The 31 Best Vampire Movies Ever – Asap Land

Its roots are lost at the dawn of time, with legends of ghouls and ghosts devouring life force ravaging Europe, and whose origins can be traced back to the mermaids and lamias of classical mythology.

The legend of the beings who slept in coffins and fed on the energy of the living, with more or less variations, acquired hints of true collective hysteria in some areas of Eastern Europe during the 18th century. But it was not until the end of that century, with the publication of a series of literary works with great features in common, that the figure of the vampire as we know it today.

John Polidori's 1819 account 'The Vampire', Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Carmilla' in 1872, and the sum of both, Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' in 1897, shaped the vampire as a Machiavellian and seductive creature, with elements of both supernatural donjun and predator of the night.

From the apocryphal 'Dracula' of silent film 'Nosferatu' to the constant reinventions of myth that continue to dry up our screens, the vampire has never stopped being present in horror movies. 'Dracula' is just the tip of the iceberg: Vampires, bloodsuckers and princes of darkness of all kinds have populated the cinema for more than a century. To remember them, we have selected the 31 most notorious vampire movies, so that you can wake up tomorrow with two small holes in your neck.

Address: F.W. Murnau

Distribution: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schreder, GH Schnell, Ruth Landshoff

The first vampire film was also accompanied by controversy: it was an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'. In fact, to avoid legal problems, words like "vampire" had disappeared (replaced by the magnificent generic term "nosferatu"), and the names of the characters changed, Dracula being renamed Earl Orlock. Of course, Stoker's widow did not like a hair, and undertook a personal crusade to remove all negatives from the face of the Earth, something he did not get by thanks to private celluloid collectors.

In any case, the film is a total masterpiece of the first horror film, and a peak of German expressionism along with classics like 'The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari' or 'The Golem'. Bursting with esoteric readings (Murnau and its producer were scholars of the occult) and darkly immortal images, she is remembered above all for the incarnation of Max Schreck as Orlock, a semi-unknown actor who for a time doubted his actual existence, which inspired the plot of the magnificent 'The Shadow of the Vampire'.

Espinof Review: Nosferatu

Address: Tod Browning

Distribution: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloan, Herbert Bunston, Frances Dade, Joan Standing

Based more on the extremely popular play inspired by Stoker's novel than on the book itself, it is one of the most popular vampire films in history, despite not being one of the best, even within Tod's cinema Browning. What is indisputable is Bela Lugosi's strange charisma as a seductive and hypnotic vampire, leaving behind the monstrous aspect of Earl Orlock. The film made him a star almost by chance (the Dracula originally planned was Lon Chaney, who died before filming began) and irremissibly marked his career.

However, 'Dracula' is greatly affected by its theatrical origins and, paradoxically, it runs more stiffly than 'Nosferatu', with few scenarios and schematic characters that add up to several of the original source in one. The version with actors in Spanish language directed by George Melford with Carlos Villaras acting as Dracula is far superior, with scenes of shocking terror that are not in Browning's, although This one has wonderfully iconic moments, such as the presence of the three girlfriends or already historical phrases like "I never drink came".

Espinof Review: Dracula

Address: Terence Fisher

Distribution: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Valerie Gaunt, Carol Marsh, Olga Dickie

Despite the fact that in its day it came to be considered an affront to the original literary source for its very high doses of violence and eroticism, never before seen on screen, the truth is that the first Dracula of the Hammer, unlike the also extraordinary 'La Frankenstein's Curse of 1957, which is notoriously distant from Mary Shelley's novel, is the most trustworthy incarnation of Stoker's vampire thus far. Especially, thanks to the imposing presence of Chritopher Lee, both a seductive monster and a magnetic gentleman.

Lavishly directed by Terence Fisher, with a staging that made every corner of the stage, every object, and every gesture ooze strangeness and pure horror, 'Dracula 'turned vampires back into monsters, leaving gallantry behind coffins. The Hammer would sign eight direct sequels to Dracula, some as highly recommended as this first installment. These include 'The Brides of Dracula', 'Dracula, Prince of Darkness', 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' or the surprisingly juicy 'Dracula 73'

Espinof Review: Dracula

Address: Terence Fisher

Distribution: Peter Cushing, Yvonne Monlaur, David Peel, Martita Hunt, Freda Jackson, Miles Malleson, Andree Melly

Although we all remember Christopher Lee as, possibly, the best Dracula of all time, it should be clear that the Hammer has dug into vampire terror with many other films of the subgenre. Some of them as interesting as the ones starring Lee, like this one, also directed by Terence Fisher, again with Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, but with a new blood taster (generated, yes, by Dracula himself): Baron Meinster.

