This installment of the Girls Guide to Horror features brilliant bloodsuckers — vampire films old and new that every genre fan should know.
We started by looking at teenage terrors and then moved to foundational horror classics, followed by essential foreign frights, gothic genre gems, and creature features. For part 5 of the “Girls Guide to Horror”, we’re recommending vampire films worth sinking your teeth into.
1. Habit (1995) dir. Larry Fessenden
Larry Fessenden’s triple-threat vampire film Habit shows some real indie mastery and ingenuity. It’s a sexy and gritty film that follows Fessenden as he becomes convinced the beautiful woman that he’s seeing is a vampire. The narrative is taut and engrossing and Fessenden makes acting, directing, and writing a film look easy.
No wonder he’s a gem of indie horror filmmaking and has been for decades. It’s one hell of a compelling low-budget vampire film that shows that you don’t need a ton of money to send chills up viewer’s spines. We definitely should be talking about Habit more than we do.
2. 30 Days of Night (2007) dir. David Slade
30 Days of Night is a late aughts favorite of mine. I have a soft spot for horror royalty Josh Hartnett and Melissa George, who play off of one another beautifully as an estranged couple dealing with an onslaught of animalistic vampires when their Alaskan town is overtaken by its routine period of polar night.
This gross and gory vision of vampires is unlike any other. The vamps are vicious and the characters are interesting. It’s a perfect recipe for creating an involving film. I dug it as a teen, and I do as an adult.
3. Near Dark (1987) dir. Kathryn Bigelow
It’s easy to forget that Kathryn Bigelow started her career doing genre fare, but Near Dark is a slice of vampire media that begs Bigelow to return to her strange roots.
Part romance, part unhinged western saga, the film follows a young man who falls in love with a woman who turns out to be a vampire. In the midst of the whirlwind romance, he is turned into a vampire himself, but he doesn’t fit in with his beloved vampire family, causing friction.
Come for an inventive vampire movie and stay for a beautifully maniacal Bill Paxton in one of his most fun and memorable roles. RIP King.
4. The Addiction (1995) dir. Abel Ferrara
You can’t go wrong with a cast that boasts Lili Taylor, Edie Falco, Christopher Walken, and Annabella Sciorra.
Abel Ferrara assembles an all-star cast in his vampiric take on drug addiction. Taylor stars as a grad student who is attacked and turns into a vampire one night. The young woman is sent on a downward spiral of sex, blood, and murder.
The Addiction is super stylish and memorable and reminds us we should shoot more contemporary horror films in black and white.
5. Dracula (1958) dir. Terence Fisher
There are so many versions of Dracula that it's hard to pick one, but Christopher Lee’s version in Hammer’s adaptation hits differently. Maybe it’s Lee’s undeniable sex appeal, but the man is amazingly talented.
This Dracula gets a lot less attention than, say, Francis Ford Coppola’s version or the Universal version, but it’s worth the time and attention. In a sea of Draculas, Christopher Lee stands head and shoulders above the rest, and this is a hill I will readily die on.
Add this Dracula to your vampire education today.
6. Thirst (2009) dir. Park Chan-wook
If you’re a particularly literary sort of person you’ve likely heard of the French novel Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola. Park Chan-wook uses that very tale as a framework for his romantic vampire tragedy. Honestly, more classic literature should be used to create great horror in the tradition of Thirst.
In Thirst, a priest is turned into a vampire and falls in love with the wife of a childhood friend, but their romance takes a turn for the worse and descends into complete chaos as the two begin to loathe what they have become and one another.
Park studies desire and disgust in a viscerally gorgeous way.
7. Cronos (1993) dir. Guillermo del Toro
Of course Guillermo del Toro’s take on vampire lore would be unique as well as utterly heartbreaking.
An elderly antique dealer becomes a vampire after being accidentally injured by an ancient alchemical device. There’s a tenderness at the heart of this story that explores aging, devotion, and family. The lore is interesting, and it has that del Toro flare that he would bring to his later works. Not to mention, the antique dealer’s young granddaughter is precious.
8. The Hamiltons (2006) dirs. Phil Flores and Mitchell Altieri
Part family drama, part bloody camp fest, yet wholly entertaining, The Hamiltons has all the makings of a cult film.
The film follows the titular Hamilton family as they adjust to the deaths of their parents and to navigating vampiric life. Vampirism is relative here, a genetic condition, and five vampires in one house can cause a milieu of problems, especially when one of them is a moody teenager getting ready to surrender to his innate bloodlust.
9. My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To (2020) dir. Jonathan Cuartas
My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To examines a tight-knit family whose very fabric might be woven a little too thin and much too tightly for the eldest brother.
Two siblings are tasked with caring for their younger teenage brother, who has an illness that causes him to crave human blood. The word vampire is never uttered in this film, nor is the illness itself ever explained, but the sheer, haunting emotional gravity of the storyline will haunt you long after the credits roll.
Patrick Fugit gives a subtle masterclass on portraying ennui..
10. Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020) dir. Oz Rodriguez
Cute doesn’t even begin to describe Vampires vs. the Bronx. There’s lots of heart in this horror comedy, and if you need a pick-me-up, this one might be a good choice.
Gentrification is terrifying in itself, but it’s even worse when those doing the gentrifying are literal vampires bleeding the community dry. Never fear, though; a group of plucky young teens are on the case and are hellbent on preserving the borough they love.
This overlooked gem demands to be watched and re-watched.
11. Crypt of the Vampire AKA Terror in the Crypt (1964) dir. Camillo Mastrocinque
If you’re making a list about vampires, you have to put an adaptation of "Carmilla" on it. Since I added Christopher Lee's Dracula to the list earlier, it only made sense to add the adaptation of Carmilla that stars Lee, too.
This atmospheric take on the most famous female vampire tale stars Lee as a count who is desperately trying to cure his ill and possibly possessed daughter. Gothic terror and sapphic horror follow in a film that leans as heavily into the lesbian subtext of its source material as the times will allow.
In the last installment, we looked at creature features in general, but today, we will give a peek at a horror staple that is sure to entice. Every good budding horror fan has been obsessed with vampire films; if you haven’t yet, it’s a great time to start.
Vampires are a wonderful subgenre all to themselves. I can fondly remember my days as a teen when a vampire media renaissance was booming, and we all were waxing poetic about having our very own bloodsucking eternal partner. It’s nice to revisit the allure of vampires and get sucked into the sometimes over-the-top vampiric antics.
For the sake of my sweet former thirteen-year-old self, we’ll skip Twilight and give some more esoteric fare a try since we’re all familiar with the eternally meme-able adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s teen vampire sensation.
Don’t see your favorite vampire film? It’s possibly in one of my previous installments. (Let the Right One In can be found in the Foreign Frights guide, and Let’s Scare Jessica to Death and Ganja and Hess are in the Core Classics guide.)
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