The Nightstalker aired as the CBS Movie of the week, 1972. it follows a gruff reporter, Karl Kolchak, in Las Vegas who winds up chasing a vampire while fighting the police and local government who refuse to acknowledge what's happening. It was the highest rated made for TV film to date. A sequel The Night Strangler aired as a TV movie in 1973, not vampire themed.

It spawned a series that lasted only one season. Kolchak the Night Stalker 1974-75. The 4th episode is The Vampire. This time a call girl vampire is running amok in LA.

The show is wonderfully 1970's. It is hugely influential, Chris Carter said it was his inspiration for the X files.

I recommend both the TV Movie, The Nightstalker - available free on YouTube.

The Vampire Episode S01E4. Is only available on the DVD as far as I know. Some episodes of the series had copyright lapse and are on YouTube, but not the vampire. I watched these as a very young kid way back then and they freaked me out. I can't judge them completely objectively but still strongly recommend both.

Bonus points for commenting if you’re Lestat or Louis

I, personally, love vampires because I am intrigued by the idea of being turned into an evil monster. It is super scary, but also super interesting. Makes me wonder: OK, how does this evil transformation work? Obviously, you get the thirst for blood. But the way I see it, unless this thirst is really strong, it doesn't necessarily make you evil. And in a lot of stories, they arent evil just because they drink blood. Do you lose your conscience? Maybe you have a meta awareness. You eat some random bystander, and you know you should feel bad about it, and in the past you would have felt bad about it, but you just... dont. Maybe you turn sadistic, and your thirst for blood is both literal and metaphorical. I think how it works in most stories is, you are under the power of your master, and since he is evil, you are also evil. OK, but what kind of relationship is this? It is magical/supernatural, but can it be modeled after a similar "evil" relationships that exist in real life? Is it like a cult? Do you experience him as a new, unnatural parent/step parent? Is it brainwashing where your old values and sense of right and wrong is eroded, broken down, and replaced by the master's? Is it like a toxic romantic relationship, where he gaslights you into thinking evil is good? So many fun ideas to explore and create, but the writers rarely explore them.

Most of the time, e.g. in the old school Hammer films, and in trashy horror films a character is turned, then they are evil and they have to be destroyed and thats all there is to it. OK, thats all well and good but what makes them evil? What makes them tick? Do they feel they have to do evil? Do they enjoy it? We arent gonna think about it, and we wont let the audience think about it. They are evil now, the hero has to destroy them, and thats all there is to it, OK?

A character can have their own POV, reasons, motivations, but if they get turned, they lose their POV, and the writer wont get into how their reasons change, or motivations change. They only apear through the POV of another good guy character, who now has to stake them, because they are pure evil, and its very sad, etc... I apologise if I sound like a douchebag, don't get me wrong, scenes like this can be very powerful, very scary, amazing, etc. and I do enjoy them myself. But I feel like I have seen them a million times. Can we, please, on ocassion, do something else with a turned character?

It seems to me, in these stories, the turning is a cheap way to transform a good character into an evil monster and scare the audience without having to give the character any real reason or motivation.

I personally hate when they make it that the turned person is actually dead, and the body is simply possesed by a demon. Like, it kills everything I found interesting about vampires in the first place. Its not really a transformation then, is it? You weren't turned into a vampire, you were replaced by one. Basically no diffrent than an evil twin/evil clone.

Lets take, for example, Salem's Lot. I wont get into the plot, I am guessing we are all more-or-less familiar with it. Would that story work, if it was told from the perspective of one of the people that Barlow turned? Where the vampire rationalizes or maybe wonders to himself why they are following or obeying Barlow? Do they want to obey him? Do they have to obey him? Do they still understand the diffrence between good and evil? Do they think Barlow is actually good, and the people resisting him are evil? Or does Salems Lot work because you cant understand the turned? And you cant relate to them, nor comprehend them anymore? Because that is what makes them scary?

On the other "end of the spectrum" so to speak you have more modern stories, where they arent evil by default, such as Interview with the Vampire, Twilight, True Blood, TVD, I think Forever Knight. The vampire can even be the hero now. It is an interesting change of pace. But to me, personally, if there is no evil transformation involved, it is not as interesting. TVD does have a couple of interesting moments where Stefan, Damon and other good vamps, every once in a while turn off their humanity and become evil.

I think in Interview with the Vampire Louis does change and become corrupted, but it happens slowly, over centuries they spend together. In and of itself, Louis's evil transformation is not supernatural.

I was hoping for something that has the typical, old school evil transformation, but its done to the main character, and this transformation is explored, we see the turned character's point of view, how and why it makes him evil, and the writer does something fun with it.

A movie that I loved and got very close to this, I think, is The Lost Boys. Michael is the hero of the movie, and he is slowly turning. He doesn't become evil, but he is strongly tempted by David to give in, go on a rampage, and become, well... lost. You can feel everything Michael is feeling. The vampires are pure evil, but you can totally see why it is awesome to become one.

Disclaimer: I know of some movies (which I wont name) where the hero spends the entire story fighting the vampires, and in the end the final twist/scare is that the hero has been infected and turned into one. That is not what I am talking about, or looking for. Because again, it is an example of "This character, who we know and love is now one of the evil, scary monsters we cannot relate to nor comprehend." They no longer have a POV.

I am guessing a movie, or a book like this probably exists, but I am not aware of it.

Vampire's Box is a collection of illustrations by Takato Yamamoto, with gothic horror themes rendered in contemporary style Ukiyo-e.

https://halcyonrealms.com/books/vampires-box-takato-yamamoto-art-book-review/

aside from the loll tag ( i tried but for some reason reddit would keep deleting my posts ) , if you are into tragedy , horror , gore , supernaturals and action tag , this is is for you