Vampire invasion

There's a a whole lotta blood sucking going on. In fact, there are more vampire projects in the works or already in the zeitgeist than you can shake a finely sharpened stick at.

The result, at least for us, is some serious mythology confusion. Vampires can read our thoughts? They can in "Twilight," but it's Ivory girl waitress Sookie Stackhouse who can do the mental eavesdropping in "True Blood." Can't go out in daylight? That's "True Blood" but not "Twilight."

They still drink people's blood, no, animal blood, no, bottled blood substitute! Which is it? Can't be photographed or seen in a mirror? Now those are just old wives tales.

Honestly, it's becoming impossible to keep our current obsessions straight. Now there are more potential leisure time attention suckers coming.

HBO has already picked up Oscar winner Alan Ball's "True Blood" for a second season, which is a mighty good thing because we're addicted now and dying to see the reveal of our hunch that adorable bar owner Sam is a werewolf. Oops! Didn't mean to let that one slip. What do we know anyway? But think about it -- all that dead girl bed-sniffing stuff? Freaky.

The online and VOD service FearNet announces today a new vamp series called "Dark Path," from music video director Mary Lambert, executive produced by Jim Burns who co-created the Emmy nominated and Peabody winning "MTV Unplugged" franchise.

We're predicting lots of Goth metal, eye candy and erotic explorations of the carotid artery. Hooray!

Even filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is getting into the act with a trilogy of vamp novels with crime writer Chuck Hogan, kicking off next summer with "The Strain." del Toro, whose "Pan's Labyrinth" won three Oscars, plans to go all the way back to the Old Testament for his stories. Thorough!

Social scientists will tell us that the vamp rears his head in times of upheaval, though tales from the crypt have been a mainstay in pop culture for decades. Not sure about the rest of you, but we'd rather think about some hot undeads, rather than Fannie or Freddie or WaMu, leaving us limp and lifeless. At least we'd get a seduction first.