Vampires are the perfect designated hitters of the monster universe. The folk legend of a corpse compelled to rise again at night to feast on the blood of the living was popularized in western Europe by the English author John Polidori’s The Vampyre in 1819 before being cemented by Bram Stoker in 1897 with the publication of Dracula. Stoker’s novel is actually a paranoid allegory of its time, concerned with hirsute eastern Europeans awakening the fires of sensuality within the bosoms of England’s most demure shrinking violets, but the vampire has spread like wildfire throughout pop culture ever since.
With Robert Eggers’ remake of W.S. Murnau’s 1922 film Nosferatu soon to hit theaters, there’s no better time to sample some of the best that vampire media has to offer. A lot of unorthodox films didn’t make the cut here—some like Queen of the Damned (2002) got nixed because they’re less than stellar (despite a memorable nü-metal soundtrack). Others, like the surprisingly fun 2011 Fright Night remake starring Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrell, are well worth a watch but aren’t doing anything inventive with the genre.
Without any further ado, I invite you to sink your teeth into the list below.
