Our Vampires Are Different/Live-Action TV

"Buffy: They could be miles away by now. Xander: They can fly? Buffy: They can drive."
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer 's vampires are described as a type of demon (just one of many) possessing a corpse and are said to lack souls, explaining their amoral behavior. They have "demonic" faces that only appear just before they feed or during a fight, or any other time the writers want them to look more intimidating -- Whedon explained in interviews that he was unnerved by the thought of a teenage girl murdering normal looking people on network television, so the "vamp face" was created to allow for guilt-free slaying. Vampires have many of the usual traits otherwise, including sensitivity to sunlight (although very much the direct-sunlight-only variety; put them in any kind of shadow and they're quite cozy) and the stake-through-the-heart kill. When killed, however, they turn to dust instantly -- a conscious decision by the producers, since they didn't want to devote time in every episode of a teenage-oriented show to "Well, let's clean up all the dead bodies."
 * Buffyverse vampires are insanely allergic to wood. Bram Stoker's Dracula needed a stake of ash wood severed from the tree by a bolt of lightning driven through his heart, and that was just to keep him in place. Buffyverse vampires however "dust" when stabbed in the heart with a pencil or chopstick, and crossbows are a common weapon despite their modern-day impracticality. You still have to hit the heart, though -- Angel's taken wooden stakes in the neck, the arm, the shoulder, and in one case in the chest but just missing the heart, and was only mildly discomfited. The rib cage also seems to cave in immediately against wood, as vampires have been staked with blunt wood objects, such as a spatula handle or a tree branch, and without much force behind the blow (Xander accidentally staking Jesse, in fact just any non-augmented human staking a vampire basically implies their ribs can't handle any damage from wood - at one point it's stated outright that wood goes through vampire flesh like a hot knife through butter).
 * It does have to be wood and only wood, though. If anything else pierces their heart, they're discomfited, but still alive. Well, alive in an undead kind of way.
 * Let's not forget the influence of Character Shield. Angel and Spike have both had some close brushes with heart stakage, whereas Vamp Willow in "Doppelgangland" was killed by being stabbed through the stomach.
 * Actually Vamp Willow was staked through the back. And apparently vamps build up some wood resistance over the years: Kakistos easily survived a common stake
 * In the BtVS fifth-season opener "Buffy vs. Dracula," Dracula had some of the traditional vampire traits that other Buffyverse vampires don't, including shape-shifting and mesmerism. These "special powers" are dismissed by Spike as "Nothin' but showy gypsy stuff."
 * He also displayed an immunity to being staked. When stabbed, he'll disintegrate like a normal vamp, but he can regenerate at will.
 * In the eighth season story "Wolves at the Gate", Dracula elaborates that he went to great lengths to gain his special powers, which are tied to a sword in his possession that is an ancient artifact not unlike Buffy's scythe.
 * As well, Drusilla, in "Becoming, Part 1", used a mesmerism-like power on Kendra, enabling her to kill her.
 * Although, since only three vampires in the entire Buffyverse seem to have the ability of mesmerism (The Master, Dracula, and Drusilla, who was psychic before being vamped), it's possible that this is not a vampire ability at all, and instead is an unrelated magical or mystical ability.
 * One classic power is anti-lampshaded in the pilot, specifically to distinguish from The Movie:


 * Vampires also seem to age by becoming more and more inhuman, and stronger as they do. It is unknown how old the Master is, but he has mutated to the point where his skin is wrinkled, his fingernails are claws, and has the general features of a bat. He is also faster than any other vampire and it took a broken table to kill him.  Even then, he didn't fully turn to dust, just his flesh did, and the next episode was resolved by smashing his bones into dust with a sledgehammer to prevent any resurrection. Another vampire, Kakistos, had cloven hands and feet, and was large enough that a standard stake didn't reach his heart. Though he still turned to complete dust when a pole was shoved through his heart. Then, there are the completely monstrous Uber-Vamps of the Turok-Han.
