History Main / VampireRefugee

* There are a few in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, including current vampire hunter Hannibal King and deceased hunter Rachael van Helsing (indeed, being converted can be a frequent job hazard for a vampire hunter in Marvel, or in King's case, what drives one to such a calling). ComicBook/JubileeMarvelComics is the most recent example of the Trope, although {{Wolverine}}, Emma Frost, and Cyclops have not given up on the possibility that she can be cured. [[spoiler: She's been cured.]]

* The Star/Laddie subplot of ''Film/TheLostBoys''. "YOU TRIED TO MAKE ME A KILLER!"

* The eighties show ''Series/{{Werewolf}}'' was built around this premise.

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* There are a few in the MarvelUniverse, including current vampire hunter Hannibal King and deceased hunter Rachael van Helsing (indeed, being converted can be a frequent job hazard for a vampire hunter in Marvel, or in King's case, what drives one to such a calling). ComicBook/JubileeMarvelComics is the most recent example of the Trope, although {{Wolverine}}, Emma Frost, and Cyclops have not given up on the possibility that she can be cured. [[spoiler: She's been cured.]]

* Andrew Bennett from ''ComicBook/HouseOfMystery'''s ''Comicbook/IVampire'' series straddled the line between this trope and DoomedMoralVictor. Though he did jump at the opportunity for a cure when he chanced upon one, for most of his unlife Bennett harbored no hope of restoring himself, and was preoccupied with exterminating a bloodline of evil vampires he'd mistakenly sired, by converting his onetime lover. To survive, he bought blood by the bottle from street people.

* ComicBook/RedSonja: In the final arc of her Dynamite 2005 run, Sonja was turned into a vampire in the aftermath of the ''Prophecy'' crossover and desperately sought a cure for herself.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/HorrorOfDracula'' has Harker, who in this version [[spoiler:is bitten and makes a desperate attempt to stake Dracula and his female minion before actually turning into a vampire. He doesn't manage to finish the job before sundown and Van Helsing grimly has to stake him.]]
* ''Film/RiseBloodHunter'': Though Sadie is very determined to get revenge for her unwilling (and unplanned) vampirisation on the bloodsuckers of L.A., she slips when it comes to feeding on a poor schlub offering her a lift.
* The Star/Laddie subplot of ''Film/TheLostBoys''. "YOU TRIED TO MAKE ME A KILLER!"
* ''Film/TheFly1986'' has poor Seth Brundle, who at first tries to see his SlowTransformation into a HalfHumanHybrid as a glass-half-full situation but comes to understand that he's succumbing to a SplitPersonalityTakeover. Unfortunately, the only solution he can come up with is [[spoiler: genetically fusing himself with another human being. He chooses his lover (and their unborn child) and fails spectacularly, and she has to mercy kill him in the aftermath]].
* The 1989 sequel ''Film/TheFlyII'' features Seth's SpinOffspring Martin, an UnevenHybrid who comes to the same realization of what he must do to save himself as his father did. [[spoiler: Lucky for him no one mourns him dumping the fly genes into a CorruptCorporateExecutive, making him a mutant slug kept alive for study in a dark pit.]]

* ''Film/Ultraviolet2006''.
** Incidentally, it seems that the girl became much more bloodthirsty (or downright sadistic) after the cure was applied.
* Nick from ''Film/TheForsaken''. It is heavily implied in the movie that ''all'' [[WhoYouGonnaCall vampire hunters]] have always mostly consisted of people who have been bitten. The rules of vampirism state that [[NoOntologicalInertia all potential vampires are freed from their curse if the "head vampire" who originated that strain is killed]] (an idea mocked in the ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' video game).

* ''Film/VanHelsing'', turned into [[WolfMan a werewolf]], must kill Dracula as a werewolf (as was prophesied), but Carl and Ana have to get the cure for lycanthropy to him before the stroke of midnight (as that's when he'll permanently be a werewolf). Fortunately for Van Helsing, the stroke of midnight lasts about twenty minutes.
* In ''Film/GingerSnapsBackTheBeginning'', Ginger is given a prophecy saying she will need to kill the infected child that bit her to avoid becoming a werewolf herself. In a subversion, [[spoiler:the prophecy meant that she should kill the child "before" he bit her]].
* ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead3'' featured the heroine finding new and interesting ways to cause physical pain to keep from succumbing to her desire to eat folk.
* Rayne from ''Film/ResidentEvil2002'' gets bitten early on. She spends the rest of the time kicking ass to get everyone out and be able to administer the cure to her. [[spoiler:Too bad they're too late]].

