The history of movie vampires stretches back almost as long as cinema itself. THS’s Fright-A-Thon is built upon these ideals and the want for more great horror content. If 2020 is going to be the year we all stayed in (I sure hope so for some of my readers at least), then we’ll all need some good horror to watch. Vampire films are all over the place on the spectrum of horror. You have the truly frightening in movies like Twilight, you have the western noir vamps of Near Dark, and you have the true classics like Nosferatu and Dracula.
Vampires have been done all throughout history, they’ve had resurgences here and there, but they’ve never truly left the cinematic eye. What does it take for a good movie vampire? Well, Edward Cullen ain’t it. It takes a certain psychological menace. They need to be suave, sexy, and have that bit of emotional damage from being able to live so long. Why do you think vampires travel in packs? You’ve gotta have friends if you live for 500 years. Sometimes vampires don’t have to be suave or even evil though. What We Do In The Shadows is the perfect example of taking these hallmarks of a good vampire, and turning them upside down.
Vampires are practically immortal, but their curse resides in avoiding sunlight, among other things. To save the world from just a list of Dracula characters, we’re going to limit it to three. So, sorry to fans of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, there are three better performances of the famed character. On to the list.
Top 10 Movie Vampires
#10: Santanico Pandemonium (From Dusk Till Dawn)
We’ll start off the list with the vampire who’s on screen the least of the top 10. When you think of From Dusk Till Dawn, you’re likely going to think about the scene with Salma Hayek. It’s the natural turning point for the story to go from seemingly normal kidnap/heist film to “what the hell, there are vampires?”. She’s the ferocious Queen of the vampires at the Titty Twister bar, but she’s quickly dispatched after her transformation. This is one place where a From Dusk Till Dawn prequel or something would have worked wonders. It might be better left up to the imagination of the viewer how Santanico Pandemonium got to be the queen of this group of vampires though.
For a movie that has so much star power in front of and behind the camera, it’s saying something that the most memorable character is Salma Hayek’s. She might not be on screen for long, but she makes a huge impact.
#9: Blade (Blade Series)
Nosferatu was made in 1922. At the height of the German Expressionist movement. The film is a cinematic masterpiece that highlights everything from direction, acting, set design, costume design, lighting, cinematography, you name it. The film couldn’t be called Dracula because of legal reasons but it fits. The character of Nosferatu might be old hat at this point, but don’t get me wrong, it’s still truly terrifying almost 100 years later. Imagine your worst nightmare, and I don’t mean just one where you’re falling. One where proportions are stretched and thrown off normal human levels. That’s what Nosferatu is. It’s a dream-like film that while silent, is by no means boring. Max Schreck sets the tone for every vampiric performance for the next 100 years and onward in this film.
Vampires might have moved past long fingernails and pasty white skin these days, but Nosferatu is the pioneer in the field of vampires.
#1: Bela Lugosi as Dracula (Universal Dracula Films)
You had to expect this one was coming. If Nosferatu created the archetype for a vampire, Dracula gave you the perfect performance that still hasn’t been topped. Think about any other performance in a movie with a famous character like Dracula. How many times is that character done perfectly the first time around? How many times is that character changed for the times? Well with Bela Lugosi and Dracula, he set the bar, and no one has changed anything about it since.
Dracula is just acted like Lugosi did in this film. That’s how it works. So for any other character, the actor might change a little bit. The stereotypical Dracula is that of Lugosi’s version. The one you see on boxes of cereal or in cartoons over the years? That’s Lugosi. So give the man his due, and this Halloween season, fire up Dracula. It’s a short watch, but if you haven’t watched it recently, it holds up just as well.
It’s one of the first wave of films with sound, but it plays very much like a silent film at times. In the same dream-like way that Nosferatu is frightening, Dracula takes the same notes, but adds a Hollywood sheen to them. It’ll be hard to ever top Lugosi at the top of this list.
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