Vampire movies have existed since the silent era, in both Hollywood and German Expressionist cinema. 2026 sees the North American release of Dracula: A Love Tale, and based on the name alone, this isn’t a traditional vampire story. Directed by Luc Besson, it looks like Dracula but is more of a Gothic romance.
Over the years, Hollywood has transformed Dracula and other vampires into terrifying horror creations. That said, there are some great non-traditional vampire movies that change the narrative from the horror of vampires feeding on the innocent to something different. It is these vampire movies that stand out from traditional monster flicks.
The Lost Boys (1987)
The Lost Boys took the idea of vampires and turned it into a young adult coming-of-age story. Unlike Twilight in later years, which was a romantic coming-of-age story, this was about a teenager who learns his brother has been turned into a vampire and has to find a way to save his family.
Joel Schumacher directed the movie about a California town where the vampire mythos was added to a colorful beach set, and most of the vampires were teenagers who took the idea of being a vampire as an excuse to party, torture, and kill at their whim.
The Lost Boys also played with vampire tropes in a creative manner and played into the pulp history of the genre to deliver a fun experience that was also tinged with horror.
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014)
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is one of the lesser-known vampire movies, but one that all genre fans need to watch. What makes this stand out is that it is the “first Iranian vampire Western.” The movie follows a young man who is supporting his drug-addicted father and a mysterious woman whom he only sees at night.
The film is a slow burn, and the vampire horror is there, especially when “The Girl” kills her targets on the streets of Bad City. What this movie does is tell the story of people trying to find their place in the world, from the young man, Saeed, to “The Girl,” who is trying to find a connection while still needing to feed.
Shot in black and white, with a design similar to classic spaghetti Westerns, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is unlike any vampire movie available to watch today.
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
There is no way that Jim Jarmusch can ever make a traditional movie, and he proved it in the vampire genre with his meditation on immortality called Only Lovers Left Alive. The movie follows Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as Adam and Eve, centuries-old vampires who are currently living across the world from each other.
When Eve realizes that Adam is contemplating suicide to end his torment, she sets out to find her husband and discover what she can do to help. The film is a slow burn, but it is a fascinating look at what it means to live forever, and also shows the modern-day young adults who still glamorize it.
Only Lovers Left Alive was a festival darling and a critically acclaimed hit that was praised for Hiddleston and Swinton’s performances, and it remains one of the director’s best forays into horror.
Thirst (2009)
Thirst is a South Korean vampire movie that takes things in a more religious direction. In this film, Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) is a Catholic priest who volunteers at a hospital to deliver ministry to patients. However, with a deadly virus threatening throughout the nation, he agrees to an experiment to help find a vaccine.
However, the experiment fails, and Sang-hyun ends up infected with EV, but he makes a quick and complete recovery. The only problem is that it has turned him into a vampire. The movie is then a meditative look at what it means for a holy man to become a vampire.
Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) brought his sensibilities to the vampire genre in what was one of the most surprising horror movies of the 2000s.
Nosferatu (1922)
Nosferatu is as close to a normal vampire movie as one can get, but it did one thing that allowed it to beat Dracula to the punch by nine years. A German Expressionist film by F.W. Murnau, Nosferatu was based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but Murnau changed the names and locations when Stoker’s estate denied their request.
Nosferatu is about a vampire named Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on his real estate agent’s wife and brings a plague to their town. The plague was not part of the Universal Studios Dracula movie. While Stoker’s estate won a court ruling that required all copies of Nosferatu to be destroyed, it has survived to this day.
Nosferatu is now considered as iconic as the original Dracula, and has even been remade more than once, including in 2024 by Robert Eggers.
Vampire’s Kiss (1989)
Vampire’s Kiss is one of the most bizarre vampire movies ever made because it really isn’t even about vampires. Instead, the movie is about a man who believes he is a vampire and is slowly losing his mental faculties when he starts attacking people with the prop teeth he bought at a store.
Nicolas Cage is arguably at his most unhinged in this film as Peter Loew, a literary agent and yuppie who believes he was bitten and infected by a vampire and decides he is becoming one. As he becomes more dangerous and attacks people on the streets, he starts to live the life of a vampire.
This is an absurdist dark comedy, with Cage going all in and the film receiving terrible reviews when released. However, Vampire’s Kiss has since become a cult classic and remains one of the most iconic vampire comedies ever made.
Shadow Of The Vampire (2000)
Shadow of the Vampire is a non-traditional vampire movie because it supposes that F.W. Murnau hired a real vampire to play Count Orlok in the German Expressionist release, Nosferatu, and promised the vampire the neck of the leading lady if he would make the movie.
Willem Dafoe plays Max Schreck in this film, where he turns out to be a real vampire, while John Malkovich stars as F.W. Murnau, the German auteur filmmaker. Produced by Nicolas Cage and directed by E. Elias Merhige, critics highly praised the film, and Dafoe earned an Oscar nomination for his performance.
It was a brilliant look at the vampire mythos and was a great satire about filmmaking, one of the best in the genre in the early 2000s.
Let The Right One In (2008)
Let the Right One In is a 2008 vampire movie based on the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist. While it received an American remake called Let Me In, the original Swedish release remains the best version of the story. What makes it work so well is that it centers on two children in the lead roles.
Eli is a child vampire, very old but stuck in a child’s body, who needs a caretaker to get her what she needs to survive. Oskar is a young, lonely boy who lives next door and realizes she is a vampire and befriends her. Soon, he realizes she is grooming him to become her next caretaker.
Let the Right One In is a dark and somber look at what it means to be a vampire, but it is also a coming-of-age story about a young boy who is bullied and is an outsider, but finds his possible fate in the hands of a young vampire. With a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score, non-traditional vampire movies don’t get much better than this.
Near Dark (1987)
Near Dark is a vampire movie that never once uses the word vampire in the entire film. Released the same year as The Lost Boys, this is the antithesis to that young adult film, as it is a dark story about a pack of vampires traveling across the Southwest who meet a young man who ends up being their downfall.
A vampire Western movie, Adrian Pasdar stars as Caleb, a young man in Oklahoma who meets a young woman named Mae. She is a vampire and bites him before bringing him to her “family,” who are not happy to see someone new in their midst. The family, which includes standout performances by Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen, then tests him.
The movie is dark and violent, and it all ends with Caleb fighting for his soul and Mae’s freedom. It was a box office failure and remains lesser known than The Lost Boys, but Near Dark is the better film by a long shot.
Sinners (2025)
Sinners is one of the best vampire movies ever made, and it is only a vampire movie on a surface level. The movie is about brothers who return home to the Jim Crow South to open up a juke joint. The Smokestack Brothers then found opposition from the Ku Klux Klan, but there was something worse coming.
A vampire showed up and began turning the townspeople. However, the twist here was that the vampire wasn’t trying to kill anyone. He just wanted to turn everyone into a vampire so they could all live as a collective consciousness in the town, but against their will. The brothers rose up to fight back.
Sinners was one of the best of 2025 and is a frontrunner for the Oscars for Best Picture. It was also one of Michael B. Jordan’s best performances as he played both brothers. Add in the brilliant music, and this is as elite as non-traditional vampire movies get.
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