The film overflows priceless moments, from the deservedly mythical sequence of the mill forming a cross with the blades to all the dialogues of the baron's mother, going through the fetid resurrection impressive for a 1960 movie of one of the girlfriends. Those interested in the vampiric mythology of the Hammer beyond Lee's Dracula will do well to immerse themselves in all those inspired by Le Fanu's' Carmilla '(less visually sophisticated than this, but very juicy, such as' Countess Dracula' or ' Dracula and the Twins') or the total crackpot of the late Hammer, such as' Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter 'or' Kung Fu vs. the Seven Golden Vampires'.

Address: Sidney Salkow, Ubaldo Ragona

Distribution: Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Christi Courtland

Although Richard Matheson's original novel (here co-adapted in the script) is one of the great inspirations for George A. Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead', it is easy to identify the post-apocalyptic creatures that have left the planet on a solar with vampires: they rest during the day, hours that our protagonist takes advantage to massacre them -an idea that would later loot 'Vampires of John Carpenter'-. The rest of the time, a perfectly melancholic Vincent Price, laments his lonely situation.

The movie would be reformulated in a more ambitious and blockbuster production starring Will Smith in 2007, and which would accentuate the vampiric component and monstrous of the beings that roam the planet. But it lacks the dark, minimalist atmosphere that has ended up turning this co-produced film with Italy (that rarefied European air gives it much of its charm) a strange rarity in vampire cinema.

Address: Roman Polanski

Distribution: Jack MacGowran, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, Alfie Bass, Ferdy Mayne, Jessie Robins, Iain Quarrier

A singular comedy slapstick with a vampiric atmosphere, as silly as it is thundering, it works and is remembered because it takes its terrifying part very seriously. Is, clearly inspired by the then buoyant productions of the Hammer, even in its most classical phase. Virtually dumb, she is also remembered for filing one of Sharon Tate's rare co-starring roles before being killed by the Manson clan.

The film makes it clear at all times that Polanski is a true devotee of horror cinema and its tropes, with his thundered version of the first and masterful half of the novel 'Dracula' and Jonathan Harker's visit to the vampire castle. What also makes it clear, and it's a shame that Polanski didn't cultivate it more often, is that the white, visual humor (light years from the twisted paranoid snort of 'The Chimerical Tenant') was also downright good at it.

Criticism in Espinof: The Vampire Dance

Address: Jess Franco

Distribution: Soledad Miranda, Dennis Price, Victor Feldman, Ewa Stroemberg, Paul Muller, Jess Franco, Heidrun Kussin

The unclassifiable Jess Franco returned to the vampiric myth over and over throughout his career: from the rare stiffness of 'Count Dracula' to the comedy nut of 'Dracula against Frankenstein', passing by East exploit erotic artist who takes the rampant cinephilia of his manager by storm to subvert the codes of lesbian vampirism that the late Hammer productions had come into vogue, albeit by tightening the nuts of visual explicitness.

Franco skips the topics of vampiric cinema that do not interest him (the always memorable Soledad Miranda is a vampire who basks in the sun), endorses others (only drinks women's blood) and dynamite the rest, like everything that concerns the hunter of vampires. Here the castle is a chalet and the soundtrack has no scary church organs, but it is built with a warm and hypnotic jazz. Like all Franco, unique and particular, and still, one of the most notorious vampire eurohorror movies.

Address: Harry Kmel

Distribution: John Karlen, Delphine Seyrig, Danielle Ouimet, Andrea Rau, Paul Esser, Georges Janin, Joris Collet, Fons Rademakers

One of the most unique films in the entire Eurohorror era of the 1970s, at the height of the Hammer's successful formula to loot 'Carmilla' to adapt the vampiric myth to the new times, as well as in its rethinking by Spanish, French and German producers at the stroke of curiosity, dream delirium and wild eroticism. In this case, Countess Bathory and her maid are used, staying in a hotel in Bruges where the main couple arrives: he wants to present his fiance to his mother.

With psychosexual potentiometers at eleven (or more), This Franco-Belgian and German co-production mixes elements of giallo and the exploitation cinema of the time. Kmel (who was soon to direct her stupendous adaptation of 'Malpertius') configured her vamp (Delphine Seyrig) with elements from classic movie actresses like Marlene Dietrich (and the maid like Louise Brooks). He also injected him with certain aesthetic airs typical of the uniforms of Nazism, since with that authoritarian touch is how Kmel saw the mythical bloodsuckers.

