91Èȱ¬

This child vampire, created by chief bloodsucker Lestat in Anne Rice's cult 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire (and played by an 11-year-old Kirsten Dunst in the 1994 film adaptation), looks sweet and innocent, but isn't. Claudia is a fully formed adult, trapped in the body of a small girl for eternity, which she finds somewhat annoying. This drives an insatiable thirst for the red stuff that leads to a great deal of blood-draining. Proceed with caution.

Dru (to her friends, of which there aren't too many) is just one of the vampires that Buffy fails to slay on a regular basis. This former nun is part of a bizarre love parallelogram with Buffy, Spike and Angel, which all gets a bit complicated. Slightly crazed, perpetually bloodthirsty, mildly psychic and able to slit throats using just a sharpened fingernail, she's unpredictable and quite kooky. A sort of 'manic pixie dream girl' with some Hannibal Lecter thrown in for good measure. She also possesses a slightly disarming cockney accent.

Carmilla – Carmilla

A vampire pioneer! A vampioneer! Sheridan Le Fanu's ground-breaking Carmilla, published in 1872, predated Dracula by many years. The titular character displays many vampiric traits that have continued to be a motif: undead, likes a spot of blood now and again, not a fan of stakes. Though Carmilla occasionally turns into a cat rather than a bat. So close.

Portrayed by the brilliant Natasia Demetriou, Nadja is the perpetually bored, romantically frustrated, fairly rubbish vampire living in contemporary New York in the TV spin-off of the 2014 mockumentary movie What We Do in the Shadows. In her human form, she was raised in a Greek village that was attacked by marauders with most of the populous slain but only the 'stupidest' spared. Which may explain a lot. She also claims to have co-written various 'seafaring songs' that later inspired The Beach Boys' Kokomo and The Spice Girls' Wannabe. Which may be a vampiric first.

Peta Wilson as Mina Harker in the 2003 movie adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman

Mina Harker/Murray – Dracula

Poor Mina has had quite a complicated fictional life, as the various versions of the Dracula story have been told and retold. In Bram Stoker's original, it's Mina that drives the story forward, deciphering the vampire's evil plans before being vengefully attacked by Drac. But Dracula is killed before Mina can go full vamp. In the many film adaptations, Mina tends to be the victim, seduced by Dracula's charms and saved by her boyfriend/husband/father/passing farmhand. So let's remember her in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book series. Mina (now using her maiden name of Murray) has been promoted to a suffragist and an immortal, leading the League to protect the world from various fictional baddies and generally being far more badass.

Miriam – The Hunger

If you like your vampires classy, then may we direct you towards the incomparable Catherine Deneuve in Tony Scott's flashy, sexy and VERY 1980s vampire movie The Hunger. Deneuve plays Miriam, who has not only been a bloodsucker since Ancient Egyptian times, she's also married to actual David Bowie! Again, these undead lovers are in contemporary New York (probably best to avoid NYC if you don't like vampires) preying on the city’s beautiful people. For added goth allure, the band Bauhaus also appear.

Eli – Let the Right One In

Swede John Ajvide Lindqvist's 2004 novel (adapted into a 2008 film by Tomas Alfredson) concerns Oskar, a bullied 12-year-old in Stockholm who befriends an odd girl called Eli who moves in next door. And yes, you guessed it, Eli is a vampire, who needs blood to survive. Luckily, Oskar can recommend plenty of potential victims, namely the ne'er-do-wells who have been ruining his life at school. And so a very strange meet-cute commences.

The Girl – A Girl Walks 91Èȱ¬ Alone at Night

Described as a 'Persian language horror western' this 2014 film by Ana Lily Amirpour is set in a fictional Iranian underworld called Bad City that is populated by very bad people. Thankfully there's a friendly unnamed vampire who patrols the streets wearing a chador and dispatches the worst of the worst, while spending her downtime skateboarding. It's a beautiful, exceptional film that completely transports and transforms the vampire myth.

Katherine/Katerina – The Vampire Diaries

This Noughties US teen drama series – based on the novels by LJ Smith – was a bit like a spooky 90210. It featured Elena (played by Nina Dobrev) who lives in Mystic Falls and accidentally falls in love with a vampire called Stefan resulting in various odd things occurring. This odd stuff includes the appearance of a troublesome vampire called Katherine (or Katerina to her fellow undead pals) who is Elena's doppelganger (and also played by Dobrev). Obviously high jinks ensue when Elena and Katherine are in close quarters and attempting to date/feast on the various hunks housed in the town. Many fans preferred the volatile Katherine to the more placid Elena.

Follow the adventures of another formidable female vampire by listening to the full series of English Rose here.