Horror first really took off because of the vampire genre. 1922’s Nosferatu and 1931’s Dracula changed everything, codifying the main tropes and launching a subgenre that endures until today. In the ’50s and ’60s, vampires continued to rule through the Christopher Lee Hammer films. Today, the bloodsuckers still have us by the throat with Robert Eggers‘ retelling of Nosferatu and Ryan Coogler‘s Academy Award-winning and box office sensation Sinners.
With how popular vampires have been over the decades, including classics like Near Dark, The Lost Boys, and Let the Right One In, it means so many great films from several different countries get left behind. The entries on this list are the best of the best in the vampire subgenre that deserve another chance.
‘The Addiction’ (1995)
Abel Ferrara already had a long history of making controversial but highly compelling movies with The Driller Killer and Bad Lieutenant, but The Addiction might be his best. Written by Nicholas St. John, The Addiction stars Lili Taylor as Kathleen, a New York college student, who is bitten on the neck by a strange woman one night and begins to show symptoms of becoming a vampire. Through her insatiable need for blood, she meets an old vampire named Peina (Christopher Walken), who claims he can make her human again by controlling her desire to feed.
The Addiction has powerful themes about drug addiction and the pain of overcoming it. Presented in black-and-white, Ferrara uses the shadowy visuals of past vampire films to tell his story. More dark character piece than scary horror movie, and with stellar performances from both Taylor and Walken, The Addiction is unlike any other vampire film you’ve ever seen.
‘Byzantium’ (2012)
Neil Jordan had already left his mark on the subgenre in a huge way with 1994’s Interview with the Vampire. Nearly two decades later, he returned to it with Byzantium. Written by Moira Buffini and adapted from her play A Vampire Story, Byzantium is about two female vampires. One is Clara (Gemma Arterton), who spends her nights working as a prostitute. The other is Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan), the younger, sad vampire, who falls in love with a sick human boy named Frank (Caleb Landry Jones).
Byzantium is a slow burn that’s part love story and something much darker. Jordan and Buffini are more interested in exploring deeper emotions and the power of women rather than telling a simple horror story. With the director’s signature visuals and strong performances from an impressive cast, this one shows that being a vampire is the loneliest affliction imaginable.
‘Daybreakers’ (2009)
Written and directed by The Spierig Brothers, whose only other film at that point was the Australian zombie film Undead, Daybreakers was a big Hollywood movie with major stars in the forefront, like Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Neill. The plot of a 2019 plague, which starts with a bat, hits a little too close to home now. Instead of COVID, though, this plague has turned almost everyone on Earth into a vampire, leading to a quick blood shortage and a group of scientists needing to develop a replacement to save everyone.
More sci-fi action movie than pure horror, Daybreakers is filled with plenty of thrills and stellar effects. It is not a slow burn like the aforementioned entries that takes its time developing the characters. Instead, Daybreakers has such a big story to tell that it jumps right in and speeds to the finish line while asking some big questions, which only get more unnerving in a post-COVID world.
‘Shadow of the Vampire’ (2000)
Nosferatu was the first vampire movie and the one that inspired everything that came after. Max Schreck, who starred as Count Orlok in the film, was said to have been a highly unusual man who took the role very seriously, leading to silly rumors that he may have been a real vampire. One of the most original vampire movies around, Shadow of the Vampire examines this rumor with a story about the making of Nosferatu and a deeper question: in this world, is Schreck really a member of the undead?
Although there are some uncomfortable comedic moments, Shadow of the Vampire is not a parody but rather a deeply serious drama that shows the behind-the-scenes moments of one of the greatest horror movies ever made (along with some staggering on-point recreations). John Malkovich is superb as Nosferatu director F.W. Murnau, but Shadow of the Vampire is Willem Dafoe‘s movie. Dafoe becomes Schreck in a dual role that sees him playing Count Orlok as well, earning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination in what might be his greatest movie.
‘The Hunger’ (1983)
Three years before Top Gun, director Tony Scott released his debut film, The Hunger. Catherine Deneuve stars as an ancient vampire named Miriam Blaylock. She’s invincible, but her vampire lover, John Blaylock (David Bowie), is not. He is dying, and desperate for help, he goes to a human medical researcher, Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon), with the hope that she can save him — if he gets her to believe him first. Everything changes, though, once Miriam meets Sarah.