Address: Jean Rollin

Distribution: Marie-Pierre Castel, Mireille Dargent, Philippe Gast, Dominique, Louise Dhour, Michel Delesalle

Rollin, capable of unleashing furious hatred and boundless devotion, forms an essential piece of the winding and hypererotic Euro-horror of the seventies. Their stories, cut mostly by the same pattern of blood-drinking nymphs, more inspired by 'Carmilla' than by 'Dracula', are very slight variations to the same idea that floats in a world in which everything is aesthetic, tulles, fog and castles in open fields.

I could have brought to this list the also fabulous 'The Living Dead', 'The Vampire Castle', 'The Rape of the Vampire', 'The Naked Vampire' or 'The Dawn of the Vampires', but I keep this one strange piece, practically mute, that Tarantino himself is ahead with his story of two injured robbers who end up tumbling through a mysterious castle. Influenced more than other of his films by nouvelle vague and for the European erotic comic, 'Requiem for a Vampire' is pure Rollin, and as such as debatable as it is fascinating.

Address: Paul Morrissey

Distribution: Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier, Arno Juerging, Maxime McKendry, Milena Vukotic, Dominique Darel, Stefania Casini

A very rare experiment produced by Andy Warhol overflowing with snorty comedy, folletinesco drama, Mediterranean eroticism and ultra-bloody terror whose plot seems to come from a Jaimito movie: Dracula (Udo Kier) needs virgins to feed, and travels to Italy since, being this a traditionally Catholic country, there will be more pure maidens. Of course, although you can see a few victims, none are as virtuous as they appear.

The result of this madness is unusually bitter, much more than the other Warhol production with which he formed a delirious double program, the wild one and much more. exploit 'Meat for Frankenstein'. Kier gives the count a unique melancholy, tormented because the new times and the existence of gallants like the one played by Joe Dallessandro (determined to end vampirism by jumping from bed to bed) are going to end his eternal life. A theme very typical of modern Draculas (the decline of the classic predatory beau, completely out of his time), here in a more carnal and excessive version than ever.

Address: Jos Ramn Larraz

Distribution: Marianne Morris, Anulka Dziubinska, Murray Brown, Brian Deacon, Sally Faulkner, Michael Byrne, Karl Lanchbury

Although her tramontano eroticism has turned her into a somewhat outdated piece (unlike Larraz's monumental 'Los ritos sexual del diablo', also more marrana but tremendously perverse), 'Las hijas de Drcula' is still a key piece of the European vampiric cinema of the seventies. Produced in England, the good pulse of Larraz (which He initialed these things just like slashers like 'Rest in pieces' or 'At the edge of the ax', not to mention things as of his moment as 'Rape and?' or 'magic powders') and her bravery in threading an almost movie-like atmosphere of haunted houses give her unique value.

In this case, the plot is more traditional than that of other films of the time such as 'The red on the lips': two vampires cause accidents near the mansion where they live and groggily one of their victims to feed on him. But the bloody excesses, brutal even for the time, the hysterical staging and the masses of people in balls running around in front of the camera make it stand out from others of the time. Subject of a recent, much neater and decidedly inferior remake in 2015. With Fele Martnez.

Address: George A. Romero

Distribution: John Amplas, Lincoln Maazel, Christine Forrest, Elyane Nadeau, Sara Venable, Francine Middleton, Roger Caine

A very singular exploration of the nature of the monstrous at the hands of a George A. Romero still oblivious to the international bombing that his 'Zombie' would suppose that same year. Here tells the story of a young man who believes himself to be a vampire and behaves as such, although he neither has sharp fangs nor disintegrates in sunlight. But still he wants to feed on blood and is willing to make all the cuts in other people's necks that are necessary to get it.

This plot could perfectly belong to a parody black comedy (as the later 'Vampire Kisses' would be in part), but Romero uses it to immerse himself in an oppressive environment, as disturbing as the mind of its protagonist. The director manages to inject an atmosphere of genuine vampire cinema in a story that constantly repeats to the viewer that it is not, leading to bewilderment and a constant feeling of paranoia. A masterpiece of the first Rosemary that has only recently begun to gain a fair cult following.

Address: Werner Herzog

Distribution: Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, Jacques Dufilho, Roland Topor, Walter Ladengast, Dan van Husen

The remake of the mythical Murnau silent film not only manages to keep the type well as a replica, but to reformulate its most complicated achievement: that indescribable hallucinated atmosphere, like a nightmare. Herzog reaches her thanks to the hypnotic interpretations of their leading trio: Kinski, of course, with his mind-blowing physique and their alienated behavior; but also an Isabelle Adjani who seems with a constant foot in the other neighborhood and Bruno Ganz as one of the most fragile and terrifying Jonathan Harkers in history.

