How Three Stories Turned Vlad the Impaler into a Billion Dollar Vampire
From Prince to Monster to Vampire in three acts.
Vampires are hard to kill — decapitation and a wooden stake to the heart work best. Legends of vampires have been terrifying us since the 17th century. The true horror of the stories isn’t the fanged vampires themselves but what they force you to become, an undead shadow with insatiable bloodlust.
The man thought to have been the inspiration for Count Dracula, Vlad III, has been haunted by the undying reputation of being nothing but a cruel monster, but there’s more to the man than just stakes and blood.
The tale of how a medieval prince became the vampire king of a multi-billion dollar industry is composed of three separate stories written in three different centuries. One demonized Vlad into the Impaler. The next turned him into Count Dracula, and the third combined the two, stigmatizing him beyond the grave and cementing his legacy as one of the most blood-thirsty men to have ever lived.
Dracula: The Undying Cash Cow
If you’re short on time before your next Halloween party, throw on a cape and don some cheap plastic fangs. You are instantly one of the most recognizable monsters on the planet. Everyone knows Dracula — he…
