36 Phenomenal Vampire Films, Ranked

This Irish horror-comedy surrounds a construction team that accidentally awakens a bloodthirsty local legend, Abhartach, and is tasked with neutralizing the threat before it tears through their small town.

Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, and Willem Dafoe costar in this horror/sci-fi hybrid that posits a world dominated by vampires in which a developer of synthetic blood is drawn into an underground movement after discovering a method of curing the vampiric condition.

From the mind of Travis Stevens, director of Girl on the Third Floor, Jakob’s Wife Features horror icon Barbara Crampton as a minister’s wife who is emboldened with new agency and exciting new powers after being bitten by a vampire.

This stylish, slow-burn vampire western from visionary director Ana Lily Amirpour follows a lonely vampire who finds an unlikely romance with a desperate, impoverished man in a haunting Iranian ghost town.

Jaden Michael, Gerald W. Jones III, and Gregory Diaz IV star as a young trio of Bronx residents who put their lives on the line to prevent ruthless vampires from invading their neighborhood and bleeding their community dry.

In one of his final feature films (to date), legendary horror master John Carpenter unleashed his gruesome and cynical tale starring James Woods as a vengeful vampire hunter and Twin Peaks‘ Sheryl Lee as his sole link to the uber-powerful vamp that single-handedly mosqued his team.

After crafting a stone-cold classic of the subgenre with Interview with the Vampiredirector Neil Jordan turned to Moira Buffini’s A Vampire Story to inspire this underrated fright film featuring a cast of acting heavy hitters, including Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Sam Riley, Jonny Lee Miller, and Tom Hollander.

Xan Cassavetes’ seductive modern throwback to the Gothic euro-horror of yesteryear is as eerie and effective as it is sadly overlooked.

While Spike Lee’s remake (titled Da Sweet Blood of Jesus) may have a higher profile with today’s cinema buffs, Ganja & Hess is a seminal horror film for Black audiences and contains an utterly inimitable atmosphere that effortlessly crawls under your skin.

Grace Jones steals the show in this neon-soaked ’80s horror-comedy about fraternity brothers who attempt to hire a stripper from a seedy nightclub only to find themselves in a den of voluptuous vampires.

Up-and-coming horror filmmaker Joe Begos shook up the vampire genre with this chaotic, punk rock story of a struggling, played drug-addicted artist, to perfection by Dora Madison, who takes a mysterious hallucinogenic drug that makes her experience violent fits of blood lust but has also seemingly renewed her creative edge.

John Landis may stand at the apex of the werewolf subgenre with An American Werewolf in Londonbut his SFX-heavy vampire film about an altruistic vamp and an undercover cop that take on the Pittsburgh mafia is certainly worthy of your attention as well.

New York filmmaking staple, Abel Ferrara, crafted this dense and patient vampire thriller about a graduate student (Lili Taylor) who must come to terms with her new code of existence after getting bitten by a vampire.

Very hard to find via legal means in the US due to persistent rights issues, Fright Night, Part II is an extremely underrated sequel that works even better as a result of some inspired casting, including a hypnotic Julie Carmen as the lead vampire and a hilarious Jon Gries as her werewolf lackey.

Matt Reeves’ English-language redo of Let the Right One In is incredibly good on its own merits, but the few scenes that ape its predecessor far too closely keep it from really becoming a gem of the subgenre.

Though it’s still fairly low on this particular list, Blade is nonetheless one of the most fun vampire-action movies ever made and, beyond that, is considered a pioneering production for Marvel movies.

Sadly released just shy of the found footage bubble bursting, Afflicted is a stellar film about two best friends, one of which is living with a potentially fatal illness, recording a travel blog when one is seemingly attacked by a woman, and begins to undergo a shocking physical transformation.

Willem Dafoe was rightly nominated for an Academy Award as a fictionalized version of Max Schreck, who is a bona fide real vampire, as he terrorizes the production of FW Murnau’s Nosferatu in this dark comedy masterpiece.

Jim Jarmusch’s contemplative and quirky film about ancient vampires (Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton) attempting to find joy, comfort, and culture as they adapt to modern times won’t be for everybody but it might just be Jarmusch’s most popular film as its cult audience continues to grow.

Based on Steve Niles’ beloved graphic novel, David Slade’s dark and deranged bloodfest follows a resilient group of survivors in an Alaskan town that is torn asunder by a pack of animalistic vampires during a monthlong sundown period.

While the Hammer Film Productions Dracula films are in a class unto themselves, The Vampire Lovers was a daring and dark highlight of their catalog anchored by a wonderfully unforgettable performance from Ingrid Pitt.

Though Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, and Christian Slater all add to the pedigree of this esteemed Anne Rice adaptation, it’s Kirsten Dunst’s breakthrough performance as a particularly volatile and manipulative child vampire that cements this film as a definitive American horror offering.

It’s not often that a sequel can out-perform its predecessor, but with the likes of horror maestro Guillermo del Toro behind the camera, Blade II became an even more exciting, nastier, and somewhat Shakespearean entry into the Blade franchises

Larry Fessenden’s nightmarish ’90s cult classic surrounds a bohemian musician who falls for a mysterious woman that he begins to suspect may be a vampire.

FW Murnau’s breathtaking vampire film is not only the first of its kind, but its iconic imagery remains culturally significant 100 years later.

Tony Scott may be best known for his kinetic and visually striking action films, but his descent into horror for this classy and dread-inducing fright flick is still a low-key highlight of his oeuvre.

South Korean filmmaking maverick Park Chan-wook offers a uniquely whimsical (and, ultimately, heartbreaking) perspective on the vampire mythos in this underrated yet undeniable horror story.

Guillermo del Toro’s directorial feature debut highlights a tour-de-force performance from Federico Luppi as a humble antiques dealer who is reluctantly turned into a vampire by a strange ancient object, which restores his youthful appearance and nature but comes with a seemingly insatiable thirst for blood.

Before the property was adapted into the critically and commercially successful FX series, What We Do in the Shadows was a groundbreaking horror comedy film that shot Taika Waititi onto Hollywood’s radar and further showcased the top-tier comedic timing of star Jemaine Clement.

Perhaps the most instantly recognizable vampire film, Dracula transformed Bela Lugosi’s long-running stage performance as the titular character into an icon of horror that is still homaged and spotlighted to this day.

Tomas Alfredson’s macabre modern masterpiece follows a young boy who falls for his new neighbor, an empathetic yet incredibly dangerous centuries-old vampire stuck in the body of a young girl.

Indie filmmaking darlings Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino teamed up for this brilliant and bloody bait-and-switch horror-thriller in which two fugitives and a family of hostages find themselves at a roadside bar in Mexico that doubles as the feeding ground for a temple of vampires.

Gary Oldman will keep you glued to the screen with his petrifying lead performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s expensive yet acclaimed adaptation that firmly puts the “gore” in “gorgeous.”

A clever horror film that subverts every expectation and trope of the subgenre, Right Night follows a meek suburban teenager who is convinced that his seductive and intimidating next-door neighbor is a vampire.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow reunited Aliens stars Jenette Goldstein, Lance Henriksen, and Bill Pullman in her first film, a visceral and unsettling vampire western romance about a young man who is accidentally turned by a beautiful young woman and forcibly inducted into her roaming family of sadistic bloodsuckers.

There have been countless great vampire films and several mentioned above that could arguably compete for the throne, but there’s simply no vampire movie that feels as synonymous with the word and the subgenre as The Lost Boyswith Kiefer Sutherland’s roguish “David” possibly exhibiting the most identifiable vampire visage outside of the aforementioned Max Schreck and Bela Lugosi.