Dracula's Children

Dracula spawned an entire genre. Nosferatu (1922) was an unauthorized adaptation so close to the novel that Stoker's widow sued successfully, though prints survived. Bela Lugosi's 1931 portrayal established the cape-and-accent template. Christopher Lee's Hammer Horror films added explicit sexuality.

Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire made the vampire sympathetic and beautiful. Buffy the Vampire Slayer turned the genre feminist. Twilight made vampires romantic leads. Each reimagining proves Stoker created not just a character but an infinitely adaptable myth — a container into which each era pours its deepest anxieties about desire, death, and the strangers at the door.