I've been rather drawn to vampire fiction over the last few years, although normally in the more mainstream manifestations. A short list consists of:

Moonlight
Blood Ties
The Blade films
Chronos (an early Guillermo Del Toro film)
A little bit of Anne Rice

Those are the ones that spring to mind. Are there any good vampire things that I should read or watch?

Well, Buffy, obviously. And more to the point, Angel.

I don't know what the Bloodrayne computer games were like, but the film was one of the worst I've ever seen, so avoid that.

John Carpenter's Vampires is not a bad film; 30 Days of Night is a great graphic novel, but I've not seen the film yet.

A Hunger Like Fire by Greg Stolze is game fiction for the role-playing game Vampire: The Requiem, but you don't really need to be familiar with White Wolf's take on vampires. It's a good read if you'd like your Anne Rice vampires to be a little less angsty (though only a little).

I don't know much about vampire fiction, but "Dracula" does jump quite readily to mind.

I've gone through the original 'Dracula', and felt thankful that we've learnt how to finish stories better these days!

Anne Rice: I liked the idea 'Interview...' but the writing was pretty ropey. I listened to an audio book version of Queen of the Damned and it seemed to be an idea beyond the ability of the author (although in fairness the audio book medium might not have suited the text, although I've very, very rarely found this to be a problem). I don't think I'll worry about Ms. Rice in the future unless I'm really desperate!

Buffy and Angel: great fun, but those were years ago and I'm looking for new blood

Bloodrayne: I heard about this being awful, and there's a sequel too!

30 Days of Night: Well reminded, I've been meaning to watch that one. It got mixed reviews when it was in the cinema, but I'm intrigued.

Other things I've remembered:

Ultraviolet (the superb Channel 4 six episode series)
Ultraviolet (the incredibly pretty and very lightweight film with Milla 'I always play genetically enhanced kick-arse women' Jocovich - I loved it, most people think it's not got enough story)
Underworld 1 & 2 (great silly films, despite being hideously miscast to my tastes)

I never really set out to deliberately watch/read vampire things, it just seems to have happened so I figure I might as well go with it!

Then read the comics!

Well. Read Buffy Season 8. The Angel: After the Fall comics are terrible, akin to fanfic and will completely ruin the excellence of season five. They're the only comics (excluding Fray (Slayer of the Future) and Tales of the Slayers - Fray is another recommendation) which are canon but Angel isn't worth it.

Plus, the cover art for Buffy is consistantly beautiful.

I read a few of the online versions. I didn't know that there was an eighth season in comic form. I'll have to check that out. Thanks!

I saw 30 Days Of Night awhile ago with some friends. I thought the movie was pretty decent, but the second time I saw (last weekend) I fell asleep half-way into the movie.

Yes yes yes! On to #12 at the moment. A fair few written by Joss Whedon, but also arcs from Brian K Vaughn (Runaways, Y: The Last Man - both enjoyable if you're into that kinda thing) and currently one by Drew Goddard (former Buffy and Angel show writer, but most well known now as the bloke who wrote Cloverfield) and other former Buffy/Angel writers to do stuff. It's all cool.

Yep, Joss Wheden is officially presiding over the canon 8th Buffy season in comic book form. (Xander in Nick Fury look-a-like mode is awsome). From memory it's a Dark Horse production.

Also, from IDW, Mr Whedon is presiding over the official canon comic book form of the final seaon of Angel. It's called Angel: "After The Fall" and is coming out monthly now too. Right... where's my commission comic book world?

Sonia Blue Collection by Nancy A Collins. Also there is a crossover with Vampire; The Masquerade

I've read a couple of chick-lit vampire things but wasn't very taken with them, but I've been reading 'The Mediator' series by Jenny Carroll AKA Meg Cabot recently so I might be more tolerant of the style if I tried again. Are the Sonia Blue books a bit like that?

I had to google 'chick lit' because it's not in my vocabulary. I think I may be a little insulted...

