Paste's The 100 Best Vampire Movies of All Time
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By Mark Rozeman, Jim Vorel and Paste staff | September 26, 2022 | 11:11am
Existing in some form or another for thousands of years, these blood-sucking creatures serve as one of horror’s most creatively flexible monsters. Besides ghoulish monsters, they can be charmers, warriors, sex symbols, sources of comedy, nihilistic philosophers and aliens. Though mostly confined to horror, vampires have also bleed their way into everything from slapstick comedy to award-winning dramas. Oftentimes, these seemingly villainous predators can even serve as sympathetic protagonists or badass antiheroes. Moreover, vampirism itself has stood in as a natural metaphor for a great number of motifs—drug or alcohol addiction, sex, racism, xenophobia, religion, economic disparity and mental illness, to name just a few.
Popularized in folklore and books, the vampire were a natural fit for the silver screen. Today, Paste is counting down the 100 greatest vampire films that cinema has to offer. First—a few caveats. One, unlike Paste’s previous lists numbering film noirs) or cinematic robots, there are far fewer vampire movies that one could classify as being truly “Great.” This scarcity of quality means that some of the earlier entries might be more problematic than those in the latter segment. In such cases, we have ensured that each installment has something of worth to offer viewers, whether it’s a great visual style, a clever story twist, a standout performance or production design so laughably strange and half-baked that it veers into “so bad, it’s good” territory. The Paste writers have also strived to curate a diverse selection of choices. Granted, filmmakers like Mario Bava and institutions like England’s Hammer Film Productions will be making multiple appearances, but we’ve worked to bring in variety whenever possibly.
What’s more, though erotic horror is obviously a popular vampire subgenre, it’s one that we weren’t able to fully dive into without feeling as though we needed to have our souls cleansed afterwards. So if we’ve overlooked your favorite vampire-lesbian erotica, we apologize in advance.
Finally—no, none of the Twilight or Underworld films are on this list. (A stand had to be made.)
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9 new
Blade II
2002, in 1 top list Check -
24 new
Blade
1998, in 2 top lists Check -
29 new
Nochnoy dozor
2004 — a.k.a. Night Watch, in 3 top lists Check -
35 new
From Dusk Till Dawn
1996, in 2 top lists Check -
37 new
The Monster Squad
1987, in 2 top lists Check -
39 new
Geung see sin sang
1985 — a.k.a. Mr. Vampire, in 2 top lists Check -
40 new
Dnevnoy dozor
2006 — a.k.a. Day Watch, in 0 top lists Check -
54 new
The Omega Man
1971, in 2 top lists Check -
59 new
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
1992, in 1 top list Check -
65 new
Gokudô daisenso
2015 — a.k.a. Yakuza Apocalypse, in 0 top lists Check -
73 new
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
1974 — a.k.a. The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula, in 3 top lists Check -
76 new
Vampires
1998, in 1 top list Check -
82 new
Daybreakers
2009, in 1 top list Check
Last updated on Sep 28, 2022; source