***....to invite the wolf into your house. ***
Isn’t that the story line for the movie FRIGHT NIGHT? They vampire can’t harm you until you invite him in.
The old tale made sense from a supernatural level. A vampire is soulless. They can’t force themselves on the innocent. They have to be let in and their corruption allowed. Used to be the lore was you had to willingly take their blood to be turned. There was a nice nod to it in the film Lost Boys as he’s tricked into drinking the blood but did so after being told it was the vampire’s blood though he didn’t believe.
The damned are usually the first to know and the last to believe it.