When I was growing up in the eighties, vampires were scary.

Can you relate? At one time, vampires were monsters, undead that existed only to drink your blood. They were soulless killers existing in the dark, maybe standing outside the window watching as you prepared for bed, ignorant to their presence. Maybe the monsters needed invited in, maybe they didn’t.

To become a vampire meant to give up your soul, to hunger night after night, to kill your loved ones and not care. Maybe you’d be something mindless, driven by bloodlust, or maybe a tiny part of you would still exist, knowing what you had become yet victim of a personality shift. I picture Lucy from Dracula, the monstrous bride, or Michael from Lost Boys, fighting his urge for blood. Good stuff.

And for me, that made vampires scary.

And then something happened.

It has always been there, our society’s efforts to humanize our monsters. As a kid, I didn’t see it at first. Yet finding something frightening also meant it fascinated me.

It’s hard not to be jaded by vampires. It’s hard to fear something that eventually becomes so romanticized that the metaphors are portrayed literally. For those of us still searching for vampire horror, sometimes you have to block out the mainstream. It’s still there, in the dark, waiting. Vampires can still be monsters.

This post is sponsored by my vampire serial, Spilling Blood. It is a blending of what I like about vampires and what I found scary. They can get in your head. They are supernaturally fast. They have no remorse.

Season I of Spilling Blood is available now. Season II begins Monday, August 25^th.