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 moments. Worth it for the Jewish vampire gag alone.
9) Daughters of Darkness (1971). An arty vampire movie set in Belgium in which decadent aristocratic vampire Countess Bathory tries to liven up a dreary modern couple’s lives by drawing them into her dark world. A clash of old and new in a sensual and intelligent movie.
10) Shiver of the Vampires (1971). French director Jean Rollin made erotic, surreal vampire films that are practically a genre unto themselves. This is probably the best, with an instrumental prog soundtrack and plenty of hilariously pretentious waffle if you get bored of the naked vampire ladies.
11) The Velvet Vampire (1971). A modern day vampire, with a fashionable female vamp who picks up young couples at San Francisco art galleries and lures them to her desert ranch for free love and blood sucking. Dreamy, sleepy and sexy.
12) Blacula (1972). A rather silly blaxsploitation vampire movie, but William Marshall is one of the great screen vampires, with a dignity and gravitas at odds with the plot and trappings of the film.
13) Vampyres (1975). The last word in smutty lesbian vampire films, this English movie is sleazy but also genuinely sexy and surprisingly nasty, with some truly poetic moments.
14) Martin (1977). The greatest ‘revisionist’ vampire film ever made. Is Martin a real vampire, or just a very sick kid who gets his jollies from drugging and murdering women? Directed by George Romero, it’s one of the greatest metaphors for adolescence ever made.
15) Alucarda (1978). This might be a cheat, as it’s not completely clear whether anyone in this film is a vampire. Sexy young Alucarda does drink blood, and is clearly Dracula’s daughter. She runs amok in a nunnery, dragging her too-close friend Justine along with her, in this visually amazing Mexican horror movie.
16) Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979). Werner Herzog’s remake of the 1922 film, starring Klaus Kinski. Not as good as the original, but features some stunning sequences, such as plague rats overrunning the town square. Kinski’s sick, frail vampire is memorable.
17) Salem’s Lot (1979). Originally made for TV, Tobe Hooper’s adaptation of Stephen King’s classic is the quintessential ‘vampires in a small town’ film, and paved the way for less scary efforts like ‘Lost Boys’ and ‘Fright Night’.
18) Mr Vampire (1985). A Hong Kong movie featuring crazy kung fu monks, hopping vampires and all sorts of other madness. A deranged look at a very different vampire tradition, and probably the most fun film on the list.
19) Let the Right One In (2008). Stunningly intelligent Swedish update to the vampire film. Eli, the young girl who is also a vampire, is unforgettably creepy as she insinuates herself into the life of lonely young Oskar. Wintery and essential.
20) Thirst (2009). Another modern take on the vampire, this time from Korea (Chan-wook Park also directed cult classic Old Boy). An intelligent, gruesome and blackly comic exploration of why even vampires shouldn’t commit adultery.