Why are people so afraid of vampires?

Answer 1

Good question, perhaps it is because they suck blood. Most people don't fear them anymore because they pass them off as mere myth. I however, became jaded to fear ages ago. Nowadays, hunting them is all that I really concern myself with, I take great joy in the way they scream as I saw their sickly arms off. I also take their defiled head off and force it to watch as I drive the stake ever so slowly though their heart... that is, after I set them ablaze.
>8)

Answer 2

Probably because, above all, people are afraid of the dark. Vampires are only active at night, so they are seen to personify the dark.

Answer 3

Because I'm afraid I'll be bitten by a male vampire, not a by female one.

Answer 4

yea what spooky said totally, I am not afraid of Tom Cruise...no wait a minute he has that whole weirdo scientology thing goin on, so I guess I am afraid of him. Wait he is not realy a vampire is he? OHH now I am confised. What was the Question again?

Answer 5

Blood is the fount of life. Without blood, the living die. Vampires drink that life. Why wouldn't people fear them?

Answer 6

Who knows..... I do know this though..... Vampires are real, but not in the whole immortal never dying thing..... There are vampiers and here is a sight that might open some eyes....

Answer 7

I'm a person and I'm not afraid of vampires, or werewolves, or mummies, or zombies, or ghost, or demons, or devils, it's people that scare me.

Answer 8

I think female vampires are arousing, but I don't want my blood sucked out.

Answer 9

I am not. the few I have met are OK. But they are a little pale. I just remind them that its not like the old days and they have to ask to take a bite. Heh heh

Answer 10

hmmm....

Vampires (archaic spelling: vampyres) are mythological or folkloric creatures, typically held to be the re-animated corpses of human beings and said to subsist on human and/or animal blood (hematophagy). They are also the frequent subject of cinema and fiction, albeit fictional vampires have acquired a set of traits distinct from those of folkloric vampires (see Traits of vampires in fiction). In folklore, the term usually refers to the blood-sucking undead of Eastern European legends, but it is often extended to cover similar legendary creatures in other regions and cultures. Vampire characteristics vary widely between different traditions. Some cultures have stories of non-human vampires, such as animals like bats, dogs, and spiders.

Nowadays, some people argue that vampire stories might have been influenced by a rare illness called porphyria. The disease disrupts the production of heme. People with extreme but rare cases of this hereditary disease can be so sensitive to sunlight that they can get a sunburn through heavy cloud cover, causing them to avoid sunlight — although it should be noted that the idea that vampires are harmed by sunlight is largely from modern fiction and not the original beliefs. Certain forms of porphyria are also associated with neurological symptoms, which can create psychiatric disorders. However, the hypotheses that porphyria sufferers crave the heme in human blood, or that the consumption of blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria, are based on a severe misunderstanding of the disease. There is no real evidence to suggest that porphyria had anything to do with the development of the original folklore, as the hypothesis is mainly based off the characteristics of the modern vampire in any case. Others argue that there might be a relationship between vampirism and rabies, since people suffering from this disease would avoid sunlight and looking into mirrors and would froth at the mouth. This froth could sometimes look like blood, being red in colour. However, like porphyria, there is little evidence to prove any links between vampires and rabies.

Some psychologists in modern times recognize a disorder called clinical vampirism (or Renfield Syndrome, from Dracula's insect-eating henchman, Renfield, in the novel by Bram Stoker) in which the victim is obsessed with drinking blood, either from animals or humans.

There have been a number of murderers who performed seemingly vampiric rituals upon their victims. Serial killers Peter Kurten and Richard Trenton Chase were both called "vampires"; in the tabloids after they were discovered drinking the blood of the people they murdered.

Lord Byron arguably introduced the vampire theme to Western literature in his epic poem The Giaour (1813), but it was John Polidori who authored the first "true" vampire story called The Vampyre. Polidori was the personal physician of Lord Byron and the vampire of the story, Lord Ruthven, is based partly on him — making the character the first of our now familiar romantic vampires. The "ghost story competition" that spawned this piece was the same competition that motivated Mary Shelley to write her novel Frankenstein, another archetypal monster story.

Other examples of early vampire stories are the unfinished poem Christabel and Sheridan LeFanu's lesbian vampire story, Carmilla.

Bram Stoker's Dracula has been the definitive description of the vampire in popular fiction for the last century. Its portrayal of vampirism as a disease (contagious demonic possession), with its undertones of sex, blood, and death, struck a chord in a Victorian Europe where tuberculosis and syphilis were common. Stoker's writings are also adapted in many later works. Vampires have proved to be a rich subject for the film industry. In modern popular culture, Anne Rice's book series, Konami's Castlevania video game titles, and television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer have been especially successful and influential. Numerous role-playing games featuring vampires exist.