Vampires began as folklore - a scary creature that people believed lurked in the shadows and an explanation for unknown events or misfortune. Before long, vampires found their way into literature and they became more than just monsters, soon evolving and becoming a symbol for dark sexual desires.
Vampires are one of the most beloved creepy creatures that viewers love to watch on the big screen, but they're not often portrayed in the best way. Whether the films mentioned here, overall, may be good, bad, or simply worth having on as background noise, the representation of the vampires in them is a whole different story. Spoilers ahead.
Best: Let The Right One In
Let the Right One In is a Swedish romantic horror film released in 2008 and based on the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It follows the story of a 12-year old boy, Oskar, who befriends his new neighbor, a pale girl called Eli. Hakan, an older man who lives with Eli, is seen multiple times killing or attacking local people in an attempt to source blood for Eli. Ultimately, Hakan's efforts fail and he offers himself up as sustenance instead.
This idea of contemporary vampires struggling to survive and find victims in a modern world is a clever portrayal of how creatures don't adapt as well as humans do to change. Instead, the film only de-humanizes the vampires further, pushing them down to the level of a scavenger animal, forced out of its environment by man-made development.
Worst: Queen Of The Damned
It's hard to maintain the suspense of disbelief when it comes to Lestat awakening and immediately being able to acclimatize to modern society, as well as then becoming a rock icon. Lestat even performs supernatural abilities on stage and declares vampires are real.
Best: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Bram Stoker's Dracula is synonymous with the vampire legend and has gone on to become the signature vampire character. There have been many film adaptations of the 1897 gothic novel, but not all of them hit the mark.
Fortunately, 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula not only gives a fresh lease on life to the original material but offers viewers an outstanding portrayal of the character of Dracula. This film returns Dracula to his grand, noble form and presents a balance between his remaining human emotions for his past love and the predatory nature of what he has become. It also gives viewers an insight into why Dracula became a vampire in the first place.
Worst: The Lost Boys
The Lost Boys released in 1987 and is a horror/comedy that went on to become a cult classic. Two brothers and their mother move to California and discover the existence of a vampire biker gang in town.
Aside from the tired trope of vampires having physically distorted faces, the film takes its reference to Peter Pan too far. While the parallel between the lost boys of Neverland and the film is clever, as neither will grow up, the idea that the head vampire Max is looking for a mother to his Lost Boys (much like the Neverland boys want Wendy to be) is a bit far-fetched. Are predatory creatures in need of a mother? Do they have human emotions to make them want one?
Best: Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
The silent German expressionist film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror was released in 1922 and is an authorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Due to its similarities to Dracula, Stoker's heirs filed a lawsuit and a judge ordered that all copies of the film be destroyed. Fortunately for film fans, some copies survived and Nosferatu has since been considered a masterpiece.
This film gets a well-deserved mention for making Count Orlok more of the monstrous creature that is reminiscent of early folklore assumptions, rather than the suave nobleman with a deadly disposition that the vampire legend has since become.
Worst: From Dusk Till Dawn
From Dusk Till Dawn is an action-horror film that was released in 1996 and follows two fugitive brothers as they travel to a bar in the middle of the Mexican desert. The bar turns out to be run by vampires who begin to attack the humans inside, including the brothers, which turns into an all-night battle between the living and the dead.
While the film has become a cult classic and is well worth watching, if we look at the individual portrayal of the vampires, it's hard not to be judgemental. Once again, the vampires have an over-used and often badly-done physical transformation. That aside, the vampire bar is in the middle of nowhere in the desert, which seems unlikely, as the few straggling humans who visit the bar would not be enough to sustain the vampires.
Best: Interview With The Vampire
Unlike Queen of the Damned, the film based on Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire was a far greater success. Released in 1994, this gothic horror follows two vampires, Louis and Lestat, beginning with Louis's transformation in 1791 and following through to the present day. The vampires also turn 10-year-old Claudia into a vampire, creating a faux family unit.
Interview with a Vampire is a unique insight into the inner-workings of creatures struggling with the remnants of their humanity and the new-found issues that accompany their evolution into vampires.
Worst: Blade II
The first Blade film was released in 1998 and is based on Marvel Comic's superhero of the same name, one of the most well-known vampire comic characters. The film went on to have two sequels, Blade II and Blade Trinity, with the quality of the films arguably deteriorating with each new addition to the series.
The film that makes it on to this list is Blade II, with its creation of the vampire-mutation "the Reaper Virus" that infects the vampire community and essentially creates a new kind of vampire. This new breed is immune to most weaknesses of the normal vampire has but dies after 12 hours of not feeding. All in all, it feels like a weak attempt to make a "bigger and badder" vampire, just for something new for Blade to kill.
Best: Dracula (1931)
Another Dracula film to make it onto this list is the 1931 adaptation starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. This film version is actually based on the 1924 stage play version of Dracula, which in turn was of course based on Stoker's book.
Bela Lugosi's portrayal has become synonymous with the character and has given us the staple stereotype of Dracula ever since, providing a signature look and accent.
Worst: Twilight Saga
Stephenie Meyer's series of vampire fantasy-romance novels, the Twilight Saga, was adapted into a film and became a massive hit instantly when the first film released in 2005. The series follows a teenage love story between a human girl and a vampire and throws a love triangle, some drama, and werewolves into the mix for good measure.
Meyer decides to change up the typical vampire lore and makes it so that vampires don't go out into the sun for another reason - because it makes them sparkle. This odd revelation aside, it's hard to believe that creatures that live for millennia are willingly re-taking multiple years at schools without driving themselves insane.
