For over 100 years, the best vampire movies of all time have instilled audiences with a sense of romantic, melancholic dread, intense sensual lust, and a fantastical sense of gothic wonder as they sit in theaters and watch these devastating creatures of the night do their bidding. The best vampire movies masterfully blend romance and terror to create a feeling of everlasting life, love, and lust to send chills down the spines of moviegoers across the globe. As time has gone by, however, the vampire film has grown to encompass not just lust and terror, but, action, adventure, war, science fiction, and even comedy. With such a lush and everlasting catalog of films to choose from, this of course raises the question, what is the best vampire movie of all time?
With gothic dramas like Bram Stroker's Dracula,Interview With the Vampire, and Let the Right One In to terrifying tales of blood lust and carnage in films like 30 Days of Night and From Dusk Till Dawn to hilarious horror comedies like What We Do in the Shadows and Fright Night, the wide array of vampire movies range into every single genre, with each being holistically unique, special, and masterfully crafted. Lest we forget to mention the masterpieces that started it all with Dracula and Nosferatu, and we have a list of not only some of the best vampire movies of all time but some of the best films ever made.
A beautiful blend of thrills, horror, humor, and phenomenal style, The Lost Boys is the quintessential vampire film for both newcomers to the subgenre and those who are seasoned vets. With a fast-paced and wicked story wrapped in classic 80s angst and style, The Lost Boys leaves audiences with a story they won't ever forget and introduces some of the most beloved and revered vampires of all time to the movie-going world.
You're a Creature of the Night, Michael. Just like out of a comic book.
Actors: Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Barnard Hughes, Edward Herrmann
Combining spine-chilling thrills with side-splitting humor, Tom Holland made a masterful blend of horror and classic 80s John Huges-esque style to create a masterpiece of a vampire film with Fright Night. Showcasing some of the most original and frightening vampires of the 80s, Fright Night perfectly blends humor with horror and creates an incredibly good time at the cinema.
He got me, Charley! He bit me! You know what you're gonna have to do now, don't you? Kill me. Kill me, Charley... before I turn into a vampire, and... give you a hickey!
Actors: Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Roddy McDowall, Amanda Bearse, Stephen Geoffreys
After decades of campy, cheesy, and downright horrific interpretations of the story, Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Bram Stroker's Dracula returns to the stories roots and gives audiences one of the most intense, endearing, sensual, and gothic adaptations the story has ever known. Gary Oldman's portrayal of the titular Dracula is one of the greatest on-screen performances of the Vampiric icon to date, and this groundbreaking gothic fantasy helped reinvigorate the horror genre.
Listen to them: the children of the night. What sweet music they make.
Actors: Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Richard E. Grant
Oozing charm, sexuality, and lust, Interview with the Vampire is one of the sexiest, most atmospheric portrayals of gothic storytelling ever told on the big screen. With a plethora of stars whose sole job is to get the blood pumping, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Antonio Bandera all shine in this incredibly erotic and sensual tale of vampiric love and lust.
That morning I was not yet a vampire, and I saw my last sunrise. I remember it completely, and yet I can't recall any sunrise before it. I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn for the last time as if it were the first. And then I said farewell to sunlight, and set out to become what I became.
Actors: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Stephen Rea, Christian Slater
Utterly brutal in every sense of the word, 30 Days of Night gives a new look to Vampires, as the sensual and lust-filled creatures are replaced by ravenous blood-soaked creatures of the night who hunt and kill like wild animals. An adaptation of the comic of the same name, 30 Days of Night is a shocking and utterly brutal film that will have any vampire fans question if they ever want to get bitten by these creatures of the night.
When man meets a force he can't destroy, he destroys himself. What a plague you are.
Actors: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster, Mark Boone
The film that changed the ways audiences see vampires forever, Tod Browning's Dracula is the gold standard for vampire stories in cinema, as Bela Lugosi gives a timeless portrayal of the Creature of the Night in a tense, horrifying, atmospheric and gothic tale. While it may be dated by today's standards, for its effect on the genre and its importance in history, Dracula stands head and shoulders above all other vampire tales.
To die, to be really dead, that must be glorious!
Actors: Bela Lugosi, Edward Van Sloan, Dwight Frye, David Manners, Herbert Bunston
