Good Morning Friends! This morning I am going to continue this “season of spoop” series where I dive into some of my favorite movies in horror subgenres. Earlier this week I gave you my rundown of zombie films, and today I am going to talk about the much sexier undead… Vampires. This list was shockingly hard to narrow down because I kept fiddling with one or two places swapping movies in and out of the list until I finally landed on the ten that I am happy with. Suffice it to say that vampires and vampire hunters are well-trodden ground when it comes to horror films. As someone who spent countless hours playing Vampire the Masquerade, this topic is very near and dear to my heart… so I hope you won’t ram a stake through it.
Again these are not necessarily in any particular order but I will be closing out the list with a few of my absolute favorites.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Much like a Zombie list has to include Night of the Living Dead, a Vampire list must pay homage to the original Bram Stoker tale that largely canonized the mythos for western society. There are many versions of this tale in cinema form, but it is highly unlikely there will ever be one quite so baroquely lavish as the 1992 rendition by Francis Ford Coppola. I have a feeling that this film was a bisexual awakening for many as it just exudes raw passion at times. If you ever have the chance you should totally check out the Mike Mignola comic adaptation from the short-lived Tops Comics imprint because it brings really plays with the over-the-top designs that this film brought forward.
John Carpenter’s Dracula
With Vampires comes the presence of hunters and hunter-focused movies. There are so many phenomenal ones, but one of my personal favorites has always been Vampires from 1998. Growing up Catholic, there has always been a certain amount of romance about thinking about the Vatican as a force that sanctions monster hunters. At its core, this is a prime John Carpenter film, and it has the same quirky irreverent flavor that his protagonists often do. I also have this thing for the whole concept of roaming packs of vampires preying on the outskirts of society.
Fright Night
I love this film, and honestly, I am surprised it does not get talked about more often. There was a not-amazing remake some years ago featuring Colin Farrell and the late Anton Yelchin, but for me, the best version is the 1985 rendition. Vampires in suburbia is another interesting trope, and this movie carries that out beautifully as bad things are happening under the nose of your average small-town folks. The special effects do not hold up to modern scrutiny… but it was a simpler time. I remember NOW Comics had a phenomenal run of Fright Night comics that originally retold the movie and then picked up continuing the tale from that point forward.
Underworld
I think the hardest part of the list was trying to determine which Underworld and Blade films I might include, and ultimately I landed on ONLY including the first Underworld film and unfortunately completely skipping Blade. For me, the film series will forever be connected because they are this latex-suit industrial-metal Matrix-infused Vampire action. While I enjoy all of the Underworld films collectively, I think the first one is still the best because it does not require you to watch the previous films to understand. As the series continued it felt more and more derivative, and while this was great for existing fans… the whole hierarchy of the Vampire and Lycan worlds and which period of time we happened to be in got a little fuzzy. Still a great series if you have never watched them, thought not exactly what I would consider a scary viewing experience.
Night Watch
I went back and forth on whether or not to include this film, because while Vampires absolutely play heavily into the unfinished trilogy, it is more akin to a Russian Nightbreed than anything else. Not knowing where else I might fit this movie however led me to slot it into the Vampire list. This is one of the most creative and lavish visions of the conflict between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. It very much comes across as a dark faerie tale as opposed to something clinging to the western Dracula tradition, and honestly… that makes it so much more compelling. As I said before this is part of an unfinished trilogy of movies but if you enjoy this I would highly suggest checking out Day Watch as well. Dusk Watch sadly seems to be completely dead in the water.
What We Do In The Shadows
Yes, this is a comedy, but it is also one of the best Vampire films ever created. There are a number of “funny” vampire films, but most of them are pure shit. This however is high art and has so many absolute genius performances. This has also turned into a series on FX that is in its fourth season. Taika Watiti is brilliant as always but my favorite will always be Matt Berry’s Laszlo Cravensworth. I am a huge fan of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace so I am just generally partial to Matt Berry characters. Definitely start with the movie and if you enjoy it, then consume the series posthaste.
Interview With The Vampire
I am a product of my age and this movie was released during my freshman year in college. I had read several of the Anne Rice books and was still deeply into Vampire the Masquerade, so you know this movie meant quite a lot to me. I still don’t exactly agree with Tom Cruise as Lestat but whatever… the movie was still enjoyable. I’ve not had a chance to watch any of the new series that retells the tale, but it is on my list of things to do over the “season of spoop”. Brad Pitt as Louis is still delectable. I used to roleplay as a vampire on Undernet IRC and I was deeply into the family dynamic of these stories, and wish I still was in contact with the folks who used to roleplay as my “childer”.
Innocent Blood
This film does not get near the attention it deserves. Another aspect of Vampires that I have always loved is the ones who only feed on those who deserve to die. This is a tale of mob violence told through the vignette of a huntress slowly taking down “the family”. There are aspects that do not hold up… like the special effects but this comes from the pedigree of being directed by John Landis. The movie also has a bit of a buddy cop meets rom-com vibe as our vampire joins forces with a cop to take down some accidental vampire mobsters. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is currently on any of the streaming services, and you will have to digitally rent it. It has been years since I have seen it so I might need to track down the DVD.
Lost Boys
This movie came out when I was eleven and I probably did not actually get to watch it until I was twelve or thirteen… but when I did it heavily influenced pretty much everything about me going forward. This is the film that made me completely hooked on Vampires. I was convinced as a kid that the comics shown in this movie were real, and went on a quest to try and find them… only to find out that they were simply props but that lots of other horror comics existed. This movie is VERY 80s, but I completely love the style of the vampires and the cool lair that they live in. This is probably the only movie that had “The Two Coreys” that still hold up today. I remember having a massive crush on Star… as did pretty much everyone. I think the Grandpa however will always be the best character. Phenomenal movie and maybe an even better soundtrack. Cry Little Sister is a truly iconic theme song.
Near Dark
This is the best vampire film you have ever seen… or at least very few have actually seen it. This film absolutely is in contention for my favorite vampire film. What if I were to tell you that there was a Vampire film that included the best actors from Aliens, and was set here in Oklahoma? This tale goes in a lot of interesting directions but largely follows the story of a fledgling being inducted into this little tribe. Instead of relying on fangs, these vampires have to use more conventional methods of feeding off their victims like slicing them open with a razor. Instead of staying in one place, they travel around the country in a blacked-out RV to protect themselves from sunlight. The feel of the movie is deeply compatible with a roaming band of Kindred and I’ve always thought something like this would work extremely well for a Vampire the Masquerade setting. I think Shudder now owns the streaming rights to the film and I consider this a must-watch for anyone interested in Vampires because it is such a unique feeling take on the genre.
More To Come
Like I said at the start this one was really hard to narrow down to ten. There are so many great vampire films out there, and I am sure I have missed many of your favorites. Feel free to contest my decisions in the comments below. I am not sure where I am going from here, but maybe slasher films are the next sub-genre I tackle. As I am piecing things together in my head, there is absolutely a category of horror films that defy categorization. Not sure what I will do with those if I decide to tackle them at all.
No Blade 2, no From Dusk Til Dawn, I just don’t know man.
Bonus points for the original Fright Night though.