Almost 150 years after Carmilla was published, vampires continue to be a pervasive literary characters. From Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot (1975) to Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire trilogy (1976, 1985, 1988) to Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2010) to numerous young adult series like the multiple Vampire Diaries series (1991-1992; 2009-2011; 2013-2014) by L.J. Smith, an unknown ghostwriter, and Aubrey Clark; the Twilight saga (2005-2008) by Stephanie Meyer; Vampire Academy (2007-2010) by Richelle Mead, and House of Night (2007-present) by P.C. and Kristin Cast, vampires have become a staple of fiction. There is no limit to what can be said about the influence and prominence of vampires in literature.

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Thinking about Carmilla, Dracula, and I Am Legend, we can see that their influence lives on in many of these modern vampire stories—and in the dizzying number of movie and TV adaptations that have been made from their stories. I have included a selection of media here to show the prevalence of vampires in pop culture and how the three original works are still discussed in today’s culture.