They are known as the eternal dead and have around the industry for many years. From the classic character of Nosferatu to the pop culture phenomenon Twilight, vampires had a lasting power in Hollywood that has seen them rise and fall over the years. They have been adapted in different types and settiings but one thing is clear: they still have the power to lure their audience.

“Will there be a vampire glut? Will the vampire market crash? I don’t know,” said Chris Weitz, director of November’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.”

Vampires have been hardy souls on screen for ages, dating back to 1920s and ’30s classics such as “Nosferatu,” “Vampyr” and the original “Dracula,” with Bela Lugosi. Dracula has been played by countless actors, among them Lon Chaney Jr., Christopher Lee, Frank Langella and Gary Oldman.

Movies and shows such as “The Lost Boys” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” transfused teen power to vampire tales, helping to open the current vein of hip, pretty young dead things in the genre.

“What’s particular about them now is it’s coinciding with the optimum market for TV and film. It’s that young market, it’s kind of the `Dawson’s Creek’ thing,” said Michael Sheen, who co-stars as the vampire Aro in the “Twilight” sequel and played a werewolf in the “Underworld” vampire franchise. “Whereas in the past, I don’t think that has been the case. The symbol of vampires has never quite hit that marketing gold.”

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” opens Friday, with John C. Reilly as a centuries-old bloodsucker in a traveling freak show.

While vampires have a strong pulse in Hollywood, some expect the genre could bleed out from overexposure.

“Sometimes there are trends with audiences and with film studios, TV stations, and they go wild, and they run like lemmings in one direction until they go over the cliff,” said Werner Herzog, who directed 1979’s “Nosferatu the Vampyre.” “The genre of vampire films in its darkness and in its nightmarish aspect is a genre that will be forever, but sometimes, you have an overload, an overkill, and when the heap gets too, too big, everybody starts to turn away.”

To read the rest of the article, click on the link above to head over to Associated Press.

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