Herzog knows how to extract from Stoker's novel and Murnau's film the elements that turn this film into an observation on the terrible implications of death: pain, forgetfulness and loneliness. That is why he recovers one of the most suggestive and least treated ideas of previous adaptations (neither Universal nor Hammer paid attention to him, for example): the vampire as an ancient infectious plague that leaves a trail of stinking corpses wherever it passes.

Address: Tobe Hooper

Distribution: David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, Lew Ayres, Reggie Nalder, Ed Flanders, Elisha Cook Jr.

Okay, it's a miniseries for television but we inserted it here for having received a feature film edition (in Spain, under the ridiculous title of 'Phantasma II') and for its extraordinary quality despite cathodic limitations. Adapt one of the best Stephen King novels and he marked countless children of the eighties in his pass on Spanish Television, to such an extent that for a generation, the image of the vampire boy scratching his brother's window is one that traumatizes a childhood.

His mix of transformation from the classic vampires (pulling, curiously, the iconography of the most classic of all, Nosferatu) with respect for the mythology of the genre (all the rules are followed: the invitation to the home, the stake, the hunters, coffins ) bears fruit a haunting film with a thick atmosphere, which understands the great virtues of King's novel and knows how to translate them into images. A minor classic, but revisable over and over again. Be very careful with 'Salem's Lot II', the very strange and also very oppressive sequel, directed by Larry Cohen and with Sam Fuller as a relentless vampire hunter.

Address: John Badham

Distribution: Frank Langella, Kate Nelligan, Laurence Olivier, Donald Pleasence, Trevor Eve, Jan Francis

Along with the great TV-movie directed by Dan Curtis, written by Richard Matheson and starring Jack Palance from 1973, this is the movie that set the modern Dracula injecting him with huge doses of fatalistic romanticism. In both productions, Dracula becomes infatuated with a human (something never quite well explained in the novel) because she is a reincarnation of her beloved from ancient times. Palance's version (which, incidentally, physically inspired the mythical vampire from the Marvel comics' Dracula's Tomb), also included the element of Vlad the Impaler for the first time.

John Badham's 1979 version, in any case, is much more ostentatious, with a confrontation that is pure intensity and looks that stop the traffic between Frank Langella and Laurence Olivier. Perhaps the film, the most romantic of all the adaptations of Dracula, falters somewhat because Langella lacks viscerality, but the truth is that it adapts for the first time passages from the novel that until now remained unpublished. The worst: its existence frustrated a projected adaptation of Ken Russell that, of course, would have been to see it.

Espinof Review: Dracula

Address: Tony Scott

Distribution: Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Cliff De Young, Willem Dafoe, Beth Ehlers, Dan Hedaya

The first great vampire movie of the eighties is a radical and punk twist of the still recent Badham Dracula: to the rhythm of the Bauhaus and his significant statement of intent 'Bela Lugosi's dead', describes hyperesthetic, sensory and video clip love triangle between (little joke) Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon, in which it was the debut of Tony Scott for many unsurpassed.

Recovering the lesbian connotations of vampirism a la Hammer (which is based on the same essence of the genre: Le Fanu's 'Carmilla' that inspired Stoker's 'Dracula') and posing vampires not as tragic and tormented beings but as addicted to a drug that neither kills them completely nor leaves them to die, 'The Craving' is revealed to be one of the most influential bloodsucking movies in decades. There are countless films that have drank from it in the thematic or aesthetic.

Criticism in Espinof: 'The craving'

Address: Tom holland

Distribution: Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall, Stephen Geoffreys, Jonathan Stark

One of those magical mixes of comedy and terror that managed to work perfectly in the eighties in both fields without needing to fall into parody or imbalance of tone. In this case, he achieves this thanks to a catalog of endearing characters who star in the story of a boy who discovers that his neighbor is a vampire who also wants to seduce his mother. All this thanks to the excellent ability of Tom Holland ('Devil doll', 'Hex') to take seriously the most absent-minded approaches.

He also achieves this supported by an excellent cast, where a seductive and slimy Chris Sarandon stands out as a vampire neighbor and an endearing Roddy McDowall as a false vampire hunter, who uses all the wisdom of pop culture to end the threat. He enjoyed a great remake in 2011 at the height of his model, with great effects and setting, and Colin Farrell and David Tennant perfectly replicating their 1980s precedents.

Address: Joel Schumacher

Distribution: Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Jami Gertz, Dianne Wiest

Perfect double show with 'Scary Night' as it has a fair amount of elements in common: mix of vampiric horror and comedy teen, contemporary atmosphere and some very peculiar script detail, like the use of pop culture as a source of vampire hunter wisdom (here personified in a couple of scary comics, Corey Feldman and Corey Haim). But in addition, 'Hidden Youth', as it could not be otherwise being directed by Joel Schumacher, pushes homoeroticism and aesthetic delusion to the limit.

