All vampires are not alike

If you think "Twilight" is the beginning of the vampire craze, you must be 12 years old.



In 1897, Bram Stoker wrote "Dracula," based on European folklore.



As soon as the motion picture was invented (there's debate on who did — Louis Lumiere, Thomas Edison, William Lincoln?), there was an image of Dracula on the screen.



One notable early film is "Nosferatu" in 1922. Later, in the 1930s, it was Bela Lugosi and in the 1960s, it was Christopher Lee, both playing Dracula.



These were pretty straightforward versions of the story.



Then there were the campy ones including "Blacula" starring William Marshall in 1972 and "Love at First Bite" starring George Hamilton in 1979.



There was a sort of drought and then the toothy villain came back. Gary Oldman played the Prince of Darkness in "Dracula," the one directed by Francis Ford Coppola, in 1992.



Others followed, including "Interview with the Vampire" with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise as vampire buddies in 1994, 1998's "John Carpenter's Vampires" and "Underworld" in 2003.



Last night, we watched "Dracula 2000" starring Gerard Butler as Dracula and Christopher Plummer as Van Helsing. It was just a little cheesy. OK, so it was a lot cheesy.



So you see kids, "Twilight" did not start the vampire craze at the movies.

This story was originally published July 19, 2010 at 11:15 PM with the headline "All vampires are not alike."