For centuries, bloodsuckers have captivated and terrified us, capturing the most terrifying corners of our collective imagination. An expert in supernatural lore says there’s a reason we’re so attracted to them: Of all our other demons, vampires are by far the most human.
“Modern vampires are sympathetic characters,” said Phil Stevens, a cultural anthropologist and associate professor at the University at Buffalo. “They are trapped in a terrifying cosmic infinity, doomed to a life of deceit because of their need for human blood.”
It doesn’t hurt, Stevens said, either, that they’re traditionally “sophisticated, aristocratic, good-looking, sexy.”
“Vampires are romantic and sexy creatures,” he told CNN in an email. “They don’t go through an ugly, horrible infection like animals should.”
Bela Lugosi, “Dracula”
Bella is the blueprint.
The Hungarian actor’s Dracula great-grandfather is where all the other movie vamps (and the vampire Halloween costume) are descended from. His version of Bram Stoker’s villain speaks intermittently, blinks across the screen with a hypnotic threat and then performs genuine hypnosis on unsuspecting victims. From that Transylvanian pronunciation that switches the “w” with a “v”—or, should I say, switch – For the regal cape he wears around his castle house (Dracula doesn’t do casuals), Lugosi is the original king of the Count Xsanguine.
The Count, “Sesame Street”
Your first favorite vampire.
Ah ah ah! If you grew up watching PBS, Count Von Count might be the first vampire you ever fell in love with. He has two fangs to suck blood, and yet he subsists only on the pleasure of counting. The Count is a family-friendly monster, albeit more macabre than his cookie counterpart, and he’s still on “Sesame Street” today, one of even the most infamous onscreen vamps. It seems that math is more durable than the blood of the Muppet neighbors.
Lestat, Claudia & Co., “Interview with a Vampire”
Hollywood embraces vampire camp
The greatest works of vampire fiction infuse a healthy dose of camp in the proceedings, and this 1994 adaptation of Anne Rice’s debut novel is loaded with it. For one thing, it sees Tom Cruise in a blonde ponytail. You have to appreciate Cruise’s commitment to his role as the infamous Lestat, a vicious hero who takes immense pleasure in sending victims. And young Kirsten Dunst makes for a chilling child vamp years before “Let the Right One In” and its American remake put bloodthirsty children at the center of their stories. “Interview With A Vampire” takes itself too seriously—too seriously, perhaps, for a movie that starred Brad Pitt in colorful contacts—when, at its heart, it really is a frivolous romp.
David and his gang, “The Lost Boys”
Teen flicks go better with bloodsuckers.
“You’re eating maggots, Michael!” – Kiefer Sutherland, the original Vampire Jerk. Being trapped in the body of a teenager for eternity keeps your soul grounded even in adolescence. “The Lost Boys” is a quintessential 80s film – it features teens in love, goons with bad hair, shoddy violence, two blanks. Somehow, it seamlessly blends teen comedy and horror tropes into a hybrid film that is significant and enduring. A significant victory, it’s not, but vampires weren’t taken seriously for decades anyway. “The Lost Boys” understands that the best vampire movies are the fun ones above all.
“only lovers Left Alive”
Vamps explore existential fear.
Leave it to director Jim Jarmusch to somehow make the vampirism even more troubling. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston make a painfully stylish pair as they grapple with the loneliness of immortality. The film is a lot – a condemnation of the human extreme, an environmental allegory, a quiet celebration of life, a meditation on death. It’s the film on this list that will probably inspire the most introspective and probably the only indie mumblecore film about vampires. Of course, vampires aren’t real (or are they?) – but we imagine they can and do feel something like that.
“Twilight”
A sparkling blockbuster.
Housemates, “What We Do in the Shadows” (TV series)
Vampire as Joker.
“true Blood”
The bayou vampire gets his episodic reasons.
Three words: soapy southern vampire. Okay, two more: Alexander Skarsgard. And that’s all you need to know about “True Blood,” HBO’s southern gothic set in rural Louisiana to battle humans, bloodsuckers, fairies, and other supernatural species for supremacy. It was an escapist fantasy with lots of nudity and gore (this was HBO, after all) that understood that, at their core, vampires are hedonistic monsters — and it makes for great TV. (HBO and CNN are part of WarnerMedia.)
“Bram Stoker’s Dracula”
After all, vampires are sexy.
In his take on the world’s best-loved count, director Francis Ford Coppola embraces artifice. From the actors’ waxy performances to the straight sound stages of Hollywood’s Golden Age, the film was pure, Victorian steampunk fantasy. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” also sheds light on the through line of the novel – sex. Gary Oldman’s Dracula may not hold the flame in Counting Lugosi, but Oldman was much sexier. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” is a quirky mix of theatrics and erotica, though poor Keanu Reeves’ Jonathan Harker seems insured from another universe in which neither exists.
Spike, Angel and the Rest of the Vamps, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Superior girl-meets-vamp romance.
“Buffy” may have been about a teenage vampire slayer, but it wasn’t without its melodrama—which involved not one but two forbidden romances between the slayer and the demons they were destined to destroy. First was the Vampire-with-a-Soul Angel (whose evil alter-ego Angelus occasionally returned). Then there was the enemy-turned-ally, Spike, a fan favorite. (Both bloodsuckers were also part of the “Angel” spin-off series.) Buffy didn’t end up with either of them at the end of the series, but that didn’t stop fans from choosing sides nearly 20 years after the series ended. .
“blade”
“Dewalker” staggers at night.
CNN’s Radhika Mariah contributed to this piece.
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