No it's not. She pissed off, kicks arse and takes names. Also, Nancy A Collins used to be married to Joe Christ which is just one of those wierd things that it was completely unecessary for me to share.

You must know about it already, but I'd say give Hellsing a looks. No, not the Hollywood movie, the anime.

A vampire with the powers of a god, gunning down zombies with jazz music playing in the background. Makes me laugh every time.

But my goodness, didn't that movie suck? (And not in the good vampire-sucky sort of way.)

The Hellsing movie with the guy that played Wolverine in it?

Yeah, one foetid pile of dingo's kidneys. I suppose it was good for a giggle (the infinite ammo machine-crossbows had me in stitches), but oh well.

off the top of my head, 'the twins effect', silly plot and 'interesting' special effects, but theres some good fight scenes if thats your thing.

I do like a good fight scene, and I'm fairly tolerant of daft plots. I'll see if I can find that.

I've read the first of the Buffy Season 8 comics, and it was pretty good. I'll keep going with them. Thanks for the suggestion

Re. 'chick lit': there's been a huge growth in horror/supernatural books with female heroines over the last five years. It's very definitely a knock-on from Buffy (and its absence). It seems that they are often private detectives with skills in voodoo, seeing the dead, or a on/off relationship with a vampire/ghost. They usually have puns in the titles, like 'Fangs for the memories'. Off the top of my head, Charlaine Harris is one of the more prolific writers. Her characters fight evil and like nice shoes. I had a look at the horror section in my local Waterstones last weekend and found that almost half of the shelving was now dedicated to this sub-genre. It's very popular stuff!

There's a set of books by a Russian fellow that are apparently very good.
Nightwatch, Daywatch, and Twilight watch.
Nightwatch and Daywatch have come out in film also.
Sergei Lukyanenko
I'm not 100% certain on the title of the last book.

Curse having to reduce my bookshelf. I can't remember the author of a set of books I followed for a while...I'll get back to you on it. St. Germain was the name of the vampire in question I think. Female author. Er...
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and her Comte de Saint Germain
There's also a set of three books. Blood Ties is one of the titles. Again I haven't read them but I read the trio that had the same vampire as a minor character. It's now out in TV land on the Space channel and filmed in Toronto. The name of the vampire is Something Fitzroy if that helps. The trio of books that I've read is set in Vancouver. Shadow(something or the other) covers the title of all three. Again, my memory is failing on the author's name.
Tanya Huff is the author here

Google is our dear and glorious leader

I've read the Night Watch trilogy, which were very entertaining, although I felt a bit let down by the ending of the third one... Then again, I think he's releasing a fourth book fairly soon, so I guess he gets to redeem himself

I've watched all of the Blood Ties series and I may stray into the books at some point, although the tone of the series suggests they might not entirely be for me.

The St Germain ones are intriguing: he's the closest thing to a documented immortal in European culture so naturally I'm quite interested in him and stories about him. He was almost certainly a very talented swindler, but that doesn't make the myth any more alluring, and it's always fun to believe that just perhaps it's all true.

Any idea when the last of the nightwatch trilogy films comes out? Got the other two the other week, well worth a watch.

It's very uncertain at the moment. It was going to be made in the US, but then there have been legal arguments about who owns the rights to the ideas, the characters, the world, blah. The result is that it might not get made at all.

There's the Necroscope books cant remeber the author and not actually read them (bit to horror for me) but from what I know they're vampire based from the angle that it's paracitical.

It's Brian Lumley, innit?

I remember reading some of them a long time ago. Lots of stuff with time travel, too. Might be something you could dig actually, Mata.

Aye that's the guy.

I have all of the Brian Lumley books. It's all good until you get to the the E - Branch Invaders then it all gets a bit shaky. There's something stupid like 15 of them in the series.

Sorry Spam approaching.

Snuggs!!!! F.U!!!!!! How've you been? Haven't seen you guys in here in ages!