While there is no scientific evidence on the true existence of the fictional characters seen on TV, predatory beings that may behave similarly to vampires have existed in the past and may still exist. The story of Count Dracula, for example, is based on a true story about Vlad Tepes, otherwise known as Vlad the Impaler, who was the Prince of Wallachia and would punish his victims (the boyars of Wallachia) by using stakes to impale them. After killing his victims he would have them placed around him still on the stake while he sat there and ate his evening meal. He was said to have killed between 40,000 and 100,000 people this way. Vlad Tepes was not the only one committing such savage acts. Blood countess Elizabeth Bathory, who lived in today’s Slovakia, was said to have killed over 600 young girls and bathed in their blood to retain eternal youth. If these claims are true (she was convicted of 80 murders) she would be the most active female serial killer to have ever lived. Both tales of Vlad Tepes and Elizabeth Bathory were many times compared to modern day interpretations of vampirism, since both dealt with savage acts against human beings and included excessive bloodletting that was part of the cruel rituals of both persons. Both stories also played in the Balkan regions, which led to associations with the Transylvanian birth place of Count Dracula. Therefore, it is not the fictional vampire characters we should fear, but everyday individuals with psychopathic capacities. Individuals who blend so perfectly into our society that nobody suspects them. Individuals who are true predators and are able to get away with their bloodlust by behaving like social chameleons. Many former killers who were caught have expressed an obsession with the victims blood and even admitted to being sexually aroused by seeing the victims bleed to death. There have also been psychopathic serial killers who have killed persons (including children), drank their blood, and ate parts of their bodies or organs (i.e. the heart). In fact, many serial killers obsessed with victims’ blood there thus dubbed “vampire killers” and a connection was always made with lust and sexual excitement from drinking others’ blood or basking in it. So to answer your question of what I think of vampires, well I think that the fictional characters depicted in movies and TV shows are not real. However, the concept of the vampire was certainly based on the truly horrendous personalities of the numerous psychopaths who have committed unspeakable crimes against humankind in the past and continue to do so in the present. These crimes may be so unbelievably cruel that we wish to impose such violent behavior only on supernatural creatures influenced by Satan.