The Science Fiction Horror and Fantasy Film Review
The vampire is one of the most iconic figures in horror film. The vampire is a human being who has returned from the dead and is immortal unless killed. The vampire preys on human blood. It has vulnerabilities to the crucifix, daylight, holy water and can only be dispatched by being staked through the heart. Its appearance is with fangs and very pale skin, sometimes red eyes. It can be handsome or voluptuous, or rat-like and cadaverous. It can wield great hypnotic abilities on its victims and transform into bats and other animals.
The vampire appears in many world mythologies. The vampire of fiction was not created by Bram Stoker but he did popularise it in Dracula (1897) in which he laid down many key aspects of the mythology – its aversion to crucifixes and sunlight, the need to kill it with a stake through the heart, its coming from Transylvania and the need to live in a coffin of its native Earth. These remain the key aspects of the mythology. Some films change various aspects or strip out the supernatural elements and offer medical/scientific explanations.
The first vampire film was the Turkish Drakula (1921), the first major one the German Nosferatu (1922). The iconic image of the vampire in dinner suit, cape and thick East European accent was created with Bela Lugosi in Universal’s Dracula (1931) and has since been much copied and parodied,.
The vampire appeared in various Universal sequels of the 1940s and then underwent a major revival with Hammer’s Dracula/The Horror of Dracula (1958) starring Christopher Lee. Hammer put Lee through a string of Dracula sequels and created other vampire films. These inspired a number of imitators throughout Europe and Latin America, even from Japan. One of the subgenres among these was the lesbian vampire film created by Hammer’s adaptation of Carmilla (1872) with The Vampire Lovers (1970), which led to sequels and a number of imitators.
The 1960s also brought the first in a number of vampire comedies and parodies. Beginning in the late 1950s and more concertedly in the 1970s, efforts were made to move the vampire out of the Victorian surroundings and bring it into the present-day and by the 1980s the vampire was well at home in suburbia and major metropolitan areas. The 1970s also saw the move to reconstruct the vampire less as an evil predator and more as a darkly brooding romantic figure, as well as in a number of works of erotica.
The 1980s onwards brought the gritty vampire action film and the 1990s a series of films focusing on the vampire hunter as hero. Others place a focus on slick Gothic poses or tell of vampire clans operating in the shadows of society, often at war with Werewolves. On the opposite side, there are a number of kitchen sink portrayals showing the vampire dealing with everyday life. There have also been a number of films that depict vampirisim in medical/scientific terms.
In more recent years, the vampire film was dealt a considerable blow by the Young Adult romance Twilight (2008) and sequels, which made the vampire an adolescent romantic figure, preaching chastity and a doting father who also sparkled. In the aftermath, there have still been a number of vampire films but the genre seems to be looking for new directions, no longer holding the strength it once did.
For adaptations of Bram Stoker and works in which Dracula appears as a character see Dracula Films.
This is one of the great wacky titles of all time. The film has its deliberately ridiculous amusements but soon fails to provide an interesting enough show to live up to its title
An alternate world take on DC Comics characters, who are much more morally ambiguous – Superman is General Zod’s son and Batman’s role is taken by Man-Bat and is an actual vampire
The vampire film feels creatively played out of recent. The story here is familiar but this is propelled into the watchable by the provocative and stylish direction of Xan Cassavetes (daughter of director/actor John Cassavetes)
One of the more overlooked of the Hammer vampire films. This doesn’t feature Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing but does some reasonable things in its own right
Hong Kong kung fu films of the 1970/80s contains some bizarre crosshatches in a search for novelty. Here a kung fu practitioner takes on a sorcerer who raises ghosts and even Count Dracula to fight
One of the weird mash-ups of horror and martial arts popular in Hong Kong during the late 70s/80s. Despite a great title, this suffers from an emphasis on frenetic slapstick and caricatures
The second in a trilogy of Japanese vampire films that came influenced by the Hammer Dracula films. This generates a reasonable degree of spooky eerieness.
A low-budget indie comedy about a house that is plagued by demons and vampires. This comes with moments of appealing silliness
The first adaptation of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend and the only one faithful to the novel with Vincent Price as the last man alive facing vampires outside his door
One of a spate of recent films that adapt characters or sections from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this concerns the doomed ship voyage aboard which Dracula travels to England
The much hated adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novels. It is undeniable fun watching the crossover between various fictional Victorian characters, while the production design is amazing
The first of a trilogy of Japanese vampire films, although this does not feature Dracula despite the title and should be considered more of ghost story.