Hence the idea of turning vampires into bikers (great Kiefer Sutherland as a bloodsucker who, in addition, is not afraid of loading the ink on the monstrous), with all the corresponding leather and gang aesthetics and that, somehow, engages in a curious postmodern dialogue with the idea of the Bertin Osborne gallant of 'Night of fear'. Fabulous impact moments and an evil subtext anti-establishment adult by way of dating 'Peter Pan', for one of the genre's unforgettable classics in the eighties.

Address: Kathryn Bigelow

Distribution: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, Joshua Miller

One of the best vampire movies of the eighties, coinciding in time and in some of its proposals with 'Hidden Youth', but taking it one step further. The wild, lawless biker aesthetic proposed by Schumacher's film finds in this whip of the great Kathryn Bigelow (and no less great Eric Red co-writing the script) its true nature: as road movie desert. How Bigelow combines the vampire sun phobia with the scorching light of the arid landscapes of the southern United States is one of the many ingenious solutions of a film that fearlessly reformulates vampiric mythology.

With spectacular performances by Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen, the film also serves to deactivate the idea of the vampire as a leading man who sails in an ocean of time and who had proposed almost Bad decade's 'Dracula'. There is romance here, but in a youthful and gang style, and whose gasoline is not a romantic and old-fashioned idea of love, but sex, drugs and rock. A western with fangs that would find its replica a decade later with 'Vampires of John Carpenter'.

Criticism in Espinof: The night travelers

Address: Robert Bierman

Distribution: Nicolas Cage, Maria Conchita Alonso, Jennifer Beals, Elizabeth Ashley, Kasi Lemmons, Bob Lujan, Jessica Lundy

A film that has earned its cult fame for hosting one of Nicolas Cage's craziest interpretations. Which is saying, but it is that the 'Vampire Kisses' is special: Cage plays a literary agent who, after an intimate encounter with an attractive young woman, believes he has been turned into a vampire. He begins to experience a phobia of sunlight and crosses, he feeds on cockroaches and he has to buy some plastic tusks because there is no way to grow the real ones.

Although less oppressive, 'Vampire Kisses' has elements in common with the commented 'Martin' by George A. Romero: a young man believes that he has become a vampire and the perceptions of the viewer are mediated by this illusory state (or not). Too with elements in common with 'Jo, what a night!' with which he shares a screenwriter and which also presents a Dantesque descent to the urban hell., "Vampire Kisses" has more mischief and intelligence than meets the eye. Cagenian hysteria aside, it is an interesting reflection on insanity and perception, using the vampiric myth as a coat rack.

Address: Francis Ford Coppola

Distribution: Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Richard E. Grant, Cary Elwes, Sadie Frost

Not as innovative in the subject matter as was said at the time (almost all of his proposals for fidelity to Bram Stoker's original work are already in Badham's adaptation), but absolutely captivating visually. An aspect in which it has only grown over time, because it came at a time when the fantasy genre was beginning to be devoured by the abuse of digital effects (Only a year later 'Jurassic Park' would arrive).

Leaving aside his romanticism at times somewhat flabby, Coppola's work stands out for its imaginative use of physical and tangible tricks to create nightmares (from games with perspectives to Chinese shadows, through fabulous makeup or delusional trompe l'oeil). And also for its diverse cast, which ranges from the most amazing (Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Tom Waits) to the somewhat less brilliant (Anthony Hopkins), but which in any case make interesting contributions to the vampiric canon.

Espinof Review: Bram Stoker's Dracula

Address: Neil Jordan

Distribution: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, Stephen Rea, Indra Ove

In the midst of a fever for nineteenth-century vampirism due to Coppola, this adaptation of one of the most successful novels of the genre of all time although today it has been a little out of date exceeded the black expectations he had against him. Not only that, but in many ways it surpassed the success of 'Dracula of Bram Stoker' thanks to the exquisiteness of its staging and Findings like the almost debutant Kirsten Dunst as Claudia, one of the most suggestive vampire characters of the nineties.

Today it is difficult to understand to what extent the film was daring: Neil Jordan had just earned a well-deserved global prestige with 'Game of Tears' and was now turning to one of vampiresTom Cruise was still considered an idol teen, and Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas had not reached their current stardom. Fortunately, the extraordinary quality of the film, passionate, twisted, violent and very morbid, overcame the black designs that threatened it. Jordan would repeat a vampiric theme with the also excellent 'Byzantium'.

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The 31 Best Vampire Movies Ever - Asap Land

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero