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Vampires have been an eternal force in Hollywood horror since silent-movie days, yet they have risen to new heights as the "Twilight" franchise, TV's "True Blood" and other incarnations put the bite on viewers.
In studio flicks, independent and foreign-language films and small-screen series, there are more bloodsuckers out there today than you can shake a wooden stake at.
With so many vampires afoot, will Hollywood's favorite night creatures lose their flavor with fans?
"Will there be a vampire glut? Will the vampire market crash? I don't know," said Chris Weitz, director of this month's "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," part two in the movie series based on Stephenie Meyer's vampire-romance novels. "It's kind of the only growth industry in America, that I can tell."
So many of Dracula's brethren are being sired nowadays that Weitz and his brother have dueling vampire films out this fall.
Paul Weitz's "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" opened last month, with John C. Reilly as a centuries-old bloodsucker in a traveling freak show.
Along with "True Blood," recent TV bloodsucker sagas include "The Vampire Diaries," "Blood Ties," "Moonlight" and Britain's "Young Dracula" and "Being Human."
Among recent and upcoming big-screen stories are "Blood: The Last Vampire," the horror comedy "Transylmania," Ethan Hawke's vampire Armageddon thriller "Daybreakers" and foreign-language vamp tales such as Sweden's "Let the Right One In" and South Korea's "Thirst."
"Twilight" leads the way, its love story between an immortal vampire stud (Robert Pattinson) and a sensitive schoolgirl (Kristen Stewart) proving irresistible to teen and older audiences alike.
So far, fans seem willing to devour as many vampire stories as Hollywood can dish out.
"The truth is, you can't have too many vampire movies, just like you can't have too many zombie movies. Each movie is capable of being allegories for different things," said "Cirque du Freak" star Reilly.
While their popularity may ebb and flow, vampires always will have a place in the audience's heart, said Nicolas Cage, who starred in 1989's "Vampire's Kiss" and was a producer on 2000's "Shadow of the Vampire."
"The vampire is always going to be fascinating," Cage said. "It's like the vigilante cop, or it's like the cowboy or the Western. It's part of the fabric of society."