Unlike other examples on this list, The Hunger is very sexual. The plot, as just given, is pretty much all there is; instead, the film succeeds because of its style. Scott showed how talented he was with a highly cinematic and atmospheric yet slow-moving movie where beautiful shots and a pervasive mood mean more than the story. How is this the same guy who would make the high-octane Top Gun?!
‘The Last Man on Earth’ (1964)
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is one of the greatest horror novels ever written. It has been adapted to film a few times in The Omega Man and I Am Legend, but the best of them is The Last Man on Earth. Based on a screenplay co-written by Matheson, and directed by Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo B. Ragona, The Last Man on Earth stars Vincent Price as Dr. Robert Morgan, seemingly the last man alive after a vampire virus wipes out humanity.
Unlike the two other heavily flawed adaptations, The Last Man on Earth is chilling in its minimalism. Filmed in black-and-white and with horror icon Price by himself in so many scenes, the film is a precursor to Night of the Living Dead as Dr. Morgan struggles to board up his home and keep the monsters out. Although vampires, these slow-moving creatures feel more like zombies, and they’re scary as hell.
‘Thirst’ (2009)
If you want great horror, South Korea knows how to do it! The country proved it again with Thirst, co-written and directed by Park Chan-wook. Six years after he shocked the world with Oldboy, he impressed again in this vampire tale starring Song Kang-ho (Parasite) as Sang-hyun, a good man and priest who spends his time with the sick in a hospital. With a deadly virus, god’s warrior agrees to be part of a vaccine experiment that goes horribly wrong: now he’s a vampire!
In a subgenre that feels like it has done everything, Thirst is somehow fresh and original, and its hero is so easy to root for.Thirst tests that goodwill with a love story for Sang-hyun in the form of a married woman named Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin). Before you know it, this love story gets very, very bloody, as one would expect in a movie about blood-suckers.
‘Cronos’ (1992)
Guillermo del Toro made his directing debut in the early ’90s with Cronos, a Spanish-language Mexican film starring Ron Perlman, then best known for his role in the CBS fantasy series Beauty and the Beast. Here, he plays Angel de la Guardia, the nephew of Dieter de la Guardia (Claudio Brook), and it’s his job to find a secret, handheld device that can give its user immortality. Of course, this being a horror movie, nothing goes according to plan.
It doesn’t have a very intricate plot, but Cronos, which del Toro also wrote, is helped by layered world-building and a strong mythology to make the thin story believable. The film has a sweet love story across generations, which is where Perlman showed he could be more than the TV hero in makeup. Here, he’s bad, yet distractingly funny as well. Without Cronos, Hellboy never happens, but this vampire masterpiece works even without that knowledge.
‘Martin’ (1977)
George A. Romero is the godfather of the modern zombie movie, with examples like Night of the Living Dead, but a year before its follow-up, Dawn of the Dead, Romero tried his hand at a vampire movie. Martin, starring John Amplas as the titular Martin Mathias, is one of the most realistic and uncomfortable genre movies out there. Martin is a serial killer who loves the taste of blood; he doesn’t have fangs, but a razor blade to satisfy his urges.
What makes Martin different is that we don’t know who the protagonist really is. Is he truly a vampire or a mentally deranged man convinced he is something impossible? Either option is scary. Martin is Romero’s attempt at an arthouse movie. There’s still plenty of blood and terror to be found, and, like always, the director has a deeper message going on under the surface. No Romero movie will get to you as much as this one.
‘A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night’ (2014)
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To top the list, we go to Iran. Written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night centers its focus on a character known only as “the girl” (Sheila Vand), who is anything but ordinary. In fact, she’s a vampire who uses her powers for good by sinking her teeth into the necks of bad men.
Although filmed in California, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is told in Farsi, and it’s a work of tremendous filmmaking. Presented in black-and-white, with some sharp, striking imagery, it isn’t a film about pervading bleakness but rather a cool Spaghetti western, a romance that celebrates music while remaining haunting. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is poetry in motion. If you think you’ve seen every kind of vampire movie there is, Ana Lily Amirpour will have you believing in the magic of horror all over again.
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