One thing I've always loved about vampire stories is that there are no hard rules. Vampires can be whatever the author wants them to be as long as they're internally consistent within the story. This makes them extremely versatile monsters that can be constantly re-invented and none of them are "wrong".
For example, sometimes all it takes to turn into a vampire is to be bitten by one. And sometimes you have to drink the vampire's blood to turn. Or, sometimes a vampire can just drain your energy without transferring any blood at all.
Of course, the rules can also get a bit ridiculous. Maybe the vampire is required to obsessively count grains of rice first. Or maybe they're required to hop around with their arms out (the chinese Jiangshi). Maybe they can turn into a wolf, a bat, or... fog.
So what's the most ridiculous rule or type of vampire you've come across?
(For the image on this post I wanted the most ridiculous picture of a Jiangshi I could find. I went with a shot from Robo Vampire which has a really fun RiffTrax. The only other Jiangshi I'm aware of is in the NES game Phantom Fighter... because I've never watched any of the Mr. Vampire movies)
The counting objects thing was funny when they used it in that X-Files episode. Basically trying to make a lot of the goofy lore seem plausible through science, so the vampires all had OCD and they slow one down by just dropping a box of pens or something that the vampire had to stop and pickup while counting. lol
The other one I've only seen used twice (Buffy the Vampire Slayer the movie and in Soul Reaver) is that vampires can't cross running water. In Buffy, she stops a bunch of vampires chasing her by turning on a hose which prevented them from crossing the stream of running water along the ground.
Aren't the two or them part of the old myth of the generic bad spirit? Like, the shoe stuff that I don't remember clearly. I'm pretty sure there is something about the running water in Dracula. That's why somebody had to make it cross. He can't simply take the ferry.
Dang, idk... I haven't read Dracula since, like, the 4th grade and I kinda hated the format of the book just being basically letters the characters wrote. I barely remember anything specifically from it.
I remember the buffy thing cuz it was funny and soul reaver because it's kind of a big mechanic (you can only enter water when in soul form otherwise it's basically a bottomless pit that kills you).
I don't think I'd watched Buffy up to this specific episode.
If you want to give another try to Dracula we are currently reading in one letter at the time :-) that change the chronologie of the story and it help build the tension. We haven't read a hundred pages yet and we have a break until June the 18th.
Anyway vampires are very fun because there is so much to read or watch, you don't have to commit to anything you dislike.
It was from the movie, not the TV series. Movie isn't nearly as good as the show.