The last of Hammer’s Dracula films made after Christopher Lee departed. A co-production with Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers that shows Hammer trying to jump aboard the 1970s kung fu fad
A vampire film that has gained a cult reputation. Nominally party of the 1970s lesbian vampire fad but mostly something unique that takes place on a level of dreamy suggestiveness.
This seems to want to do for the lesbian vampire film what Shaun of the Dead did for the zombie film. Alas, the film makes its appeal fairly and squarely into the crude, sexism of British lad culture
Surprisingly good English-language remake of Let the Right One In, the first release from the revived Hammer Films. It is extremely faithful to the original, while also recreating it with some subtlety
A strong and unusual Swedish vampire film that is less a horror film than one about friendship between a boy and the very strange girl next door who we gradually realise is a vampire
An undeniably amusing Irish comedy in which a drunken dimwit ends up being transformed into a vampire. The film comes working at you in its goofy way
Tobe Hooper’s space vampires film divides audiences and was a flop. You have to applaud its wild ambitious conceptual grasp even if it bites off more ideas than it is ever coherently presents
The film version of a popular series of German children’s books about a buy who befriends a young vampire kid. The proves lightweight and likeable enough
Animated film based on the popular series of children’s stories about a kid who befriends a vampire boy. The same stories had previously appeared as a live-action fllm
A modern-day vampire film set at a time when vampires have revealed themselves to the world. This is shot as Found Footage film as a tv crew go to interview a brood of vampires
A lost film from the great silent actor Lon Chaney [Sr] who would undergo great physical makeup transformations for his role. This also has the distinction of being the first Hollywood-made vampire film
Popular 80s vampire film that suffers the curse of Joel Schumacher. A promising opening dissolves into posturing cool, flashy visuals with zero substance underneath
After 21 years, this was the first of two sequel to The Lost Boys, featuring return performances from Corey Feldman and Corey Haim and, yes, surfer vampires
Low-budget action film about a group of immortal mercenaries. This would be interesting on a better budget, which it sort of became with The Old Guard
Genial and very likeable spoof of Dracula and the vampire film that succeeds where other works have failed and is very funny. George Hamilton steps into the role of Dracula with debonair charm
The second of Hammer’s Karenstein films based on the lesbian vampire story Carmilla. This is killed by its laughable unsubtlety and an air of adolescent masturbatory fantasy
Very strange softcore vampire film that conducts an all-girl retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. One or two okay erotic scenes but this befalls a quick shooting schedule
Produced not long after the success of Young Frankenstein, a Belgian-made parody of the vampire film that falls into excruciating slapstick. Louise Fletcher is absurdly miscast as Countess Dracula
Dracula director Tod Browning reteams with Bela Lugosi in a remake of the silent London After Midnight. A vampire film that has much atmosphere but is ruined by a ridiculous ending
George Romero’s vampire film is one of his most remarkable films. In contrast to the cliches, the vampire here is a pale teen with an unhealthy obsession contrasted with a religious extremist who demands he be exorcised.
