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- The most popular cinematic adaptation of vampire fiction has been from Bram Stoker 's 1897 novel Dracula, with over 170 versions to date. Running a distant second are adaptations of the 1872 novel Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.
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The 30 Essential Vampire Movies To Watch Right Now. Werewolves, mummies, and cobbled-together lab freaks have been around since the earliest decades of film, but no monster was perhaps more...
There have been a number of vampire films based on or inspired by Countess Elizabeth Báthory (1560-1614), a reputed serial killer from the noble family of Báthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Hungary, Slovakia and Romania).
TitleRelease YearCountryDirector2024United States2023United States2023United States2014United States- Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) Directed by Jim Jarmusch. Starring Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska. Comedy, Drama, Fantasy (2h 3m) 7.2 on IMDb — 86% on RT.
- What We Do in the Shadows (2014) Directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. Starring Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer. Comedy, Horror (1h 26m)
- Interview With the Vampire (1994) Directed by Neil Jordan. Starring Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas. Drama, Fantasy, Horror (2h 3m) 7.5 on IMDb — 63% on RT.
- Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins. Drama, Fantasy, Horror (2h 8m) 7.4 on IMDb — 78% on RT.
- The Lost Boys (1987) 35 years old and a cultural touchstone for the generations that have grown up with it: what else could top Empire’s vampire list but The Lost Boys?
- Nosferatu (1922) Denied the rights to Bram Stoker’s novel, F.W. Murnau turned Dracula into Count Orlok. Played by theatre actor Max Schreck (which seems to have been his real name, even though it means "fright" in German) in astonishing make-up, the character conveys an almost indescribable malevolence.
- Dracula (1958) Quatermass and Frankenstein preceded it, but to a great extent, Hammer Horror begins here. Directed by the incomparable Terence Fisher, written by Jimmy Sangster, pairing Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (with Lee getting actual lines for the first time), and going all-out with colour, glamour, sex and blood, Hammer’s Dracula aligns the elements and distils the formula that powered the studio for the next two decades.
- Near Dark (1987) A vampire romance from a time before that phrase became horrifying, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark centres on star cross’d lovers Adrian Pasdar and Jenny Wright.
- These vampire flicks only suck in the good way.
- 25. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
- 24. Vampyr (1932)
- 23. Bit (2019)
- 22. Fright Night (2011)
- 21. Bloodsucking Bastards (2015)
- 20. The Lost Boys (1987)
- 19. Norway (2014)
- 18. Cronos (1993)
- 17. Blade II (2002)
By Matt Donato
Updated: Jan 12, 2024 7:16 am
Posted: Oct 12, 2023 7:00 pm
Vampires are a cornerstone of horror cinema, arising even before Universal opened Dracula’s coffin in Hollywood’s relative infancy. Since then, we’ve seen vampires of every iteration — the glittery heartthrobs, the ugliest creatures, the prankster roommates, and countless other reinventions. There have always been vampires lurking in shadows, and there will forever be batty wings flapping under the moonlight. Our task here is to highlight the best of the best vampire movies throughout history, covering period highlights as horror movements came and went faster than Drac stepping into the sunlight.
As always, there will be personal favorites that don’t squeak their way onto this list but still deserve recognition. Tom Holland’s Fright Night is a wacky and subtextually queer delight that features grotesque '80s practical effects. Rob Stefaniuk’s Suck is a hard-rocking vampire musical featuring a bevy of rockstar cameos in a fun-filled undead tour. Other movies like The Transfiguration, Byzantium, Blood Red Sky and Blade deserve to be in the conversation when fans discuss their favorite vampire movies, and we’d love to hear some of yours! After reading our selections below, hit the comments with some vampire movies you’d rank as crowning achievements in vampire cinema. But for now, let’s take a bite out of this massive subgenre.
You can also take a look at the best monster movies for more picks.
