Vampires. Because a vampire done well is morbid and frightening. It's an expression of the inner monsters within men made literal, all the worst of human excesses from a medieval perspective: Murder and sex. Werewolves are similar, but actually turning into a massive furry hulk kind of ruins it to me, because it separates the murderous animal from the civilized man. Whereas the vampire's inner, grotesque desires and circumstances of life, are inseparable at all times from what they are. They're never human, nor are they ever some furry beast. There's no Jekyll & Hyde dynamic to excuse their actions, oh no, what they do is based either entirely on their own nature, or callous disregard for mankind.
I don't even mind vampires that defy what the public thinks of as conventional wisdom. I don't mind vampires that can walk around during the day and what not: Whatever makes them more practical in a modern sense. Because if we went strictly with how vampires are supposed to be in their original mythos, you could stop a vampire by simply not answering the door when they knock. (No, really, in some of the earliest mythos about vampires, they'll knock on your door, and if you tell them to fuck off, they have no choice but to leave. I don't see anybody complaining about
that not being part of the modern vampire canon.)
Seriously, look at this smile. There is no beast more frightening or capable of malevolence than mankind.