* ''Film/CountYorga'': After Erica is bitten by Yorga, she briefly succumbs to the vampirism the following day, chasing down and feeding on her pet cat when her boyfriend, Paul, and Micheal come to check on her out of concern. She act erratic at their presence, yelling at them to stay back then suddenly turning seductive toward Paul before regaining her senses and breaking down at what she's done. When their doctor friend, Hayes, is called in and they find they need to do a blood transfusion, Erica babbles deliriously, knowing that something is happening to her but doesn't know what and is scared at what she's becoming. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, Yorga ultimately claims her and turns her into a vampire.]]
* Nadja in ''Film/BloodRedSky'' is taking medication to stop her vampire transformation, and is on a flight from Germany to New York with her son to see a doctor who can cure her. When [[DieHardOnAnX the plane is hijacked]], she gets shot trying to [[MamaBear protect her son]] and only survives because of her HealingFactor, and she soon finds that her superhuman vampiric abilities give her an edge at fighting the hijackers. Embracing those abilities, however, makes it increasingly difficult for her to hold onto her humanity as her monstrous vampiric side takes over. [[spoiler:By the end, her son is forced to [[StakingTheLovedOne put her out of her misery]] as she goes [[FeralVampires completely feral]].]]

* Tana in ''{{Literature/TheColdestGirlInColdtown}}''. She's bitten by the vampire Midnight, who infects her with the virus and turns her Cold, the precursor to becoming a vampire. Tana spends the rest of the book trying to save her human sister and friends while fighting the overwhelming urge to drink their blood and complete her transformation.

* The ''Good Ghouls'' series -- the main character gets turned into a vampire and finds out the only way to get turned back is to kill her own maker. Several problems: firstly, it has to be ''her'' who kills her maker; secondly, any vampire higher up the chain, including her maker, is immune to any frontal attack from a lower-ranking vampire, so she has to be sneaky; and thirdly, she doesn't even know who turned her. In the end, [[spoiler: she finds out who did it, but someone else kills him for something unrelated, so she's stuck as a vampire]].
* Darren of ''Literature/CirqueDuFreak'' spends a vast majority of the series as a half-vampire. The perks are pretty good on paper, and though he feels lonely at first for not fitting in with either humans or vampires he eventually finds a home and even a destiny with his new species. It's only nearing the last arc he starts to undertake 'The Purge', or a weird sort of puberty, where his human side is finally subsumed by his vampire half.

* Granny Weatherwax in ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'' is a truly epic subversion. After getting bitten by a bunch of Vampires with the express purpose of turning her into a vampire as well - making her a slave to the vampires having "sired" her - she goes through the usual trappings: Making a stressful journey in order to find the vampires responsible, organizing weapons (or rather: friends with weapons), and nearly dying several times while fighting the effect of the turnings. In the end, it turns out [[spoiler:not only was she fighting off the turning the whole time, she was also "borrowing" (a form of passive possession) her own blood in order to make the vampires who drank from her crave tea and sweet biscuits, or, in her own words: "I ain't been vampired. You've been Weatherwaxed!"]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* One episode of ''Series/OdysseyFive'' had Taggart becoming a Synthetic, a [[{{Nanomachines}} nanomachine]]/[[ArtificialLimbs cyborg]]/[[ArtificialHuman android]]. He and his friends try to reverse it, but in the end he manages to hack the DeusEstMachina that made him into reverting the process.
* Dr. Kevin on ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'' experimented on himself with [[SuperSerum Promicin]] to give himself powers. He got very mutated at first, but then found the cure for that.
* The eighties show ''Series/{{Werewolf}}'' was built around this premise.

* On ''Series/MyBabysittersAVampire'', Sarah (the babysitter) was turned into a vampire by her boyfriend. However, she refuses to eat humans and exists on animal blood or blood substitutes while trying to find a cure.
* In the first episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}'', it's pointed out to our hero that he must do this out of necessity. Even if you're a fighter against evil, you can't afford to isolate yourself from the people you're trying to protect as you'll eventually stop caring and revert back to a monster. Angel thus gathers his RagtagBunchOfMisfits so he'll have some FireForgedFriends keeping him grounded.

* A very few Darkened in ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'' fall under this trope. Becoming Darkened pushes you strongly towards evil, but the Taint is not irreversible until you lose your last dot of Integrity and become a Darkspawn or Mnemosyne. Before that, it is possible for a Darkened to retain and even raise his Integrity, and if he can get it high enough he can drive out the Darkness.

* ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'':
** One of the paths involves Shiki being increasingly possessed by an ancient vampire sorcerer, gaining the usual powers and bloodlust as his will rapidly erodes, and having to defend himself against his former companions. At first he holds out for a solution from the Church, but when that doesn't pan out he [[spoiler: [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer resorts to his solution to everything else]]--turning his [[MagicalEye Mystic Eyes of Death Perception]] on and stabbing ''himself'' in an attempt to 'kill' the vampire's soul]].
** Sion Eltnam Atlasia is entirely based on this. She even goes as far as to create an alchemical substitute for blood to deal with her cravings as a temporary measure. (It works, but only because of the extenuating circumstances.)

%%* The plot of ''VideoGame/{{Bloodnet}}'' revolves around this.

* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' features a "thin-blood" down by the beach who's desperately trying to find a way out of his new condition. You can either a) let him down easy and tell him that he can at least try to go on (un)living, or b) bilk him for all he's worth by selling him a "stake of pure rosewood" he can use to kill the "head vampire" or some vampirism-curing "unicorn blood." Or both.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' has a rather unique version of this. [[spoiler: After having been contaminated with the Joker's infected blood in the previous game, Batman's mind is slowly starting to be taken over by the Joker. He has four other infected patients locked up in a satellite Batcave, one of whom is showing no signs of any Joker-like symptoms, and is being used to develop a cure. Throughout the game, visions of the Joker taunt you at every possible moment, and at several moments (especially when Batman gets exposed to Scarecrow's fear toxin), Batman loses control, and the "Joker" part of Batman's mind actually manages to take over. Oh, and that person showing no signs of symptoms? He was faking it.]]
* ''[[VideoGame/{{Infamous 2}} Infamous: Festival of Blood]]'': Early on, Cole is bitten by Bloody Mary and becomes a vampire, and will become a vampire permanently and be Mary's slave by sunrise. Cole is ''not'' happy about this and fights back against Mary and her minions, determined to stake her and [[NoOntologicalInertia cure himself]] before then.

The oldest vampire movie/character plot in the book: the protagonist is infected with TheVirus and undergoes the ViralTransformation into a vampire or some other monstrous entity like a [[WolfMan werewolf]] or zombie. They have only a short time until the {{curse}} of the FaceMonsterTurn asserts itself and the [[HorrorHunger overwhelming thirst]] to [[ImAHumanitarian eat, drink and transform their fellow man]] is all they know.

Before the clock runs out, they will do everything in their power to [[FindTheCure find]]... ''(MelodramaticPause!)''... [[AscendedDemon a cure]], use HeroicWillpower to kick ass and bring [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge a world of hurt]] down on the entire race of monsters that infected them... all the while using HeroicResolve to [[WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere resist those warm bloodbags everywhere]].

This is OlderThanTelevision, going back to Mina Harker in ''{{Literature/Dracula}}'' itself. It may use NoOntologicalInertia to solve the problem by killing the head vampire, but more modern movies will use outright biological rather than mystical cures for the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent virus-based vampires]].

[[{{Pun}} These nights]], this trope has extended to just about any [[TheVirus infectious]] [[OurMonstersAreDifferent monster]], a few other BodyHorror [[EmergencyTransformation transformations]], and even outright {{curse}}s. It may also be recognized as a common on-the-job hazard for [[HunterOfMonsters those who oppose such creatures]]. Expect the hero to gain an advantage from [[OneHeroHoldTheWeaksauce lacking the traditional weaknesses of their breed]] and discovering they can tap into HeroicWillpower to get a powerup to beat their sire. This last bit can get a bit silly, as the hero-now-monster is usually [[HorrorHunger starving]] by this point from fasting on blood.

On the bright side, since UndeathAlwaysEnds the Vampire Refugee won't stay such for long... though whether it's because of death or a cure varies.

* ''{{Film/Ultraviolet}}''.

* Rayne from the first ''Film/ResidentEvil'' film gets bitten early on. She spends the rest of the time kicking ass to get everyone out and be able to administer the cure to her. [[spoiler: Too bad they're too late]].

* Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker in ''{{Literature/Dracula}}''. For Lucy, it wasn't known what was weakening her till Van Helsing was called in. She would've probably been cured were it not for a few [[ContrivedCoincidence too]] [[DiabolusExMachina many]] bad circumstances. Mina is a bit more fortunate, since Dracula has to flee before he can fully transform her. She feels his presence within her spying on the hunters. And, when confronted by the brides near the end of the story, senses the vampirism welling up in her.

