Vampire movies have slowly become one of the more popular horror sub-genre stables. Here we list 10 of the best movies about vampires.
Bloodsucking vampires have long been a staple of horror storytelling, stretching back more than a century on film. They exist as a cornerstone creation of the genre, from the many stories of sweeping romance tinged with bloodlust to tales of addiction, psychosexual repression, loneliness and violence, as well as the exploration of various cultures across the globe.
In their purest form, the vampire is a well-documented mythological monster with easily identifiable traits: it sleeps in a coffin, subsists on the blood of the living, and is repelled by sunlight. These monsters come in all different shapes and sizes, though. Through the medium of film, we’ve witnessed them hang from bridges, spin tall tales to news reporters, wage generations-long wars with werewolves, and bask in the crimson downpour of a blood rave. We’ve even seen them sparkle.
Between the countless instances of neck-biting and fang-flashing, there are almost too many avenues to explore when prowling under the cover of moonlight for one’s next vampiric fix. With that in mind, we’ve compiled the 10 best movies about vampires for your blood-starved reading pleasure. In no particular order…
1. Let the Right One In
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson
Release Date: 2008
If there’s any movie that challenges our conventional understanding of vampires and how they should be portrayed, it’s Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In, a dark character drama infused with more tender pre-teen romance than the type of unflinching horror we’d typically expect. Set in Blackeberg, Sweden in the 1980s, Let the Right One In is a rich coming-of-age piece that examines the budding relationship between Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), a lonely 12-year-old boy and Eli (Lina Leandersson), the mysterious vampire who moves in next door. Eli appears to be the same age as Oskar, but there’s more to her than meets the eye as we explore themes of abuse, identity and the crushing weight of loneliness.
Adapted from the 2004 novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay for the film, Let the Right One In effectively utilises its setting to convey an overwhelming sense of isolation and loneliness, with Oskar and Eli first meeting under the cover of nightfall in the snow-covered streets of Stockholm. Afredson drains the movie of colour and warmth, creating a stark canvas for our young characters to shade in as they grow closer; young romance remains the name of the game, but horror imagery and violence constantly lie within arm’s reach. It’s a haunting tale tinged with longing and sadness, and it’s one of Sweden’s finest cinematic exports.
2. Near Dark
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton
Release Date: 1987
Before Kathryn Bigelow made surf bro crime caper Point Break and sturdy Oscar-winning war drama The Hurt Locker, she toiled in the country dirt with low-down creatures of the night in Near Dark, a neo-Western of the vampiric variety. In the film, a young Oklahoman man named Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) meets and falls in with drifter Mae (Jenny Wright) one fateful night, not realising until the following morning that she’s a vampire, and he’s become one too. Mae travels with a gang of nomadic vampires that includes charismatic leader Jesse (Lance Henriksen) and wildcard psychopath Severen (Bill Paxton), and Caleb must choose whether to align himself with the group as he learns more about his new affliction.
Near Dark has grit in its bones, and that’s made clear by the grimy appearance of the vampires, all unwashed, covered in soot, and with blood-blemished skin. Bigelow shoots the neo-Western in such a way that highlights the stunning nighttime vistas and lesser-populated country highways, but the beauty of the night is punctuated by neurotic character drama and depraved violence. Near Dark is a collision of contrasting genres that somehow coalesce seamlessly; it is at once an earnest romance and a moody punk rock exploration of life on the road, a haunting fairytale that provides chills in both the darkness and the light.
3. From Dusk Till Dawn
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis
Release Date: 1996
From Dusk Till Dawn probably didn’t invent the concept of bait-and-switch narrative whiplash, but it damn near patented it. Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez, From Dusk Till Dawn is every bit the grindhouse film that inspired each respective filmmakers. In the movie, George Clooney and Tarantino himself play the Gecko brothers, two fugitives on the run who take Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel) and his two children hostage, eventually making their way to a backwater Mexican strip club, which, unbeknownst to them, serves as a haven for a coven of vampires.
One could choose to see From Dusk Till Dawn as a clashing of ideas, with each half compromising entirely separate components that are violently crushed together around the midpoint. It’s a move that works, though, leaning far into the realm of garishly trashy, exploitative charm, filled with energetic explosions of blood reaping and bullets flying. From Dusk Till Dawn firmly plants its foot in the camp of simply having a fun time, right after it’s taken us through the nihilistic ringer. It’s a mercurial marvel of kidnapping, murder, twisted humour and gonzo vampire splatter, wrapped in weightier packaging that rapidly makes way once the fangs emerge.
