The first vampire serial appeared as early as 1915

The first vampire serial appeared as early as 1915, although Les Vampires, shot in France, was in general one of the first serials in history.

In essence, though, the vampires figure in it not as supernatural beings but as the name of a criminal society spreading terror in Paris. The genre is detective story with a touch of thriller. The action unfolds over 10 episodes of varying length. The quality is quite decent, and the project rather resembles a somewhat simplified "Twin Peaks".

The vampiric elements are the name of the gang's leader, the Grand Vampire, and his seductive companion Irma Vep, played by the acrobat Musidora, who appears on screen in a bat costume. No doubt the whole affair was devised chiefly so as to show, on perfectly legitimate grounds, a woman in a fully form-fitting outfit, which by the standards of the day was almost the same as showing her naked. It became one of the first appearances in cinema of an actress in skin-tight tights.