Stephen King's Salem's Lot
Why George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) was a hit is because that movie was based on the end of the world and vampires. At the time he was making ‘Dawn of the Dead’, vampires had almost been forgotten by everyone. In the black and white horror films of the 1940's and 50's, it was common to see people transforming into bats, flying, sucking blood, and even dying and coming back to life. However, people started to think that these things were too ridiculous and unrealistic. In a civilized country, it's like the boogeyman, I guess. We have to cherish it as a folk legend. As long as children are scared of ghosts, adults have to cherish them. However, none of us believe in the existence of the boogeyman. Similarly, no one believes in vampires. So, people were not afraid of vampires at all.
It was Stephen King's Salem's Lot that destroyed it. Since this is a horror special, let me talk about a novel with vampires in it. The book cover illustrations of the first and second volumes of this novel are connected like this. You can see the grave. The grave is on the cover...