Special: Vampires
Friday, October 28 at 8pm / 7c Click here for complete monthly schedule

This 2-hour A&E Special Presentation: Vampires gives viewers a chilling close up of the modern world of vampires. There's the bewitching young couple who relishes their vampire lifestyle and each other's blood. And Michelle who extols the spiritual side of vampirism as she guides viewers into her own hidden world—a vibrant and diverse society with its own rules, conventions, politics, language, customs—and as opinionated as our own.

Is being a vampire really all about blood and death, or is it about living life to its fullest? Why do some vampires seek blood, while others sustain themselves on the "life-force" of others? In a small town in Canada viewers meet a 42-year-old grandmother who shops at Wal-Mart and enjoys gardening. Every Sunday night she gathers fellow vampires around a campfire and talk about local politics, personal issues, and safe sources of blood. In a TV first, viewers get a first-hand look at one of these meetings. A young New York City vampire, who people are generally afraid of, practices a bloodless vampirism that involves taking the physical or sexual energy from a willing donor. A devotee named Don Henrie sleeps by day in a closed coffin and hits the town at night to prey on willing energy donors.

This A&E Special Presentation: Vampires asks, "If Vampires are all around us, where do they come from?" Modern day vampires practice something deeply rooted in the human spirit and history. The link between blood, life, and death can be found in ancient cultures around the globe. Viewers visit Dracula's birthplace, the ruins of his mountain castle, and his burial tomb. They also visit a small town in Romania where last year panicked villagers, thinking they had a vampire in their midst, dug up corpses and drove stakes through their hearts. Viewers also learn that most vampires are very fussy about what goes into their body, particularly if they drink blood. And vampires who feed off of each other have a bond of intimacy—sometime sex, sometimes ritual. One vampire says that once you have tasted another's blood you are bound to them forever. The drinking of human blood is the pinnacle of what most people consider to be true vampirism. Viewers see a demonstration of human bloodletting—and drinking.