Did you realize that Dracula is the most depicted character in popular culture? His pale, bloodthirsty persona has featured in over 540 films, numerous books, comics, stage plays, and television series, inspiring a plethora of other vampire narratives and franchises. Regardless of how many times he meets his demise, he continues to reappear, increasingly powerful and more beloved than ever. We are here to explain why.

Although Dracula experienced only moderate popularity during Stoker’s era, his themes of societal dread toward “The Foreign Other” (someone distinctly different from ourselves) and women’s independence have become a recurring motif throughout all subsequent adaptations.

Regardless of how much our society has progressed over the past 130 years, so have our anxieties. It’s how Dracula represents these anxieties that I find to be the most captivating features of the contemporary vampire, and what ensures his continual return in various manifestations. For us humans, grappling with the everyday existential dilemma of our mortality, what could be more enticing than the chance to outsmart death and revel in the promise of an everlasting life filled with luxury and pleasure?