Welcome to Day 2 of Halloween Week here at Baby Gates Down!

I hope you enjoyed the first four selections in our Vampire A to Z Series.

If you missed them, you can check that post out here and learn a bit about Armand, Buffy, Edward Cullen and the vamp who (sort of) started it all … Dracula!

We’re so glad he did, because it’s going to be a fun week here making our way through the alphabet.

Without further preamble, his daughter Draculaura and I are pleased to offer you the next four choices in the series.

E is for Elizabeth Bathory. Born in 1560 to a noble Hungarian family, she is the most prolific female serial killer in history known for torturing and killing hundreds of young girls. She faced trial for her crimes and spent the last four years of her life bricked up in a set of castle rooms with only small slits left open for ventilation and the passing of food.

Folklore and stories generally recorded years after her death ascribe her crimes to her belief that bathing in the blood of young virgins would keep her forever young. This legend appeared first in print in 1729. It was later called into question in 1817 when witness accounts were published making no reference to blood baths. Regardless, the legend persists and she is often compared to Vlad the Impaler, better known in fiction as Count Dracula, and has been nicknamed The Blood Countess or Countess Dracula. Anyone interested in a recent retelling and portrayal of her life may enjoy watching the 2009 movie The Countess.

Moving firmly back into the realm of fiction. F is for Fangtasia, the vampire bar from True Blood.

The HBO Series hit the air in 2008 and is based on Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries – 14 books that began to be published in 2001 featuring Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress and telepath in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana.

The series starts two years after the “Great Revelation” where vampires around the world announced on television that they were real after the development of a synthetic blood product (most popular marketed brand being “TrueBlood”) allowed them to exist without having to feed on humans.

Fangtasia is the popular vampire bar located in the neighbouring town of Shreveport and serves as a hangout for vampires and fangbangers – human vampire groupies.

Speaking of fangbangers, G is for Elena Gilbert, the protagonist in the Vampire Diaries, another television show based on previously written books.

This time around, the show – which first aired in 2009 and is still going strong – is based on L.J. Smith’s novels, the original series of which were written in 1991-1992 and focus on (stop me if you’ve heard this one) a high school girl who falls in love with a vampire. She ultimately ends up in a love triangle torn between two vampire brothers – Stephan and Damon Salvatore.

I can’t think of any reason why. You?

Anyway, based in fictional Mystic Falls, Virginia, the show takes the story further than the books and, in my opinion, improves it (if you wish to delve into/argue about the differences I would suggest this post and commentary). The show introduces the idea of doppelgangers (more on that later), founding families who are part of a secret council who protect the town from vampires, werewolves and all sorts of other wacky adventures not mentioned in the books.

As a side note, you will notice a bit of liberty with the alphabet between focus on first and last names to help with flow in our A to Z.

But just in case you were starting to think that vampires were all about bedroom eyes and wooing high school girls I give you my last offering of the day.

H is for Hellmouth.

Welcome back to the Buffyverse where the Hellmouth is an ever-present evil.

Buffy lives in beautiful Sunnydale, California which, according to the mythology of the show, is built on top of a Hellmouth, which is an area where the barriers between dimensions are weak and so it serves as a portal between earth and Hell.  For this reason, Sunnydale attracts demons and other supernatural beings.

Specifically, for the first three seasons, the Hellmouth is located directly under the high school library. The school is then destroyed and when it is rebuilt in the final season, the Hellmouth is then found under the principal’s office.

Various baddies through the series try to open the Hellmouth. In the series finale, Buffy and the gang ultimately close the Sunnydale Hellmouth.

But evildoers don’t have to give up all hope. There’s another one in Cleveland.

I could wax poetic for a while about the high school is Hell metaphor, but I won’t even try. The show does that better than I ever could.

So this is where we end our evil trek through the alphabet for today. For those playing along at home, here’s the list to date:

Let me know in the comments if you agree with the choices to date.

Until tomorrow, remember to eat your garlic and not invite strangers into your home.

Today’s photo credits:

I found Countess Bathory via a free image search on Google. Fangtasia is brought to you from the Seeing Stars site. Elena Gilbert is joining us from Fanpop. I link to the source for the yummy Salvatores and the Hellmouth comes to you from the Buffy Wiki.