We’re talking about the 1992 feature starring Kristy Swanson, not the worshiped television show. Before Sarah Michelle Gellar started staking vamps on television, Swanson starred in a '90s horror comedy that favored pep rally humor over sharpened weapons. Swanson’s vibing off the bubblegum-popping cheerleader stereotypes of '90s high school comedies that never let cheer squad captains be more than ditzy love interests, let alone vampire slayers. What it represents for young girls seeing themselves as horror heroes is iconic, and its class-clown act holds up whether Luke Perry tells a levitating David Arquette to go home or Paul Reubens sells the hammiest vampire death ever. Horror’s not only for the boys anymore, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a big step in the right direction as far as the '90s were concerned.
•Director: Fran Rubel Kuzui
•Starring: Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland, Paul Reubens, Rutger Hauer, Luke Perry, Hilary Swank, David Arquette
•Running Time: 86 minutes
Criterion has dubbed 1932’s Vampyr a horror classic with good reason. Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer implements what little technological advancements benefitted cinema at the time to create a black-and-white vampire mystery that operates in absurdist brush strokes. Most notably, Vampyr heavily uses shadows that maneuver with free will, giving a dreamlike state to supernatural influences. It’s no Nosferatu, but it exemplifies how vampire flicks can differentiate themselves through translucent visual effects and more ghostly disorientation even in days when techniques were limited. You can never stifle ambition, which will always find a way.
•Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
•Starring: Julian West, Rena Mandel, Sybille Schmitz, Jan Hieronimko
•Running Time: 75 minutes
The “Vibe Check” on Brad Michael Elmore’s Bit passes with flying (neon) colors. Nicole Maines stars as a transgender teenage girl who moves to Los Angeles and falls in with a badass crew of vampires (run by cooler-than-everyone Diana Hopper as Duke) who do not allow men in their undead club. Elmore’s indie oozes LA’er attitudes from messaging to sexy nightlife scenes — complete with a needle drop of Starcrawler’s “I Love LA” — and boasts 10 times the style of contemporary vampire flicks with 10 times the budget. It feels authentic in thematic messages, ambitious yet wholly operating within its means, and still has some nice bloodletting for more hardcore horror fans despite execution that might favor younger audiences. A film that’s never shy about what’s on the tin and even holds its feminist message accountable is better for its slick-supportive-seductive ways.
•Director: Brad Michael Elmore
•Starring: Nicole Maines, Diana Hopper, Zolee Griggs, Friday Chamberlain, Char Diaz, James Paxton, Greg Hill
•Running Time: 90 minutes
Yes, 2011’s Fright Night remake earns an entry while the beloved 1985 original does not. Why? Because 2011’s Fright Night, starring Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, and Toni Collette, is an upgrade in fierceness and pacing, and separates its performances from the originals enough to exist without competing against its elders. There’s no comparison between Peter Vincents or Jerry Dandriges — Farrell operates like a shark smelling blood and David Tennant is the Midori-drunk Vegas showman dealing with darker demons. The '85 version’s practical effects are superior without argument, but Fright Night (2011) gets more credit everywhere else. It’s dreadfully predatory from the get-go and never relents.
Read our review of Fright Night.
•Director: Craig Gillespie
•Starring: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Toni Collette, Imogen Poots, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Dave Franco
•Running Time: 106 minutes
•Streaming: Rent on Amazon Prime Video
Vampirism can represent numerous metaphors — for example, vampirism as addiction is popular — and in Bloocksucking Bastards, vampires invade office spaces. The horror comedy starring Fran Kranz and Pedro Pascal is about a sales office slowly turning into nocturnal sales agents of doom. The soul-sucking drain of cubicle life becomes quite literal because vampires can be more productive than humans who sleep, take lunch breaks, and so forth. What starts as a spooky Workaholics episode eventually reveals the satirical staying power of a Mike Judge comedy, as Bloodsucking Bastards unleashes undead corporate warfare with supply closet tools used as weapons. For the horror comedy fans in your life who love “Worksploitation” horror (exploitation flicks about day jobs), this is one cold call you should answer.
