Throughout the centuries the legend of the vampire has been with us, our vision of the toothed-nightmare has changed significantly.

The vampire legend has its origins in modern day Romania, where it took shape among the royalty of rural Eastern Europe, as Prince Vlad the III of Wallachia engaged in brutal warfare among the Ottoman Empire in protection of his homeland. His methods, which included impaling enemies on wooded stakes and eating dinner among them as they expired, were so gruesome he earned the name Vlad the Impaler, by which he is more commonly known.

The creepy Dracula name itself came from the age of Vlad the Impaler - he was often called Dracula, which means son of the devil or son of the dragon, derived from his father’s title, Vlad the Dragon. Evil stories of Vlad were promoted for political reasons in his time, and soon thereafter, rooting the vampire legend in Romanian folklore.

Its likely under those circumstances that historically speaking, the physical appearance of vampires differs quite a bit from our ideas today of what bloodsuckers look like. Vlad himself was a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire at an early age, given over by his own father to protect his throne. Modern day people would see Vlad as something of an Eastern European ethnic warrior - not as the dashing princely figure in flowing capes that seduces young women with pure blood.

The vampire legend grew in Europe during the age of the plague. During this time, full of fear and confusion, many thought t o have expired from sickness were in fact taken off to their final resting places quite alive. Imagine the horror of medieval peasants to discover their loved ones literally rising from the dead, either as preparing for burial, or even worse, during or after burial. The appearance of vampires in most medieval minds must have been one of a sickly and sometimes dirt-covered person, raised from the depths of the earth. Hardly the beautiful Louis of dreamy locks, weepy eyes, and melancholy made famous by Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire.

Even some of our earliest films still carry the idea of vampire as, well, ugly. Think of the classic Nonfat. Few lovely maidens would be wooed by the vampiric creature sucking their blood in this film. Most would be terrified as they should be.

But soon, the Silver Screen would change all of that. Christopher Lee played Dracula in many horror movies of the 1950s and 1960s. Most notably perhaps in the 1970s, Frank Langella turned the Count into something of sex symbol that women world wide swooning, even if the movie didn’t seduce the critics. The vampire movie genre continued to grow soon afterwards, with the undead becoming sexier and more romantic with each effort. Sometimes, like in movies like Love at First Bite, and Once Bitten, Dracula showed his more silly side.

In the 1980s, variations on the vampire flick launched numerous careers - such as favorite The Lost Boys, which brought us Jason Patric, Keifer Sutherland, Coreys Haim and Feldman, and Jamie Gertz. Further variations brought us the original and much more fun Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the big screen. And who could forget Ann Rice’s novels starring the Vampire LeStat brought to life in the form of a blonde Tom Cruise, pre-Jen Brad Pitt, the dashing Antonio Banderas and the prepubescent Kirsten Dunst?

Vlad himself would never believe today’s vision of the vampire - almost dreamy, certainly romantic and always beautiful, now that the legend tells us that vampirism keeps us lovely and gorgeous for eternity. (Thank you, Ms. Rice, with an assist from the famous alternative song by The Toadies in the 1990s.)

Today, vampire mythology continues to grow, extending the view of the undead as eternally sexy and desirable, and impossible to resist. Buffy started the television phenomenon, continued by HBO’s True Blood, Moonlight, the Vampire Diaries, and likely many more to follow.

From royal butcher to scary bald man creeping in the window to a world of the beautiful people, the vampire has intrigued us more simple folk for sometime. Here’s to the ongoing evolution.