 * It seems as though the demon inside manifests more and more clearly as time goes by. This is explored by implication (rather than explicitly said) during the series 2 finale arc when Angel and his team end up in Pylea. Pylea shows an in-universe case of vampires being different in different dimensions. In Pylea, vampires can walk around in the sun and reflect. However, when they transform, they don't simply have a shadow of their beast on their face as is the case in the show's normal dimension: the demon fully manifests and what's revealed is pure monster. However, the traits normal vampires reveal and which become increasingly visible in older vampires such as the Master are clearly visible, such as the dramatic eye ridges and sharply pointed ears. If the Pylea experience is anything to go by then if a vampire in the normal world manages to become old enough even horns/spines will start manifesting eventually.
 * After seeing old newspaper shots of Angel, Cordelia remarks "It isn't that vampires don't photograph, they just don't photograph WELL."
 * One episode of Angel featured the "Prince of Lies", a Shout-Out Captain Ersatz of Count Orlok from Nosferatu. He seemed senile and frail for a Vamp, but he eventually flipped out and put up quite a fight.
 * Angel also showed vamps and their sires can sense each other in their dreams.
 * In the Doctor Who serial "The Curse of Fenric", "Haemovores" can be repelled by a focus of belief. A Soviet soldier is therefore able to ward them off with a red star, while the Doctor can summon enough belief without a focus, by thinking of his companions. The doubting priest on the other hand had some trouble.
 * In the new series story "Smith and Jones", the blood-sucking Plasmavore (not the same kind of vampire) is impervious to sunlight, looks completely human, and drinks blood from human necks with a plastic bendy straw.
 * "The Vampires of Venice" features vampires. In Venice.
 * The serial "State of Decay" had traditional vampires... IN SPACE!, on a Planet of Hats version of Uberwald. The Great Vampire, however, is a giant bat-monster, the last of a race wiped out by the Time Lords.
 * In this episode, while Romana tells a soon-to-die ally that vampires can only be killed by a wooden stake, the Fourth Doctor offs the Great Vampire . How he managed to hit the heart is probably one for another trope. Oh, yeah -- when the Great Vampire dies, all the vampires created by it go to dust as well. Gotta love efficiency.
 * Expanded Universe explains the Vampire taint entered the Universe by primitive experiments in time travel by the Time Lords, and the Great Vampires are equated with infinitely horrific beings called the Yssgaroth. An interesting tidbit is that Faction Paradox, a Doctor Who spinoff, makes it quite clear virtually anything can be infected with Yssgaroth taint. Up to and including timeships.
 * Double the Fist gives us pale, naked humans who use their capes to glide, as well as the basic fangs and sunlight allergy. They are also invisible on camera, and have fangs on their penises, according to the DVD commentary. The Crazy Awesome character of Mephisto was originally intended to be a vampire, but actor and special effects man Doug Bayne missed that brainstorming session. That this gone through, their vampires would have also had aids and their own cult.
 * Ultraviolet has "leeches" (vampires) who are susceptible to ultraviolet rays (found in sunlight), do not show up on any electrical or photographic audiovisual equipment (they can't even use telephones without an electronic speech synthesiser), and are injured by carbon-based bullets. They also violently burn to ash when killed by any means, with enough energy discharged to cause serious damage to anything too close, but if another vampire spills blood on their remains they can regenerate, which is why the vampire hunters must gather up the ashes and keep them locked away. They appear to have super healing, but damage done by sunlight never heals. However, they are visually identical to humans, and don't even have fangs.
 * Kamen Rider Kiva has the Fangire(a portmanteau of Fang and Vampire), stained-glass based creatures (resembling different animals and monsters) that can masquerade as humans and suck the "life energy" of their victims out through "phantom" fangs that appear above their heads, turning the victims transparent, as a result. They're also the strongest and most prolific of the 13 Demon Races in the show's setting, having dealt with most of the others one way or another (nearly wiping out the Wolfen, Merman, and Frankenstein's Monster races and actually having wiped out the Goblins centuries ago).
 * Vampires in Moonlight can go about during the day provided they keep mostly covered up. They have a drink/drinkback siring process, and a special "vampire face" as in BTVS. They must rest in a cold place, typically a freezer or an ice bath. They can be photographed digitally, but not with any silver emulsion, nor do they reflect in silver mirrors (modern aluminum mirrors haven't been brought up). They also have a strict code of ethics aimed at preserving the Masquerade and enforced by hot vampire chicks, but that's another trope entirely.
