What's the deal with vampires? They are everywhere.

Why are we so fascinated by them? Why do we go through these cycles where vampires becomes a cultural obsession?

And why have they kept hold of our imagination for centuries?

Why does a creature who once existed in some medieval castle in Eastern Europe still burn up the best-seller charts and rake in the biggest take of the weekend box office?

Of course vampires have changed a lot through the centuries.

Once hideous and terrifying and tied into the most primitive ideas about life and death, they are now beautiful and misunderstood. Being undead seems more an alternative lifestyle than a dark, tortured existence.

And more than ever, vampires are great looking teenagers and 20-somethings who are actually hundreds of years old. Maybe that's why Hollywood loves them so much. Being undead is better than yet another face lift, right?

The entertainment industry keeps churning them out.

This week at the movies, it's "The Vampire's Assistant: Cirque du Freak," which critics are saying is a wry and witty look at the world of vampires.

The world breathlessly awaits "New Moon," the follow-up to the box office hit, "Twilight."

Both are based on the series of books by Stephanie Meyer about high schooler Bella and 104-year-old but still young looking Edward, the vampire she falls in love with in the eternally overcast town of Forks, Washington.

It's not easy loving a vampire.

Just think about it. Get Edward too excited making out and your relationship — and you — could be over.

"Twilight" has been a publishing phenomenon. Adolescent girls, in particular, love it.

Television has been overloading on vampires, too, again geared to the younger crowd.

There's "The Vampire Diaries" on the CW and "True Blood" on HBO. Of course, both have more sex in them than vampire stuff.

Sex has always been a part of the vampire legends, part of their enduring appeal. Sex, life, death — it's all roiled together.

Not that Bela Lugosi, the world's most famous vampire, was very sexy. But those scenes where he bites a young virginal woman's neck were supposed to be sexy.

At least he was better looking than the vampire from the 1922 silent film, "Nosferatu."

That was no beautiful troubled teen there.

It was Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire," published in 1976, that began to change the vampire genre.

Lestat and Louis were misunderstood. Nasty killers? Maybe, but troubled and trapped for all eternity. And quite handsome.

But when you go back deep into history, vampires were not misunderstood. They were evil. And they were hideous to look at and, in some legends, smelled worse than they looked.

Take the Garkain of Australia's Northern Territories.

He has bat-like wings and swoops from trees and wraps his wings around unwary victims who first choke on his foul stench and then slowly suffocate, leaving the Garkain to consume their flesh and condemn their spirits to wander for all eternity.

So if you want a good scare on Halloween, think about him while all the kids dress up as beautiful, misunderstood vampires.

jholahan@lnpnews.com