When discussing vampire genre we must first try to define what a genre is. A genre is a particular type of media commodity. It has certain features and characteristics that are recognised by audiences because is repeatedly used. However, they can never clearly be defined as there is never a set definition to one genre. There is what the audience expects which is quite often for filled but in addition to that there is sometimes new innovations introduced in a genre which the audience are willing to accept.

Although Bram Stoker did not invent the notion of the vampire, his book Dracula

is probably the model on which the vampire genre is based. The myth of the vampire being an un-dead creature that roamed the night drinking the blood of the living goes back to ancient Greek times. However Stoker introduced a number of more particular conventions that are usually followed in the vampire genre even today.

First published in 1897, the story is told through the diaries of a young solicitor, Jonathan Harker, his fiancee Mina, her friend Lucy Westenra and Dr John Seward, t

As vampire genre has become very old television and film companies are appealing to a wider audience by making films about vampires that appeal and are suitable for older children and teenagers. The Lost Boys was probably one of the first films to do this is as it had a fifteen certificate so older teenagers could see it and it was about teenaged vampires. It also contained fashions and a soundtrack that would have appealed to teenagers at the time. Another film to do this was Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The film is about a young teenaged girl who finds out she has been born a vampire slayer. However she is a blonde 'air head' and does not want to accept her job as a slayer. Eventually she comes round and begins her new job as a slayer of vampires. She has super human strength and can easily beat vampires in hand to hand combat. The film itself was not that popular but it now has it's own television series and has it's own cult following of adults and children. It especially appeals to teenagers because it is about teenagers and has attractive people has the main characters including Sarah Michelle Geller as Buffy and Angel, her good vampire boyfriend.

As vampire fiction as been around for over a hundred years the conventions of the genre have to be added to, edited or a combination of the two in order for audiences to keep on seeing the films and reading the books as, if they never changed audiences would lose interest.

The best known American contributor to the vampire genre is Anne Rice, the author of the Vampire Chronicles ( Interview with the Vampire, the Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, The tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil and Armand). The heroes of her books are Lestat de Lioncourt, Louis de Pointe du Lac and Armand. Interview with the Vampire is probably the most ground breaking addition to the genre because, in the film as well as the book, we get to see what it really would be like to be a vampire. In nearly all vampire fiction the vampires are evil and demon like. They enjoy being vampires and have lost all human qualities, sometimes as soon as they become vampires. However in I.w.t.V instead of chortling like they have got away with something before sneaking back to the big castle on the hill, we see that vampires have human qualities. We see through the eyes of Louis de Pointe du Lac a vampire who is unable to just accept that he is a killer and feels remorse and guilt every time he kills. He even feeds off the blood of rats for time until his lust for human blood becomes to great. In this film instead of hating the vampires and excitedly waiting for them to get staked, we empathise with the vampires and in the case of Claudia, a mature female vampire trapped in the body of a six year old, and Louis we even feel pity. It is this way of looking at the vampire genre which made the film so popular. It was vampire genre in a new light and was a interesting and different experience for the audience. As well as this the audience is introduced to new conventions which also made the film more interesting. The vampires in this film are not afraid of crosses and Louis even goes as far to say he is quite fond of them. Stakes and Garlic are also powerless and the only thing that can kill a vampire is direct sunlight and dismemberment of the head. Coffins are a must if only to protect them from the light and it is forbidden for a vampire to kill another vampire, an issue that has never been addressed before.

In The Lost Boys enters the new generic convention that once you have actually invited a vampire into your house it is

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