 * The are a couple more differences between this show's mythos and traditional vampire stories. Garlic has no effect on vampires (in the first episode, Mick mentions that "it tastes good on a pizza"). Silver is toxic, but not immediately fatal. It will kill a vampire given sufficient time or amount. A stake through the heart paralyzes them, but remove the stake and they get better. Fire and decapitation still work, though.
 * Fire was used during the Reign of Terror in France to weed out and eliminate vampires, as fire would instantly turn any part of the body coming in contact with it to ash, while a human would only get a nasty blister and charred skin. This explains the most common ways to execute people during that time: burning at the stake and the guillotine. It is revealed that the entire French royal family was made up of vampires. Those of that line can also resist fire. Lance was shown to be immune to it, and Coraline survived being in a room on fire.
 * While there is no permanent cure for vampirism, a rare compound was developed during the Reign of Terror that temporarily suppresses the vampires' true nature. For all intents and purposes, they become human. They have no fear of sunlight, fire, or silver, can eat normal food, do not need to cool down during the day, etc. However, they also lose their superhuman abilities, such as strength, speed, and smell. A vampire who has temporarily become human can be re-turned by another vampire.
 * One episode of The X-Files had Mulder and Scully investigate a series of vampire-like tourist killings in a small town. They went to investigate, and it turns out the entire town was vampires. They were able to go out in daylight, and even eat normal food. They also had OCD, which saved a drugged Mulder's life when he threw a bag of sunflower seeds at the one malicious vampire instead of grabbing his gun. He then blacks out, and comes to just after the vampire has finished and is about to bite him. Mulder is trapped in a trailer while the entire town surrounds it, and wakes up the next morning in their rental car, with the entire town gone. Scully, meanwhile, had a very informative chat with the local sheriff - right before he drugged her, while explaining that the vampire that had gone after Mulder and other victims "just isn't who we are any more. Still, though he is a moron, he is one of ours".
 * Another episode, 3 (not starring Scully; she missed that episode) starred three vampires and a vampire wannabe. These vampires always killed their food, and were extremely vulnerable to sunlight. Exactly how you turn someone into a vampire isn't clear (the usual blood sharing is presumably required), the final step requires them to kill someone who truly believe that vampires exist. More interestingly, they cannot be permanently killed by any non-vampires, though this is their only real super power aside from being a little stronger and tougher than normal humans.
 * Stargate Atlantis has a race of beings known as the Wraith. The Wraith were once insects who evolved to a human-like state, but still retain their most basic instincts, which is to feed off of beings by sucking the life force (literally) out of your body with their hands, to rejuvenate their own life. Doing so renders them biologically immortal, some having been around for many thousands of years. It is unknown whether a Wraith can starve to death although there is an instance where one went delirious and spoke in haikus. Feeding causes the target to age rapidly until they die; even partially fed victims die most of the time due to the levels of trauma involved. In fact, the human body would shut down far too fast for their liking, were it not for the special enzyme transferred into the victim that makes them somewhat more resistant to it. Said enzyme is produced by a set of glands in their forearms and can be used as a highly addictive combat drug for humans.
 * It is said that Wraiths have a Healing Factor dependent on when they fed last. A well-fed Wraith can knock humans across walls and swallow up to forty bullets before dying - as Sheppard puts it, "I can see you just fed which means your regenerative powers are at their highest... but I seriously doubt you can grow a new head". However, their physiology is similar enough to humans that Wraith weapons designed to stun humans work on their owners as well. Additionally, a retrovirus can suppress the insect DNA, transforming the Wraith in question into a regular human with amnesia (temporarily unless a viral inhibitor dose is also used regularly).
 * They're known to have a great weakness: a virus that makes a human not only immune to Wraith feeding, it also kills the offending Wraith. Plus, although they have a hive-like hierarchical society, they are quite willing to kill each other or resort to cannibalism if there's not enough food for all of them (as in the case of the show). In a sharp difference to vampires from other fiction, Wraiths can actually reverse the feeding process and transfer their own life force into someone else to heal them and restore their youth. They never do this lightly and reserve it to their closest worshippers and comrades only. Another weakness is revealed later: Wraith children are omnivores and can sustain themselves on any kinds of normal food but once they reach puberty, their digestive tract reverts to a dormant state. Hence the need for vampirism. In the final season, a modified version of the Wraith-to-human retrovirus is available to leave the subject as a Wraith but removes their feeding orifice, reactivating their digestive tract instead.