•Director: Brian James O'Connell
•Starring: Fran Kranz, Pedro Pascal, Joey Kern, Joel Murray, Emma Fitzpatrick, Yvette Yates Redick, Parvesh Cheena
•Running Time: 86 minutes
The Lost Boys is a Peter Pan riff with more neck biting and less innocence. It's quintessential '80s horror at a crossroads between bloody eruptions and glitter usage, infamous for its inclusion of "Sexy Sax Man." Kiefer Sutherland's gang of vampiric Santa Carla misfits ride dirt bikes and play mind tricks by making others think they're eating insects, but there's also a mean streak to The Lost Boys. Director Joel Schumacher's vision is as extra as the '80s would allow, and vampire makeup designs aim to stir frights — it's a boardwalk hangout flick with surprisingly gruesome vampire traits that audiences will never forget for its sense of over-the-top style.
•Director: Joel Schumacher
•Starring: Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Edward Herrmann, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Corey Feldman, Alex Winter
•Running Time: 97 minutes
Chances are you don’t even know Yannis Veslemes’ Norway exists — it sat around waiting for U.S. distribution from about 2014 until 2021. Maybe that’s because it’s hard to describe this Eurotrash take on vampirism about a bloodsucker who says he’ll die if he stops dancing. It’s a period piece about 1980s nightclubs and their underbellies that turns vampires into rave-loving party animals who befriend prostitutes and end up entangled in Nazi conspiracies... The music beats as loud as Veslemes’ artistic ambitions since sequences are treated like glitzy music video segments where blood can be any vibrant color. Everything from miniatures to Michel Gondry-esque daydreams thrive. I promise you will never see a groovier, more fleet-of-foot vampire hallucination than Norway.
•Director: Yannis Veslemes
•Starring: Vangelis Mourikis, Alexia Kaltsiki, Daniel Bolda
•Running Time: 73 minutes
Guillermo del Toro’s debut is as del Toro as they come. Cronos is an alternative vampire movie about a golden insect mechanism, a scarab that grants eternal life, and vampirism in its least traditional forms. You’ll glimpse a baby-faced Ron Perlman acting as a mob goomba, and minimal bloodsucking except for del Toro’s entire impetus for writing the story of Cronos — his lead character licking nosebleed juice off a bathroom floor like an addict. It’s del Toro’s way of encountering the curse of vampirism, which pivots into more curiosity about everlasting life than how someone consumes fresh blood to stay alive. You can see del Toro evolves his passion for humanizing monsters from Cronos onward and channels his rebellious spirit when bucking genre conformity.
•Director: Guillermo del Toro
•Starring: Federico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Margarita Isabel
•Running Time: 94 minutes
One or two more slots on this list and Wesley Snipes’ first Blade movie would appear. As is, Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II represents the comic book franchise here as a rare sequel that outshines its original. Del Toro’s flourishes are an upgrade from industrial blood rave aesthetics since landscapes are more colorful, vampires become terrifying creatures, and mercenaries gun their way through monstrosities using high-tech weapons. Blade II benefits from del Toro’s characterization of the macabre and adoration of practical effects, all of which are precursors to later del Toro works like Hellboy and Crimson Peak — without losing a drop of Snipes’ bad-mama-jamma Blade attitude.
•Director: Guillermo del Toro
•Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Norman Reedus, Thomas Kretschmann, Luke Goss, Donnie Yen, Danny John-Jules, Leonor Varela
•Running Time: 117 minutes
- Matt Donato
The two films and the novels they are based on revolve around the eponymous D, a vampire hunter who is the apparent half-vampire/half-human son of Dracula who battles vampires in the year AD 12,090. In 1997, the anime series Vampire Princess Miyu became popular in Japan, and many other anime followed.
Sep 5, 2023 · From underrated remakes and a classic '80s neo-Western to a French showbiz satire, here are our picks for the most essential, must-watch vampire films.