* There are a few in the MarvelUniverse, including current vampire hunter Hannibal King and deceased hunter Rachael van Helsing (indeed, being converted can be a frequent job hazard for a vampire hunter in Marvel, or in King's case, what drives one to such a calling). ComicBook/{{Jubilee}} is the most recent example of the Trope, although {{Wolverine}}, Emma Frost, and Cyclops have not given up on the possibility that she can be cured. [[spoiler: She's been cured.]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

* Kostya in the ''Literature/{{Nightwatch}}'' series is [[spoiler: the only vampire to achieve "High Vampire" status without killing someone for blood]]. He became a biologist to prevent his vampirism from turning him into a monster. By the third book, he even [[spoiler: tries to turn every human being on the planet into Others]] just so he could be normal. [[spoiler: He fails]].

* ''Film/TheFly1986'' has doctor Brundle try to reverse the onset of the creature he's becoming. [[FateWorseThanDeath He fails]].
* The 1989 sequel ''Film/TheFlyII'' with Brundle's son Martin does get to stay human though. Albeit by dumping the fly genes into the CorruptCorporateExecutive, making him [[FateWorseThanDeath a mutant slug]], [[LaserGuidedKarma kept alive for study in a dark pit]].

* Granny Weatherwax in ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'' is a truly epic subversion. After getting bitten by a bunch of Vampires with the express purpose of turning her into a vampire as well - making her a slave to the vampires having "sired" her - she goes through the usual trappings: Making a stressful journey in order to find the vampires responsible, organizing weapons (or rather: friends with weapons), and nearly dying several times while fighting the effect of the turnings. In the end, it turns out [[spoiler:not only was she fighting off the turning the whole time, she was also "borrowing" (a form of passive possession) her own blood in order to make the vampires who drank from her crave tea and sweet biscuits, or, in her own words: "I ain't been vampired. You've been Weatherwaxed!"]]

* Andrew Bennett from ''ComicBook/HouseOfMystery'''s "I... Vampire" series straddled the line between this trope and DoomedMoralVictor. Though he did jump at the opportunity for a cure when he chanced upon one, for most of his unlife Bennett harbored no hope of restoring himself, and was preoccupied with exterminating a bloodline of evil vampires he'd mistakenly sired, by converting his onetime lover. To survive, he bought blood by the bottle from street people.

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' has a rather unique version of this. [[spoiler: After having been contaminated with the Joker's infected blood in the previous game, Batman's mind is slowly starting to be taken over by the Joker. He has four other infected patients locked up in a satellite Batcave, one of whom is showing no signs of any Joker-like symptoms, and is being used to develop a cure. Throughout the game, visions of the Joker taunt you at every possible moment, and at several moments (especially when Batman gets exposed to Scarecrow's fear toxin), Batman loses control, and the "Joker" part of Batman's mind actually manages to take over.]]

* There are a few in the MarvelUniverse, including current vampire hunter Hannibal King and deceased hunter Rachael van Helsing (indeed, being converted can be a frequent job hazard for a vampire hunter in Marvel, or in King's case, what drives one to such a calling). ComicBook/{{Jubilee}} is the most recent example of the Trope, although {{Wolverine}}, Emma Frost, and Cyclops have not given up on the possibility that she can be cured.

* This becomes an optional quest in ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' if the hero becomes a vampire. In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', it is offered by a vampire hunter who give you a choice instead of killing you (you can also drink the potion a witch coven asks you to transport). In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', it is given by reading a book about a cured vampire and doing a favor for Molag Bal, the "patron" daedra of vampires. In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', it involves collecting a long list of ingredients to make a potion. In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', it involves trapping a human soul in a Black Soul Gem and giving it to a sorcerer, who sacrifices the soul to Oblivion as payment for your vampirism to be lifted. Alternatively, you can ask [[spoiler:Aela the Huntress]] to voluntarily turn you into a werewolf, which will cure you of being a vampire in the process. It's also possible to invert the trope, if you are a werewolf, you can ask [[spoiler:Harkon or Serana]] to voluntarily turn you into a vampire instead of [[spoiler:using the Glenmoril Witch's head and killing your wolf spirit at the final Companion questline.]]

* Nick from ''Film/TheForsaken''. It is heavily implied in the movie that ''all'' [[WhoYouGonnaCall vampire hunters]] have always mostly consisted of people who have been bitten. The rules of vampirism state that [[NoOntologicalInertia all potential vampires are freed from their curse if the "head vampire" who originated that strain is killed]] (an idea mocked in the ''VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' video game).