4. Cronos
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Federico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook
Release Date: 1992
It might take a while for Cronos, the feature film debut of acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, to finally show its teeth, but when Federico Luppi begins licking blood off the floor, the subtle intentionality of the movie is made clear. Cronos is a vampire film with far more emotional weight than your typical genre fare; Jesús (Luppi) is an elderly antiques dealer who discovers a centuries-old, scarab-shaped mechanism, and after some exploration causes the device to inject him unexpectedly, the man’s health begins to decline as his thirst for sanguine sustenance increases.
Cronos is deliciously gothic, which shouldn’t be unexpected coming from the macabre mind of Del Toro. From Faustian psychological torment to body horror and purple fountain gore, Del Toro capitalises on many classical genre elements to accentuate the horror of vampirism, while simultaneously drawing parallels to addiction. Luppi cuts quite the sympathetic figure as a man cursed with a taste for blood, rocking dishevelled skin with unique pallid-white marbling. Cronos provides a transcendent outlook on the affliction of vampirism and what drives that most famous of movie monsters to commit the violent acts it does, which makes the film essential viewing for all feverish fans of fictional bloodsuckers.
5. What We Do in the Shadows
Directors: Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement
Starring: Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Jonny Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer
Release Date: 2014
From quirky adventure comedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople to dramatic satire Jojo Rabbit, director Taika Waititi has long worn cultural irreverence as a badge of honour. None of his work better exemplifies this whimsical disregard for convention more than What We Do in the Shadows — a horror trope-skewering mockumentary that possesses ferocious wit and sardonic bite. Waititi plays Viago, one of four vampires alongside Vladislav (Jemaine Clement, also co-director), Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) and Petyr (Ben Fransham) who allow a documentary crew into their flat in Wellington for a behind-the-scenes look at their lives and experiences with vampirism.
Shadows is Waititi firing on all comedic cylinders. It’s a razor-sharp dissection of tropes that specifically pertain to vampires, both in fiction and folklore, as well as several horror tropes not exclusive to a sole sub-genre. Waititi and Clement shot in Wellington with a predominantly New Zealand cast, which explains with an elementary wave the dry, satirical Kiwi wit. Shadows is a hugely quotable piece that feels both simultaneously aimless and meticulously thought out, sauntering effortlessly between one comedic beat and the next. It’s one of the most genius examples of cinema that aims to poke fun while also tributing its influences, and it does so looking dead but oh-so delicious.
6. Fright Night
Director: Tom Holland
Starring: Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall
Release Date: 1985
Filmmaker Tom Holland might be better known as one of the men behind a maniacal doll come to life in 1988’s Child’s Play, but his deliciously camp horror comedy Fright Night is far more deserving of thunderous applause. William Ragsdale stars as Charley Brewster, a precocious teen who comes to suspect his new neighbour, the mercurial Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon), is actually a vampire. In a horror-spun quasi-facsimile of Alfred Hitchcock’s voyeuristic Rear Window, Fright Night gleefully combines vampires and teenage angst with ’80s synth and a retro coat of paint.
None of Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse or the legendary Roddy McDowall can compete with Sarandon’s cosmic charisma; Jerry Dandrige exudes raw confidence and braggadocio, fusing his suave exterior with subtle menace while remaining sexy at all times. Sarandon’s hypnotic, villainous turn is an all-time classic of a horror performance, and much of the film’s intentionally cheesy tone can be attributed to him. Beyond the character work, Fright Night delicately straddles the line between caricature and cartoon, and though it neither manages to make us roar with laughter nor cower underneath our blankets, it’s a sharp piece of genre filmmaking, boasting delightfully ominous imagery, that feels baked with warmth and an appreciation for all those who paved its path.
7. Nosferatu
Director: F. W. Murnau
Starring: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder
Release Date: 1922
Before director Tod Browning and actor Bela Lugosi introduced the world to the first official cinematic interpretation of Bram Stoker’s famed Carpathian count in Universal’s 1931 film Dracula, German filmmaker F. W. Murnau had beaten them to the post. Nosferatu, released in 1922, is a silent film and part of the German Expressionist movement that borrows from Stoker’s story beat for beat. Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim), an obvious stand-in for Stoker’s Jonathan Harker, is a young estate agent tasked with travelling to Transylvania to liaise with mysterious new client Count Orlok (Max Schreck); the count, as one would expect, is not all he appears to be.
