In ancient egypt, it was believed that the dead would sometimes return from the
 afterworld, walking the night and where they would occasionally steal the lives of
 unlucky villagers. In this world that viewed the pharoahs as gods, the "undead" were
 just a fact of life.

 The vampire was viewed very differently in Southeast Asia. The vampire was a demon
 who would visit victims as they slept, draining their life essence. It was widely believed
 that these monsters favored men as their prey, leading to a bizarre custom in which
 men would paint their nails and wear false eyelashes when they slept. By changing
 their appearance they believed they could trick the demons, saving their lives in the
 process.

 The more traditional version of the vampire legend originates in the mountain villages of
 Eastern Europe. Early recorded reports of vampire activity, sometimes referred to as
 plagues, date back to the 17th century Serbia. It seems the dead sometimes didn't
 stay dead. Individuals recently deceased were seen wandering the countryside. Like
 their Asian counterparts, these undead beings would often visit others while they slept,
 sometimes killing them. The local lore referred to them as "nosferatu".

 Unlike the cultured, cosmopolitan vampire that we see in the movies, these vampires
 were ragged and decomposed, and could turn their victims into vampires themselves.
 Eventually the "vampire epidemics" led to a practice in which bodies were dug up and
 "killed" by a wooden stake driven through the heart.

 The vampire legend really begins to take its modern shape in 1819, when The
 Vampyre was published. Attributed to Lord Byron, the story was later credited to Dr.
 Polidori, a sometime companion of Byron's. The main character, Lord Ruthven, is an
 aristocrat whose enchantment and manipulation of women sets a tone that carries
 through to today: The vampire as a sexual creature.

 Probably the most famous story of the undead can be found within the pages of
 Dracula, by Bram Stoker. It is Stoker's concept of the vampire - debonair, regal,
 predatory - that we have seen in the movies. It is this vampire that we have come to
 know.

 Anne Rice wrote of a slightly different vampire. A vampire capable of emotion, longing,
 even of pity. Her vampires remembered their mortal lives, lived by a code, and even fell
 in love.

 Even though there are many views of the vampire and its nature, one thing is certain:
 Mankind has been obsessed with the undead for centuries. The legend of the vampire
 lurks in the shadows of our imaginations, filling our hearts with fear.