Jesus Franco’s classic Vampyros Lesbos, an erotic horror about a vixen vampiress seducing and killing women to appease her insatiable thirst for female blood, even inspired a tract of Seventies retakes on the standard male domination/ female submission formula.Moreover the female bitee is freed from the normal constraints of society, adds Fay. And therein lies the key to vampirism: sex.OK, it’s not exactly the sort of love bite you get behind bicycle sheds (or at least it shouldn’t be), but it is nonetheless an overtly sexual act This has, of course, not been lost on celluloid. Week in week out, Buffy saves small town America – Sunnydale to be exact – from dark hordes. Girls feel empowered, adolescent boys feel a little hot under the collar.

For the uninitiated, Buffy is a wise-cracking, short-skirted, pouting, arse-kicking slayer of vampires and assorted bad guys. Most recently it has been given a post-feminist makeover in the form of cult television series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, broadcast in Britain several times a week on BBC2, Sky and flying out the door on video at a store near you this Christmas. Hollywood has been entranced by the blood-sucking myth since time began. From Vlad the Impaler to Tom Cruise, they’ve hashed and rehashed the genre. Next year, Dark Angel Productions will take on the Continent with a series of large events “to unite the vampires of Europe” in Poland, Italy and Germany.The spiritual home of vampirism is, however, America – California to be exact. Bloodstone now sells in “specialist” shops all over the world, as well as local branches of WH Smith and HMV. Last month was the cult collectors bun fight, Memorabilia 99 at the Birmingham NEC, featuring Dark Angel stalwarts, “vampire vixens” Eileen and Daly and Mistress Alkaya.

Bloodstone, says the magazine’s editor, has “something for everyone with a passion for the unlife”. The first, held in August 1997 to celebrate the centenary of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, drew more than 1,000 “vampires”, making it the largest such event in Europe. It was so successful, in fact, that a quarterly magazine “by vampires for vampires” was quickly launched. Vampire fetishism is alive and well (if you’ll forgive the pun). In addition to the dedicated club nights, there are glossy lifestyle magazines, book clubs, web site communities and even wife swapping parties for “vampires” (yes, seriously).Vampyria will be “a pure experience of unrivalled passion and blood lust”, say the promoters, Dark Angel Productions It’s the third in a series of hugely popular events. They’ll look the part, act the part – some even believe they are the part.

“You always bump into characters who actually think they’re vampires,” says Fay. “They’re a bit creepy, but they don’t worry me personally – just as long as they don’t draw blood.”
Tonight’s vamp fest is no aberration. Uniformly dressed in black, faces whitened, lips and eyes reddened, some even with teeth filed to a point. Over 1,500 devotees of the undead will gather at the Complex nightclub in London tonight. We’re not talking about coy nibbling of ear lobes here – we’re talking filed teeth piercing the skin. “I’m very concerned about sharing bodily fluids with complete strangers,” she says As maybe she should be.