by Richard Hogsflesh

Created on: July 26, 2011

To pick the 20 best vampire films is a challenge, mainly because it can be difficult to identify 20 vampire films which are good enough to make the grade. This list does not pretend to be definitive, but is an honest reflection of the author’s tastes. Films are listed chronologically.

1) Nosferatu (1922). FW Murnau directed this, the oldest vampire film known to exist. Stunning, haunting imagery gives this a creepy resonance many later films lack. Max Schreck’s rat-faced vampire is resolutely unsexy, a bringer of pestilence, but his final seduction scene has a rare erotic charge.

2) Dracula (1931). The film that introduced vampires to the talking picture. Bela Lugosi’s acting is of its time and his grasp of English poor, but he has charisma in spades. The early scenes in Dracula’s castle are eerie, and Dwight Frye is excellent as Renfield.

3) Vampyr (1932). A German classic, Vampyr is almost silent, and has a dreamlike atmosphere only broken when the film ends. The vampire – an unglamorous old lady – feels like something out of folklore. The scene in which the hero wakes up in a coffin has been imitated many times.

4) Isle of the Dead (1945). A small group is quarantined on a tiny Greek island while the plague spreads among them. But one of them may be a vampire. Is there a real supernatural threat, or is it in the mind of increasingly crazy General Pherides (Boris Karloff)? A subtle and chilling character piece from Val Lewton.

5) Horror of Dracula (1958). Hammer’s first vampire movie, and Christopher Lee’s first outing as the Count. This has all the ingredients that made Hammer great – the colors, the subtle eroticism, the shrieking music, and Peter Cushing.

6) Black Sabbath (1963). Mario Bava’s film is made up of three short stories. Only one, ‘The Wurdalak’, is about vampires. But it’s one of the most unsettling vampire stories ever filmed, with Boris Karloff giving possibly his greatest performance as the father who returns to his family as a vampire.

7) Dracula Prince of Darkness (1966). Hammer’s last classic vampire film sees Lee return as a silent, iconic Count. Barbara Shelley’s performance as a prim and proper Victorian lady who becomes a chillingly sensual vampire maiden is brilliant.

8) The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967). Roman Polanski’s vampire comedy is not as funny as it should be, but it looks beautiful, and has a couple of lyrical and sinister

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