Vampires better looking, thanks to Hollywood

Despite living on-and-off for centuries and sticking to an iron-rich diet, vampires — once long in the tooth, ears and fingernails — have never looked better.

They can credit their makeover to Hollywood.

Nosferatu no more, vampires, with their rosier cheeks and their fuller frames, are appearing more often this Halloween and more mortal-like.

What's not to like?

"They were people to begin with," says vampire enthusiast Patricia Grim, 19, of Medford, N.J., who has a bat tattoo on her foot. "They just let their human side out, which is kind of scary. All of their emotions are heightened. It's just making a human 10 times stronger in their emotions and feelings. That's how I look at it."

The transfer of power between the vampire and the innocents it feeds on has been a source of intrigue, of metaphor and of pop culture for years, especially this one.

Nina Auerbach, an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania, touched on the many faces of the vampire in her 1997 book, "Our Vampires, Ourselves," tracing an evolution that predates the Victorian Age with modern versions ranging from Bram Stoker's "Dracula" to the kind Buffy slays.

The vein had to run dry, she thought.

"I just didn't think there could be any more vampires," says Auerbach, a Center City Philadelphia resident. "They had to stop. It had to take a rest. But I was wrong. There are a lot of new vampires. They never die."

Auerbach credits Anne Rice, author of such Goth classics as "Interview with the Vampire" and "Queen of the Damned," for portraying vampires as timeless, romantic figures and for revamping the vampire-horror genre.

"She made them closer and closer to gods," Auerbach says. "In earlier vampire stories they're disgusting. They're walking corpses and instinctive blood drinkers. They're close to our idea of zombies."

More vampires have crossed over from bloodstream to mainstream and to open arms.

More than 100,000 people lined up outside bookstores across the country on Aug. 2 to celebrate the midnight release of "Breaking Dawn," the fourth installment of Stephenie Myer's "Twilight" series of vampire-themed books.

Grim was No. 104 of the estimated 400 fans — some of whom came dressed in full vampire garb — who staked out the Borders store in Mount Laurel and bought one of the 1.3 million copies on opening day.

She plans to do it again for the Nov. 21 premiere of "Twilight."