Vampires are the perfect designated hitters of the monster universe. The folk legend of a corpse compelled to rise again at night to feast on the blood of the living was popularized in western Europe by the English author John Polidori’s The Vampyre in 1819 before being cemented by Bram Stoker in 1897 with the publication of Dracula. Stoker’s novel is actually a paranoid allegory of its time, concerned with hirsute eastern Europeans awakening the fires of sensuality within the bosoms of England’s most demure shrinking violets, but the vampire has spread like wildfire throughout pop culture ever since.
With Robert Eggers’ remake of W.S. Murnau’s 1922 film Nosferatu soon to hit theaters, there’s no better time to sample some of the best that vampire media has to offer. A lot of unorthodox films didn’t make the cut here—some like Queen of the Damned (2002) got nixed because they’re less than stellar (despite a memorable nü-metal soundtrack). Others, like the surprisingly fun 2011 Fright Night remake starring Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrell, are well worth a watch but aren’t doing anything inventive with the genre.
Without any further ado, I invite you to sink your teeth into the list below.
Warner Bros.
10. ‘The Lost Boys’ (1987)
Before Joel Schumacher was putting nipples on the batsuit, he directed this black-comedy vampire tale that features one of the most baffling musical interludes of all time. Jason Patric and Corey Haim star as Michael and Sam Emerson, brothers who discover the sleepy seaside town of Santa Clara is lousy with teen vampires, led by the sinister and intensely mulleted David (Kiefer Sutherland). When Michael begins to fall under David’s spell, Sam enlists the help of amateur vampire hunters Edgar and Allen Frog (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) to hunt David down and stake him for good.
Kino Lorber, Vice Media
9. ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’ (2014)
Billed as “the first Iranian vampire spaghetti western,” director Ana Lily Amirpour’s directorial debut stars Sheila Vand as an unnamed vampire wearing a chādor as she goes about her vampiric business, feeding off of the local populace as she glides around on a stolen skateboard. It’s a pretty atmospheric film but the setting and the concept more than carry it, with the choice to film it in black-and-white also making it reminiscent of Murnau’s iconic 1922 riff on the bloodsucker.
Lionsgate
8. ‘Daybreakers’ (2009)
After a vampire bat-induced plague turns most of the world into vampires, Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) works tirelessly to create a synthetic blood substitute that can supplement dwindling stores of real humans—and make his employer a ton of money in the process. But when he provides safe harbor to a group of un-turned humans led by Audrey Bennett (Claudia Karvan), he learns there may be a cure for vampirism after all, putting him at odds with his brother Frankie (Michael Dorman), his boss Charles Bromley (Sam Neill), and much of society in the process.
Hemdale Film Corporation
7. ‘Vampire’s Kiss’ (1989)
Nicolas Cage gives his craziest performance in a career that’s full of them in this black comedy directed by Robert Bierman. Cage plays Peter Loew, a strange and cruel literary agent whose chance encounter with a mysterious woman at a club (Jennifer Beals) causes him to spiral into madness, believing himself to be a vampire. Cage is the main draw of the film, bringing all the textbook hamminess we’ve come to expect over the course of his storied (and uneven) career.
Warner Bros.
6. ‘Interview With the Vampire’ (1994)
Immortal bloodsucker Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) narrates his life story to eager reporter Daniel Molloy (Christian Slater) in this adaptation of Anne Rice’s first novel in the expansive Vampire Chronicles series. Central to his conversion to vampirism is the enigmatic and erratic Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise), and Louis’s attempts to first understand, and then escape, Lestat take him from the antebellum American south to the darkest corners of Paris. Pitt, disillusioned by the changes the narrative made to his character, phones it in as Louis, but Cruise shines as Lestat—perhaps he saw something in an immortal, amoral vampire that let him really sink his teeth into the role?
The Orchard, Madman Entertainment
5. ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ (2014)
Taika Waititi, Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement, and Johnny Brugh star as Viago, Vladislav, and Deacon—three vampire roommates living in New Zealand—in this horror mockumentary that spawned an FX show of the same name soon to enter its final season. A camera crew follows the vampires around suburban Wellington as they hunt humans by riding the bus, square off with a local gang of werewolves (led by Auckland national treasure Rhys Darby) and the movie culminates with the group being invited to the Unholy Masquerade, a gathering of vampires held in the headquarters of a bowling club.
Miramax, Dimension Films
4. ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ (1996)
Robert Rodriguez’s cult classic stars George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino as Seth and Richie Gecko, low-rent fugitives who press gang pastor Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel) and his two children Scott and Kate (Ernest Liu and Juliette Lewis) into driving them across the border to Mexico in the hope of avoiding being apprehended for their crimes. Unfortunately for all involved, their contact Carlos (Cheech Marin) has suggested the Gecko brothers meet him at the Titty Twister, a strip club that’s absolutely juiced to the gills with vampires, including exotic dancer Santanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek).
Urban Vision, Kadokawa Daiei Studio
3. ‘Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust’ (2000)
Based on the third entry in a series of light novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust follows D, a half-vampire vampire hunter hot on the trail of the sinister Baron Meier Link. The Baron has abducted Charlotte, the daughter of a wealthy nobleman, and plans to take her to the castle of a vampire Countess in order to access a spaceship that will take him and his abductee to a giant vampire space station (yes, really). Complicating D’s pursuit are a group of fellow vampire hunters known as The Marcus Brothers, who plan to kill Meier Link and take Charlotte back to her family—dead or alive.
Anchor Bay Entertainment, Warner Independent Pictures, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
2. ‘Near Dark’ (1987)
Directed by Point Break’s Kathryn Bigelow, Near Dark stars Adrian Pasdar as Caleb Colton, a small-town cowboy whose chance encounter with the mysterious and beautiful Mae (Jenny Wright) leads him into the dark arms of a vampire coven led by Jesse Hooker (Aliens’ Lance Henriksen). However, the real standout of the cast is inarguably Bill Paxton, who plays the violent and ill-tempered vampire Severen with his characteristic panache and looks cool as hell doing it.
Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures
1. ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ (1992)
Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel may not be the best vampire movie out there, but you certainly can’t deny that it’s the most vampire movie out there. Featuring a stacked cast that includes Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Richard E. Grant, Cary Elwes, Tom Waits, and Gary Oldman as Dracula himself, this movie is about as unsubtle as they come, but boasts incredible set, scene, and costume design. And honestly, what’s the point of watching a gothic horror movie if it’s not going to be at least a little bombastic?