A Countess Bathory film actually made by Hungarians (the area where Bathory lived historically). However, this promptly sinks into extremely bad movie territory
Classic Halloween tv special. As with most of its ilk, it places the focus on a light-hearted treatment where the monsters are no more serious than Halloween revelers
Mike Flanagan returns with his finest work to date. A mini-series that is effectively a Catholic version of Salem’s Lot and comes with some flat out great pieces of writing
Sequel to Mimesis, which had people trapped in a simulation of Night of the Living Dead, where this time people are trapped in a recreation of Nosferatu
The incomprehensibly manic antics of the Minions have a cuteness appeal that has overspilled the Despicable Me films. Here they get a film all to themselves with amiably lightweight results
Richard Elfman film about chic vampires who have become an elite living in Hollywood. Despite promise and some interesting ideas, this is ruined by an atrociously overacting cast
Amiably silly children’s vampire film in which three kids struggle to prevent their mother as she goes on a date with a vampire. This take a juveniles approach with tongue planted in cheek
This has the mildly amusing idea of taking films like Dracula vs Frankenstein one step further and pitting various classic monsters against one another in a wrestling match
Following the collapse of Amicus Films, producer Milton Subotsky went on on his own to make this horror anthology, the bread and butter of Amicus in their heyday. Though he brings in some major horror names – Vincent Price, John Carradine – the jokey tone failed to find any success
The Asylum conduct a monster bash – a crossover between the Famous Monsters – and actually do a modest and quite enjoyable job that pays affectionate homage to the characters
Rather charming effort where the Famous Monsters – Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster, the Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Creature – are revived and pitted against a group of kids. The film has a great deal of affection for the originals and the encounters are delightful
Sony’s attempts to wring everything possible from the Spider-Man copyright in order to compete with the MCU continue with this film devoted to the Spider-Man vampire villain
A Young Adult fantasy adaptation that fells a Harry Potter wannabe repackaged with the brooding teen romanticism of the Twilight series, all under a director whose indifferent handling fails to animate any of the material
Interesting attempt to rewrite Carmilla for the Twilight crowd. In fact, this is a film that features more credible teenage girls and is far more successful as a horror film and at creating uncanny mood than the Twilight films were
The first of several sequels to the hopping vampire hit. While the original was an adept and clever blend of fantasy and comedy, this promptly heads for loud and noisy slapstick
Fourth in the popular hopping vampire saga that spawned six films and an uncredited copycat series, all blending a manic mix of comedy, fantastique moves and Eastern beliefs
The Hong Kong hopping vampire film that produced a string of sequels. The original is the best, a clever, fast-paced blend of comedy, supernatural and traditional Eastern beliefs
The last of the popular Hong Kong comedy series about hopping vampires. While the other sequels became very silly, this goes out on an inspired final note
A film spinoff from tv’s The Munsters, a likeable knockabout farce featuring the original cast that takes the characters to England and has them enter a car race
Rob Zombie conducts a big-screen remake of The Munsters and surprisingly enough makes his best film yet
There is a good idea here – rival street gangs and a white cop are forced to cooperate to deal with the zombie apocalypse. Alas, this directorial outing from the writer of the Sharknado films emerges cheaply
Comedy where teenager Robert Sean Leonard is bitten by a vampire on a one-night stand and has to deal turning into a vampire himself while keeping it a secret at school
In the best tradition of George Romero’s Martin, this is an ordinary kitchen sink vampire film focused around a family trying to protect a sickly sibling
Beautifully moody black-and-white vampire film from Michael Almereyda. A modernised reworking of Dracula’s Daughter
The second in the works of arty vampire erotica that gained French director Jean Rollin a cult following. The surreal visuals and in particular the costuming make for mind-boggling visuals
Following the highly successful Animal House, this was the second of the films made using the name of the satirical magazine National Lampoon and is a feeble parody of the slasher film
The second of the Twilight films where the moderately grounded original is blown up into the near laughable with the ridiculously over-the-top hyper-sexualised posturing of its male leads
Okay but nothing standout Stephen King adaptation with Miguel Ferrer as a tabloid journalist covering a series of killings before realising he is tracking a vampire
Low-budget action film with Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson hunting vampires. Routine as both action and vampire film.
Witty and funny attempt to update the vampire to the present day being hunted by a reporter. Darren McGavin gives an enormously entertaining performance. A hit tv movie that was spun out into a series.
