire's victim. They also lack a soul, which makes it almost impossible for them to do good, even when a part of them wants to.
5 Vampires Who Transform At Age Sixteen
Young Dracula
Most vampire fiction portrays vampires as infertile. They can only create more of their kind by turning others into vampires. To fit its premise, however, Young Dracula does away with this. It follows the son of Count Dracula, who was conceived naturally by a married Count Dracula.
Vlad Dracula is an ordinary human during the show. In Young Dracula, vampires take on more vampiric traits at the age of sixteen, in a process that involves written exams and merging with their evil reflections. Vampires can be created by biting others, however, and Young Dracula's adult vampires have many archetypal vampire traits.
4 Undead Who Have To Consume Human Blood To Become Vampires
The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries only had a few twists or unique ideas for its vampires. However, "transition" was the show's invention, and a unique take on a new vampire's creation.
A person rises from the dead in The Vampire Diaries when they die after consuming vampire blood. However, that isn't the entire process. After death, they awaken in a state known as transition that's neither alive nor dead. They have some vampiric powers, but not all of them. When in transition, prospective vampires have to drink human blood within the next twenty-four hours to become a vampire or they will die..
3 A Vampire Community Just Trying To Do Better
The X-Files
The X-Files touches on vampires, but with the same uniqueness it approaches alien abductions and conspiracy theories. In the "Bad Blood" story, Mulder and Scully investigate a town where there have been several vampire-themed killings.
Everybody in town is actually a vampire. They have some rare folkloric traits, such as a compulsion to count small objects and being paralyzed by a stake through the heart. However, they can go out in the sunlight and eat normal food. They're also, as a community, trying to improve. The town's sheriff apologizes for the killer, saying that most vampires don't behave like him anymore.
2 Creatures Who Rely On Their Glamour Powers
Wynonna Earp
Wynonna Earp breaks with convention by downplaying its vampires as physical threats. They're still fast and strong predators. However, Wynonna Earp focuses on their more sinister, mental powers.
Wynonna Earp's vampires can use glamour on a person with a single touch. The victim becomes completely devoted to them, willing to sacrifice their life for the vampire. They have other strange abilities as well, like releasing a cloud of thick fog that draws humans to it, definitely unique in vampire lore.
1 Decaying Creatures Who Create Their Own Weaknesses
Dracula (2020)
Dracula is the most iconic vampire in all of fiction. He's made countless appearances in literature, TV, and film. Dracula (2020) is one of the most recent attempts to tell his story. However, it makes large changes to the novel's plot. Rather than focusing on humans trying to stop the titular character, Dracula examines vampire psychology.
Most vampires in Dracula turn into bestial creatures that are barely human. Only Dracula retains any humanity for long because he takes on the psychological traits of his victims. The show also engages with vampires' strange weaknesses. Ultimately, the show declares that his vulnerability to sunlight, crosses, and the like comes from Dracula's imagination. They only harm the vampire king because of his fear of death.