It’s not an exaggeration to describe Nosferatu as having formed the bedrock of the horror genre. With hypnotic visuals and a disturbingly effective absence of sound, the movie consumes us, masterfully manipulating shadows to excellent effect. Despite its low budget, Nosferatu is a technical demonstration of the highest order, but outside of its impressive visuals, the film remains enormously influential. Much of what we know about vampires stems from Nosferatu; for example, never before had vampires been seen to die from sunlight exposure on-screen, which is a notable lore deviation from Stoker’s novel. Robert Eggers’ 2024 remake was a gorgeously gothic modern interpretation, but nothing will ever beat the eerie stillness of Murnau’s filmic touch and Orlok’s ominous shadow.
8. Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins
Release Date: 1992
In choosing to explore the Transylvanian man behind the monster, Francis Ford Coppola crafted a gloomy, Gothic feast for the senses with Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Unsurprisingly, the film largely follows the plot of the novel; a young solicitor named Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) travels to a remote Romanian castle to facilitate the acquisition of real estate in London for a new client, the enigmatic Count Dracula (Gary Oldman). Coppola makes Dracula feel almost antiquated in style, gleefully moving away from the more campy interpretations that had become the norm during the Hammer era.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is an eerie and operatic film, bolstered by a virtuoso display from Oldman, who effortlessly manages to convey tones of menace, amusement, and love-lornness with a glint in his fanged smile. Dracula isn’t designed to be cheap horror fare. It’s romantic and sweeping in nature, owing to Oldman’s natural well of suaveness and hypnotic charisma. Coppola’s Dracula burned itself into the cultural zeitgeist with lavish set design and costuming, and monumental lead performances that lean on emotion and instinct over fear and the expected thrills. It’s a work of gothic artistry, and arguably the definitive official adaptation of Stoker’s novel.
9. 30 Days of Night
Director: David Slade
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster
Release Date: 2007
While Coppola’s vampire movie aimed to provide its antagonist with an unnatural concentration of humanity, David Slade’s 30 Days of Night took an antithetical approach. Set in Utqiaġvik, Alaska (then named Barrow), Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) is one of many residents preparing for the upcoming polar night, a period of 30 days without any sunlight. Suddenly, a group of animalistic vampires led by the unfeeling Marlow (Danny Huston) move into town and slaughter the townsfolk en masse, forcing the scattered survivors to hunker down and try to ride out a month without a chance of sunny respite.
More than most vampire movies, 30 Days of Night leans heavily into the monstrous when realising its gleefully bloodthirsty antagonists. Each of the vampires possesses rows of sharp teeth instead of pairs of pointed canines, and their eyes are dead black with mouths gushing fresh crimson. 30 Days of Night is strikingly high concept, but it feels distinctive because it doesn’t flesh out its villains beyond their base instinct, rendering them emotionally unreachable agents of chaos. It’s a film built on ironclad tension —a frosty, blood-drenched, townwide chamber piece that takes clear inspiration from Assault on Precinct 13 —and it’s a refreshing reinvention of the vampire movie formula.
10. Sinners
Director: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku
Release Date: 2025
Vampires have regularly been used as a tool in genre filmmaking to evoke fear, despair and latent sexual repression, but rarely have they been used so artfully as Ryan Coogler wielded them in Sinners, his Southern Gothic tale of music, racism, community and undead madness. Michael B. Jordan pulls double duty in the film as criminal twin brothers Smoke and Stack, who return to their Mississippi hometown in 1932 with the ambition to open a juke joint. On opening night, a trio of mysterious folk musicians come a-knocking, leading to an explosion of violence, bloodshed and emotional trauma.
There’s nothing corny about Sinners and how it finds its place alongside its genre contemporaries; it’s a purposeful slow-burn that layers intricate themes and complex characters between an ever-increasing palpable tension. Jordan unsurprisingly steals the spotlight, making each brother distinctive enough to identify each with as little as a glance, but it’s difficult to look past Coogler’s supreme talent as a filmmaker with so much to say. Coogler allows the film to breathe, forcing us to sit with and digest the individual experiences that have shaped the characters before they’re thrust into moonlit mayhem. Sinners is an immaculate concoction — a stunning technical piece that features composer Ludwig Göransson, among many others, at his very best — and it’s endlessly fascinating to see how the movie becomes about vampires, yet also about anything but vampires at all.
Need more recommendations? There are almost too many excellent vampire movies to choose just ten, so here are some of our honourable mentions that were equally deserving of making the cut.
- Ganja & Hess
- Dracula (1931)
- The Lost Boys
- Interview with a Vampire
- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
- Thirst
- Blade II
- Only Lovers Left Alive
- Nosferatu (2024)
- Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
- Horror of Dracula
- Martin
- Daybreakers
- Vampyr
- Twilight
