This article explores the trend in contemporary vampire media to highlight racially-charged issues, demonstrating a consciousness of the way the vampire has been used in conjunction with racial stigmatisation. While the traditional figure of the vampire spoke strongly to late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century white American fears of miscegenation, I argue that some contemporary vampire narratives, such as Blade (1998), Underworld (2003), and True Blood (2008-), rewrite the figure in order to question and/or undo the link between ‘monstrosity' and racial otherness. Central to this task is not only the repositioning and characterisation of the vampire, but also ̶ considering that the female body was once perceived as the locus for racial purity ̶ that of the heroine.