 * In "Justice is Served", a first-season episode of CSI, a nutritionist with Porphyria liquifies human organs and drinks them to get the enzymes she needs. Interestingly, porphyria is often cited as a possible influence for the creation of vampire myths, as the symptoms of some forms of it can mimic vampire traits; extreme pallor and sensitivity to light, receding gums which make the teeth appear longer, mental disturbances such as paranoia and hallucinations, etc. However, since vamps being harmed by sunlight is a recent invention, this speculation is questioned just as often.
 * Tragically few details are given about the specifics vampiric nature of Count von Count, but he is known to have the obsessive-compulsive bit and is suggested to have control of the weather. Uniquely, he also has purple skin, although if this is a result of vampirism, puppet-ism, or the combination of the two is unknown. He has been seen in the sun, although, again, his lack of actual skin brings into question whether other vampires of his world are similarly immune or if it is a puppet advantage.
 * Star Trek had a "salt vampire" that could look like it's victim's ideal love/sex object. This allowed it to find victims when straight salt wasn't available.
 * Sabrina the Teenage Witch features a vampire who follows the Bela Lugosi mold to a T, though he's also a professional actor, so he may be hamming it up on purpose. He's repulsed by garlic and mirrors, and immune to witch-magic. Sabrina kills him by driving a steak through his heart. A porterhouse steak. Magic in the Sabrinaverse is largely based on wordplay.
 * In The Middleman, vampires can tell all about a victim from one sip of blood, including their motivations and thoughts. And they can only be killed by a stake of purest Carpathian wood. And sometimes their souls can get trapped in evil puppets.
 * On an early 1990s Saturday Night Live episode hosted by James Woods, Woods played a vampire who, before biting a potential female victim's neck, screens them for AIDS by asking questions about their past sexual partners and even takes the blood to a lab to get it checked.
 * In Being Human (UK), vampires need to eat, sleep and use the restroom in spite of being dead and having no heartbeat. They don't need to drink blood, but do experience intense cravings for it akin to an incurable drug addiction. They have to drink quite a lot of it to stave off their cravings, virtually assuring that they kill their victims. Blood that is not fresh gives them almost no relief. Their eyes go completely black when they're angered or feeding. Vampires are attached to their creator and are able to locate them from a distance. Sunlight causes them no ill affects, but they seem to have a mild dislike for it. A stake through the heart kills them. People wielding signs of faith (including holy symbols and recitations from the Bible) can ward them off. They need an invitation to enter homes and cannot be seen in reflections or recordings. They can sense werewolves instinctively and see ghosts without effort. They are stronger and faster than humans, but not immensely so. They turn into dust when killed.
 * There are minor changes in the Sy Fy Channel remake. The physical need seems to be a larger component and they heal by drinking blood. Whether holy symbols affect them has not been addressed but Aidan was able to enter a church.
 * The vampire in The Vampyr a Soap Opera has a special condition for remaining a vampire: he must kill three women in three nights, or he is doomed to hell. This idea comes from John Polidori's "The Vampyre" and its theatrical adaptations, especially the opera Der Vampyr upon which the miniseries is based. Additionally in Der Vampyr (and originally from The Vampyre), vampires can be injured by normal weapons, but heal when they lay in the moonlight.
 * Charmed's Paige was partially turned into a vamp. They have a hierarchy similar to bees. Vampires only appeared in a single episode, because in order to save Paige before she finished transforming, her sisters killed the vampire queen, freeing Paige and causing every other vampire in the world to die instantly. They have the standard vampire weaknesses and their eyes are extremely sensitive to light making them wear sunglasses in bright places.
 * Actually, another vampire queen showed up in the season seven finale (or an episode near it), and then yet another queen appeared and got killed off by a Big Bad in the Zenescope comics. So it wasn't every vampire in the world that was destroyed in the episode where Paige was turned, just that one queen's clan.