This comes with an interestingly large canvas wherein an innocent chauffeur is drawn into wars between secret vampire clans that run Los Angeles
An amazing breakout hit from Russia, a film that is busy to the point of overcrowding with ideas and its’ director’s visual excess but delivers the goods in ways that make your jaw drop
Horror comedy set in an office building as a group of inept security guards fight off a vampire outbreak among the staff. Very similar to the earlier Bloodsucking Bastards, this balances comedy and horror but director Mitchell Altieri demonstrates comedy is not his strong point
Tim Burton and Henry Selick combine on this stop-motion animated fantasy made in Burton’s characteristcially eccentric style, a beautifully stylised and dark fantasy in which assorted Halloween denizens invade Christmas
Horror host John Stanley directs a film with an amusing premise where a famous horror actor known for playing a vampire turns out to be a vampire for real, causing problems when he turns up for a convention
A low-budget film served by some witty fanboy humour, decent fight choreography and unexpectedly good acting
The first screen adaptation of Dracula and the most amazing of all vampire films, a German Expressionist fairytale that exists in haunted netherworld through which stalks the crepuscular figure of Max Schreck
Robert Eggers of The Witch fame conducts a remake of the classic silent Nosferatu. This comes drenched in mood and period detail but Eggers also substantially changes the original
Vampire erotica that is largely premised around seeing Alyssa Milano take her clothes off and little else
Sequel to Nosferatu the Vampyre featuring a return performance from Klaus Kinski with the action (or lack thereof) relocated to Venice
Werner Herzog conducts a remake of the silent German classic with Klaus Kinski as Dracula. A very different film to the original but quite unique in Herzog’s individualistic way
Tony Watt, who gets my nomination as the world’s worst filmmaker, does the laughtrack trick of taking a film – in this case, the original Nosferatu – and running his usual inane sound effects and excruciating bad acting over the top
One of the classic B-budget films directed by the legendary Roger Corman back in his heyday. Concerning a mysterious alien vampire, this comes with all the quirks and dry humour of Corman’s films of this era
The Roger Corman 1950s cheapie about a mystery man who proves to be an alien space vampire is remade as a vehicle for Traci Lords. The script is essentially the same but with the addition of a lot of topless women
One of several vampire comedies that came out in the 1980s , an unfunny effort with a young unknown Jim Carrey as a teen looking to lose his virginity being seduced by vampire countess Lauren Hutton
Individualistic indie director Jim Jarmusch tackles the vampire film. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are fantastically well paired as the two bored title lovers. Beautifully filmed but, typical of Jarmusch, one where not a lot happens
One of the most head-scratchingly bizarre efforts among the great Ozploitation fad – a comedy about vampires in an Australian Outback town
A vacant and stylistically empty modern vampire film that is all posed mood
Not to be confused with the recent tv series Penny Dreadful, this is another in the recent spate of multi-director horror anthologies – The ABCs of Death, V/H/S films etc. Directed with a retro vibe, the episodes are expectedly uneven but better than might be expected from the hands involved
Conceptually ambitious New Zealand made film set in an alternate history where vampires live alongside humans
This spends much effort creating an imaginative future where priests battle vampires who are banished to reservations only to do nothing with it other than reach for the tropes of the Western
Another of Roger Corman’s films reusing footage from Soviet SF films. Director Curtis Harrington gives the tale of a spaceship crew who bring on board an alien vampire woman an eerie otherworldliness
Film adaptation of the third of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, this reduces Lestat to no more than a posturing teenage bad boy and Rice’s languidly romanticised vampires to a laughably pretentious Goth music video
The fourth film from David Cronenberg, a clear (although by no means uninteresting) attempt to repeat the success of Shivers with Marilyn Chambers as a woman with a vampiric skin parasite that turns victims into maddened killers
The Soska Sisters take on remaking the classic David Cronenberg film about a woman with a blood-drinking skin graft who leaves a trail of rabid victims. The sisters smartly update the original, bringing a host of new ideas to bear
Director Jean Rollin gained a cult following with his erotically fetishised, strikingly poetic vampire films, of which this was the first. Viewing the film today, one has more than a few problems with the title
Modern vampire movie that aims for a chic sophistication amid poses borrowed from MTV and other films
Heather Thomas starring film about the discovery of a laboratory that has created a vampire virus
This has the amusing idea of being a Martin for the Twilight era where a writer of vampire romances not at all modelled on Stephenie Meyer encounters a real vampire
A dark Coming of Age story set in a surreal depiction of the midwest populated by what might be vampires and angels
Australian vampire action that feels like a single pose that has been inspired by too many watchings of The Matrix
Twilight fairly much killed the vampire film. This is the first of two big-budget offerings of 2023 that aims to turn that around
The fourth of the works of arty vampire erotica from cult director Jean Rollin. Rollin has discovered more in the way of plot by this point, while the film has a beautifully dreamy fairytale-like quality
Count Yorga, Vampire was a minor success that started a spate of modern-day vampire films. This was a slightly lesser sequel that has the same droll wit but gets sidetracked in the middle sections
Not a sequel to Doctor X despite the title, The main footnote this has is that it stars Humphrey Bogart as a vampire lab assistant. Halfway reasonable despite a bad reputation.
One of the first contemporary Dracula films. Compared to Christopher Lee’s first appearance as Dracula the same year, this is dull, plodding and without atmosphere where Dracula looks like no more than a door-to-door salesman
Cult director Larry Cohen makes a sequel to the Stephen King mini-series but throws most connection out to make his own wry, occasionally amusing vampire film
Overlooked at the time it was released, this is a stylish and quite well made film with Lucy Liu playing a vampire hunter