Best Vampire Movies – Good Vampire Films
By Shane Rivers
Unless your last name is Van Helsing, there’s a strong chance that you’re a fan of good vampire movies. While many of the best vampire movies are made with a decent budget, you can also find a large number of low-budget vampire films on DVD. In fact, they’re right up there with zombie movies when it comes to profitable yet easy-to-make horror films.
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best vampire movies ever made. We’ll examine a number of “best of” lists, and we will also see which vampire movies rank highest on Netflix. Finally, I’ll be looking at the critical acclaim surround Let the Right One In, a Swedish vampire film which enjoyed great critical and commercial success in 2008.
The Best Vampire Movies
The followings lists of the best vampire movies have been taken from various Internet sources. While you may not agree with all their selections on the top vampire films, these lists still provide a great opportunity to increase your overall knowledge of the genre.
Top 70 Vampire Films from Snarkerati
The website known as Snarkerati prepared the following list of the 70 best vampire films of all-time. A few of your favorite vampire movies will undoubtedly be included.
- Nosferatu
- Dracula
- Nosferatu the Vampyre
- Black Sunday
- Martin
- Horror of Dracula
- Near Dark
- Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary
- Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
- Cronos
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula
- The Night Stalker
- Fright Night
- Shadow of the Vampire
- Interview With the Vampire
- Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat
- Day Watch
- The Lost Boys
- From Dusk Till Dawn
- The Last Man on Earth
- The Fearless Vampire Killers
- Salem’s Lot
- The Monster Squad
- Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
- House of Dracula
- Vampyres
- Dracula’s Daughter
- Brides of Dracula
- Vampire Hunter D
- Blade
- Blade II
- Night Watch
- John Badham’s Dracula
- The Addiction
- Vampire Effect
- Blood: The Last Vampire
- Blood and Donuts
- Nadja
- Love at First Bite
- Rabid
- Vampire’s Kiss
- BioHunter
- Frostbitten
- Son of Dracula
- The Return of the Vampire
- Blood for Dracula
- The Wisdom of Crocodiles
- The Hunger
- The Vampire Lovers
- Underworld
- Subspecies
- Ganja & Hess
- Innocent Blood
- Vampyros Lesbos
- John Carpenter’s Vampires
- The Night Flier
- Lifeforce
- Underworld: Evolution
- Blade: Trinity
- Vamp
- Fright Night Part 2
- Van Helsing
- Blacula
- The Satanic Rites of Dracula
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- The Forsaken
- Queen of the Damned
- Dracula 2000
- Vampire in Brooklyn
- Bordello of Blood
While there are certainly some good vampire movies on the list, I have to take exception with Nosferatu being included at the top spot. I know it was the first significant vampire film, but is it really better than the other 69 on the list? I don’t think so.
Cronos is also too high, in my opinion. While this Spanish film was solid, it wasn’t good enough to crack the top 10. The same could be said for Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (it’s a freakin’ ballet, after all).
Personally, I would’ve bumped up Fright Night into the top 10. Not only does it provide a solid vampire tale, but it also incorporates a number of light-hearted moments; a feat which is even more difficult to accomplish within this somewhat restrictive genre.
Best Vampire Movies from Movie Crunch
While not as ambitious as the last entry, Movie Crunch did compile a list of their 15 best vampire movies. You’ll quickly notice that this group tends to be made up of more mainstream titles.
- From Dusk Till Dawn
- Nosferatu
- Dracula
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Shadow of the Vampire
- Interview With the Vampire
- 30 Days of Night
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula
- John Carpenter’s Vampires
- Salem’s Lot
- The Lost Boys
- Blade I/Blade II
- Fright Night
- Near Dark
- Underworld
While Dracula and Nosferatu are once again ranked higher than they deserve, the makers of the list also decided to commit heresy by including Buffy the Vampire Slayer at #4. While I’ve seen worse, it really has no place on a list of the best vampire movies.
The first two Blade films should have also been split up. The sequel was okay, but it was nowhere near as original as the first entry into the Blade trilogy (despite the presence of the always-great Ron Perlman).
Top Horror Movies from the IMDB
The Internet Movie Database allows members to rate movies, and these ratings then determine their overall rankings in various categories. In the “Best Horror Film” category, the following vampire films ranked in the top 50.
6. Let the Right One In
12. Nosferatu
49. Vampire Hunter D
Most Popular Vampire Movies from Netflix
Netflix is the leading online DVD rental service, and visitors can search by genre and see the most popular films chosen by other members. Which are the 10 best vampire movies according to the Netflix community? Take a look.
- My Best Friend is a Vampire
- Subspecies 3: Bloodlust
- Dracula III: Legacy
- Brides of Dracula
- Taste the Blood of Dracula
- Dracula’s Daughter
- Kiss of the Vampire
- Dracula (2007)
- The Norliss Tapes
- Return of the Vampire
Boy, what a mess of a list. Do keep in mind, however, that these rankings are based on the number of votes. A good vampire movie that gets 200 votes is likely to have a few negative reviews, while a film with only seven votes may have nothing but positive comments. This would lead to the film with less reviews getting a higher overall rating, and it’s the only way I can explain a film like My Best Friend is a Vampire getting the top spot. Then again, it’s the only way I can explain the entire Top 10 vampire films on Netflix. Yuck.
Let the Right One In – Critical Acclaim
At the end of each year, film critics will always release their lists of the 10 best movies of the year. In 2008, the Swedish vampire flick known as Let the Right One In was included on many such lists. Here are a few of the critics who granted it Top 10 status, as well as the rankings they gave it.
- Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle (#2)
- Kimberly Jones of the Austin Chronicle (#6)
- Ty Burr of the Boston Globe (#5)
- Lawrence Toppman of the Charlotte Observer (#7)
- Andrea Gronvall of the Chicago Reader (#9)
- Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune (#4)
- Peter Vonder Haar of Film Threat (#2)
- V.A. Musetto of the New York Post (#5)
- David Ansen of Newsweek (#1)
- Marc Mohan of the Portland Oregonian (#2)
I’d like to give kudos to David Ansen of Newsweek for having the guts to give Let the Right One In his #1 ranking. I noticed it made #2 on the lists of several critics, though I can’t help but wonder if the film’s “horror movie” status prevented it from getting to the top spot.
Whether deliberate or subconscious, it often seems that horror films are regarded as less of an art form when compared to other film genres: I couldn’t disagree more.
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