 * Vampires from Young Dracula have most of the stereotypical abilities and weaknesses, except for the ability to throw fireballs. There's also no mention of them being affected by holy symbols, garlic and garlic juice being used instead, presumably to avoid offending anyone. They can also be born mostly human until they're exposed to their Super-Powered Evil Side. Not being able to travel over water was brought up in one episode as a minor plot point.
 * So Weird: Fiona's family nearly falls victim to a group of vampires. None of the traditional vampire wards work -- she tries crosses, holy water, and garlic. What does work is an angel necklace given to her brother by his girlfriend. Later, Fiona speculates that it worked because the pendant was a symbol of love.
 * Supernatural's vampires were intended to lack several traits of vampires seen in other media, so they tend to be, well, different, aside from being undead and feeding on blood. They have normal human teeth and a retractable second set of pointed teeth used to bite people. Strong weakness to sunlight? The worst they get is a bad sunburn and the first time vampires are seen in the series, one of them is actually seen outside in the day with no problems caused by doing so. Killed by stakes? Nope. Repelled by crosses? Nope. In fact, one of them wore a cross around her neck! In addition, dead men's blood is poisonous to them, so they're required to drink blood fresh from living prey. Humans are turned into vampires if they ingest the blood of a vampire.
 * Lost Tapes has two vampiric animal monsters as antagonists. The first are featured in the episode "Cave Demons" as nearly man-sized semi-vampiric/predatory bats with impressive wingspreads. The second weas out and out called a vampire and is a horrible brutally animalistic, but living, creature the feeds on blood from humans and small animals it can catch. The episode also portrays its lair as something akin to a racoon's or a pack rats, as it lives in the basement of a old home. There's a third vampire, the Strigoi, which is a supernatural creature, capable of invisibility, shape-shifting, and other supernatural powers.
 * In Wizards of Waverly Place vampires are extremely fast, are repelled by both garlic and pumpkins (Why people created jack o' lanterns) can go out in the day if they avoid direct sunlight and sleep in coffins. They can turn into bats or just make their arms into batwings so they can fly.
 * In True Blood, the invention of synthetic blood by a Japanese scientist (ostensibly for transplant patients) has allowed vampires to "come out of the coffin" to the mainstream public. All they have to do is drink TruBlood (now sold as a soft drink in most restaurants) and can "mainstream" more or less successfully, though a human notes "Imagine you suddenly can't eat any of your favorites foods, and have to spend the rest of your life drinking SlimFast." There are references throughout the series to a Vampire Rights movement, along with a Vampire Rights Amendment (VRA) working its way through Congress. Much of the conflict of the show deals with the desire to treat vampires like normal people, but the begrudging acceptance that they are still natural human predators, and thus have to be evaluated on an individual basis. Vampire traits:
 * They are immune to crosses, holy water, can travel freely, don't need to sleep in coffins, and can be seen by cameras and mirrors. Garlic, while not lethal, is very irritating to them. Bill Compton explains that most vampiric rumors were actually invented by vampires themselves in order to trick potential victims into lowering their guard or use them as a proof of their humanity if they were forced to prove it. Vamps are still allergic to the sun, and their weakness to it actually increases with age. They have to sleep somewhere during the day, preferably underground, though Bill sleeps under old floorboards in his closet. Silver burns their skin and completely paralyzes them. In the first episode, Bill is essentially chained to the floor by a silver necklace draped across his wrists and neck.
 * They have some of the natural powers usually attributed to vampires like controlling human minds by looking at someone's eyes intensely or an impressive type 4 Healing Factor.
 * Staking and decapitation has definite death potential for a vampire. However, in contrast with most modern vampire stories where a staked vamp either turns to dust or simply drops dead, True Blood vampires explode in a fountain of blood and viscera when staked, leaving behind a disgusting, corn syrupy mess that's an absolute bitch to clean up.
