Vampires began in ancient Egypt. It was believed that some of the dead would return from the after world to steal the lives of some unlucky villager. Then, that kind of thing was just a general belief, a fact of life.
In Southeast Asia, the undead were viewed rather differently.It was believed that a vampire was a demon that visited victims as they slept and then draned their life's essence. They believed that these demons preferred men as their pray and so the tradition of men wearing false eyelashes and nail polish was made. The men believed that this would fool the demons into sparing their lives.
The more traditional form of vampire comes from the mountain villages of Eastern Europe. These vampires were known also as plagues and date back to 17th century Siberia. According to history, the dead didn't stay dead and dead individuals could be seen roaming the countryside. These undead would sometimes visit others while they slpetand sometimes the undead would even kill them.
Back then, the vampires were not the neat vampires that we see in movies and shows today. These vampires were decomposed and could turn others into vampires also. This lead to a practise where villagers would dig up people's bodies and kill them using a stake through the heart. When the villagers would dig up the body, some would be full of blood and scrapes while having their hands and fingers broken. There is a theory that back then, several of these people were buried alive and had died trying to force their way out of the casket. This is why the bodies had been bloody and therefore it was supposed that these people had been turned into vampires.
In Slavic folklore, a vampire was an evil spirit that takes possession of a corpse that would rise from their grave at night and would suck the blood of a sleeping individual. The victim would become a vampire after death. Vampires were the ghosts of criminals, heretics or suicides and could only be put to rest by driving a stake through their hearts.
The vampire started to take a more modern shape when the book "The Vampyre" was published in1819. The main character, Lord Ruthven, was an aristocat who was enchanting and had an easy way of manipulating women and that is what gives the vampire it's sexual undertones today.
The most famous vampire book written would probably be "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. This book became the basis of the kind of vampires that are written about in today's society.
Anne Rice is also a popular vampire writter in modern times and the movie "Interview with The Vampire" was based on one of her books. Her vampires were a slightly different creation. They remembered their mortal lives, lived by codes and they would even fall in love.
Nowadays, vampires are still on of the most interesting subjects known to man and some even claim to be vampires themselves. it is one of those things that mankind finds terribly frightening but at the same time very alluring in it's own manner. A show you real vampire fans might want to look into is the show "Forever Knight". It's about a vampire who works as a cop and is desperatly trying to become more human.
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Information was found at the official Buffy The Vampire Slayer site and from the New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia.