 In modern times , however , the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity , although belief in similar vampiric creatures such as the chupacabra still persists in some cultures . Early folk belief in vampires has sometimes been ascribed to the ignorance of the body 's process of decomposition after death and how people in pre @-@ industrial societies tried to rationalise this , creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death . Porphyria was also linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure , but has since been largely discredited . 