 * Another major plot point of the series is the effect of vampire blood on humans. When drunk by a human who has been drained by the same vampire, the human in question will eventually become one too. However, when drunk by a human after suffering serious injuries, vampire blood has healing properties, and can rescue humans that have suffered severe (non-vampire-related) blood loss. Finally, when taken by humans as a narcotic (also known as V or V-juice), vampire blood has hallucinatory effects and leads to a greatly increased libido. However, Jason takes too much of the stuff and suffers a vicious case of priapism. Don't know what that is? Good.
 * The vampires also need a formally worded invitation before they can enter a human residence, and said invitation can be rescinded at any time, whereupon the vampire gets picked up and physically hurled from the house by an invisible forcefield.
 * Drinking fairy blood gives a vampire temporary immunity to sunlight and it can have similar effects on vampires as V does to humans.
 * Vampires in Sanctuary once ruled the world due to being better than humans in pretty much every way (getting thrown off a skyscraper fails to faze one). Eventually the other species rose up and wiped them out but their genes lived on in a few families. Nikola Tesla accidentally turned himself into one when he injected the last remaining vampire blood into himself. They have spikes that come out of their fingers, hugely dilated eyes and ignore sunlight.
 * These vampires cannot be staked. In his first appearance, Tesla was impaled against a cave wall and was mildly annoyed (ruined a good suit). He was then impaled by Druitt's hand and was thought to have been killed until revealed to have survived. Explosions, especially of the nuclear kind, work well, though.
 * There's also more to turning a human into a vampire than a simple bite. Tesla worked for decades trying to figure out how to make more like him without the source blood.
 * Koishite Akuma (The Loving Demon) is a Japanese vampire drama similar to Twilight: the new boy in town is a budding vampire who falls in love with a human at school and struggles with his urges to guzzle blood and sleep in coffins.
 * The lore of The Vampire Diaries takes some major turns from other vampire tales.
 * Vampires can subsist off animal blood, but are stronger, have better senses, and have more abilities when they regularly consume human blood. They're supernaturally fast and strong, and only get stronger with age. They also have greatly enhanced senses of hearing and smell and the ability to compel people. Vampires can even erase memories if they've been drinking enough human blood. When affected with bloodlust they grow fangs eyes and their eyes get veiny. To top this off, they can turn their feelings and emotions on and off as they please, which lets them be as moral as is convenient.
 * As for weaknesses, crosses, silver, and holy water aren't a problem, but any kind of wood implement causes pain. Although garlic doesn't affect them, vampires have a weakness to the plant vervain, but they can build up an immunity if exposed to small amounts over a long period of time. When humans wear vervain they can't be compelled or have their memories erased. Vervain is also toxic to vampires; contact causes pain, and ingesting or having it injected causes pain and paralysis. Drinking the blood of someone who's recently consumed vervain has the same effects of consuming vervain itself. They must also be invited at least once into dwellings with living inhabitants before they can enter, but killing the inhabitants also works. While they're still vulnerable to direct sunlight, indirect sunlight doesn't do them any harm and a few vampires even have special rings that allow them to walk during the day. The rings need to be enchanted by witches and the original creator can remove the ring's conferred sunlight immunity at any time they choose. Werewolves are the natural enemies of vampires, and their bites are horribly lethal.
 * To turn someone into a vampire they must first drink vampire blood and then die, but they're not out of the woods just yet. After death they will be in a stage called "transition" which lasts about a day before the person in question either dies or chooses to drink human blood and thus completes the "transition", becoming a full vampire. On top of this, drinking vampire blood causes humans to gain a temporary sort of Healing Factor. The reverse is true for vampires, who ordinarily have a Healing Factor (they can even regenerate their eyes), but heal even faster after consuming human blood.
 * Blakes Seven had black-clad, emotionless super-troopers called Mutoids who nevertheless could get upset if one called them vampires. Oh, and they sometimes fed by sucking the blood out of humans.
 * The vamps in My Babysitter's a Vampire have most of the strengths and weaknesses of the standard vamps but can go out in sunlight, although they wear sunglasses. They can't change shape but can fly.
 * Earth: Final Conflict has introduces the Atavus (again) in its final season. Unlike the other 2 times they introduced them, these Atavus look very similar to humans (but with slight animalistic characteristics) and do not possess the Shaqarava - an organ possessed by several species (and Liam Kincaid) that allows energy to be channeled through the palms. They have extendable glowing claws that, apparently, rip into the victim's soul and drain the life force. This is their main method of feeding. Projectile weapons have no effect on the Atavus due to their Healing Factor and semi-Energy Being nature. Energy weapons work fairly well, though, although you're unlikely to get a One-Hit Kill, except with the Hand Cannons introduced in the series finale. The Atavus cannot turn a human into one of them. However, they can use their stasis pods to turn a human into a human/Atavus hybrid. They can (and need to) feed as the Atavus but look human. They are also loyal to their masters. Being aliens, the Atavus are not repelled by any vampire wards. It's also mentioned that the Atavus don't need to feed on living beings on their homeworld.
 * In Blood Ties, vampires have some of the traditional weaknesses but none of the others. Sunlight burns (all vampires instinctively know when dawn is near), blood is necessary (although killing isn't), turning is done via the drink/give blood method, a vampire can be killed with a stake to the heart (or by punching through the heart with a first), and religious symbols are useless. Vampires are fast and strong. They can also hypnotize, although this, for some reason, fails to work on Vicki (possibly, due to her poor eyesight). All vampires are extremely territorial. It's almost impossible for two vampires to be in the same city without killing each other (unless the city is very big, then two or more vampires may divide it amongst themselves). This biological mechanism keeps the vampire population low. The territoriality only develops after about 6 months, allowing the newly-turned vampire to learn from his or her maker before being forced to leave. The only known way of incapacitating a vampire appears to be the Iluminación del Sol, a Chinese-made device that incapacitates a vampire when pressed into his or her chest.
 * Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger: Comic relief simian-looking villain Totbat is a vampire. He doesn't need blood, given that he's never drank it even once, but he wants to. Sunlight has no ill effect on him or anything, and the fact that he's a vampire only comes up one time. In fact, it was such a minor aspect that it was dropped from his Mighty Morphin Power Rangers counterpart Baboo.
 * Since Kryptonite Is Everywhere in Smallville, it makes perfect sense that a girl named Buffy Sanders in a vampire sorority was bitten by a mutated bat from a cave with meteor-rock infected stalactites. She is vaporized by Lana, who gained heat vision after biting Clark. There is also a cure for this.
 * Forever Knight's vampires are rather traditional in many ways. They are vulnerable to fire, sunlight,garlic, stakes and crosses (and other holy objects...the Egyptian sun disk affected Divia the same way as a cross would have) They can fly and have a sort of infrared heat vision when vamped out. They get yellow eyes when vamped out. Usually they don't show up in mirrors, but Nick does due to his humanity (and budget constraints). He also has something of a tolerance where holy objects are concerned,though not for long. Turning, or 'bringing accross' requires the usual mutual blood exchange. And a newborn vamp that eats something other than human gets fixated on that species, and they're called a carouche. The vampirism is mostly scientific, related to a alteration in DNA or RNA, and at least one drug can reverse it, but it creates an addiction to the drug then. It's also possible to become human through a process involving a bond with a human, and a severe emotional trauma. They share a mindlink with sires, siblings and children that lets them sense their presence. And they can survive as an essence if there's evil energy around and revive, like Divia did. Oh, and apparently, drinking animal blood will feed them, but it leaves them a bit weaker than their human-drinking counterparts. They have a strict code of masquerade maintenance as well.
 * In one episode of the horror anthology series Monsters, a couple of teenage boys investigate the local barbershop, noticing that the barbers have been around for a very long time without aging and that customers sneak in carrying large bottles of blood. One of them is convinced that the barbers are vampires, while his friend (the narrator who is recounting this tale from his youth to a barber) thinks he's nuts. It turns out that the barbers aren't vampires, but they are in league with one. The barbers explain to the narrator that vampires used to be the stereotypical monsters seen in classic horror films, but over the centuries they have become giant near-immobile leeches. The barbers of the world are the vampires' caretakers -- they and their customers give large quantities of their own blood to the vampires in exchange for small quantities of the vampires' blood which allows humans to live for a very long time (hence why the barbers don't seem to age). The barbers try to convince the narrator and his friend to join them by letting them taste their master's blood. In the present day, it's shown that the two accepted the offer.