Wampyr

I think we're all familiar with the story of vampires. Some creepy guy sucks the blood of some buxom young woman and just when he is about to be discovered he turns into a bat and flies off into the night.
Well, maybe not. A lot of the movies and books out today have very little to do with Bram Stoker's idea of vampires. The 'Underworld' movies features vampires that are like the classic vampire except that they are suffering from a virus that has been passed down from the first vampire to them. 'Ultraviolet' also has virus vampires, but this time from a human-made virus. 'You Suck', has traditionally created vampires, but it's a comedy so the vampires aren't the mysterious, super sexy types. There are several pop literature series about vampires in everyday life, my favorite is about a young woman living in Minnesota as a vampire with a very healthy sex-life. Of course, there also the Anne Rice novels, which are very traditional in their handling of vampires, and quite well-written to boot. There are the "blood" genre movies, like 'John Carpenter's Vampires' and the 'Dusk till Dawn' movies. Vampires in these films are only fodder for the heroes to kill. And of course, there are the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' movie and television series (not to mention card game and role playing game). The Buffy franchise is very similar to the "blood" genre, but less gore and more humor.
There are a ton of vampire-as-hero stories. The 'Blade' trilogy, 'Love At First Bite', 'Dark Knight' (the television series not the Batman movie), a series of books set in Autralia after vampires have been "outed". These movies, television shows and books (along with some in the previous paragraph) go out of their way to show "humane" vampires. Vampires have found a way to survive while not feeding on the blood of the innnocent. These vampires spend their time trying to "do good" to make up for past transgressions.
A common thread through all of these movies is a general lack of horror at vampires. In most of them, the vampires are killers. But everyone either wants to be one or to kill one. Often the vampire killers are as blood-thirsty and horrible as the vampires they are hunting.
I haven't read 'Twilight' yet, or seen the movie, but I suspect that it doesn't break the mold.
Now, I'm not saying that any of these films or books or television series are bad, though undoubtedly some are. But, none of them come close to the original, 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker. Actually, the movie 'Bram Stoker's Dravula' was pretty decnt and came reasonably close to creating the same kind of horror as the book. There is the Willem Defoe movie, 'Shadow of the Vampire' which does a reasonable job of creating mystery and suspense and is pretty decent, too. And of course, there is the classic film, 'Nosferatu' from the early days of the cinema that does a good job of evoking the dread that is Dracula.
I really do enjoy Anne Rice and the Underworld movies, though. I'm just looking for something darker.