I have surprisingly few vampire films in my library.

Really! I have 'Buffy', of course. And 'Vampyr.' And 'From Dusk Till Dawn' and 'Let The Right One In.'

After all these years, there surely must be more decent vampire movies than that, no? Anyone wanna recommend anything I should have?

There's no way I'm ever gonna buy a 'Twilight' movie, of course. Or any of the later 'Blade' movies (vampire pomeranian? really!!??). But 'The Hunger' is a possibility (though I don't remember liking it much when it first came out). And I definitely need to buy 'Thirst.' Supposedly Jim Jarmusch has a vampire movie starring Fassbinder ready for release, but who knows when that'll come out?

Anyone have any oft-overlooked or possibly underrated favorites to suggest?

 

If Blade is out then so is the Underworld series. Myself, I'm disappointed in the vapire as paramilitary action genre but that's about all that's out there.

I have Interview With the Vampire and Queen of the Damed from the Ann Rice novels but they're on the silly side, especially QotD. Coppola's Dracula is pretty good and to me gotten better with age.

John Carpeter's Vampires isn't very good and the sequels worse. Dracula 2000 with Gerard Butler is a fun movie but again the sequels are progressivley worse.

 

"Nosferatu" (1922)
"Dracula" (1931)
"Nosferatu the Vampyre" (1979)
"Cronos" (1992)

And then "Vampyr" and "Let the Right One In," mentioned above by the OP. I can't tell from the OP whether he likes the first "Blade" or not; I think it's great. The second isn't as good, but isn't awful either.

And that's about it for what would be on my list. Almost everything else vampiric I've seen is crap.

EDIT: Here's an interesting list from Forbes. I haven't seen their no. 2, "Horror of Dracula" (1958). Maybe worth a look?

And what about "Fright Night" (1985)? That was kind of fun.

 

I'll throw a vote out for one of my favorite fun ones...Near Dark.

 

I never bought any of the 'Blade' movies. I thought the first one was kind of fun as an action film, but the vampire stuff just seemed to be there as an excuse for the fight scenes. There didn't seem to be any metaphors at play, just the need to turn Wesley Snipes into the next Schwarzenegger or Willis. I haven't seen it since it first came out, though. I saw the third one just because I have a huge crush on Parker Posey, but even her involvement (and she makes a LOT of unwatchable movies) wasn't enough for me to accept it. I really should rewatch the first one again, though, just to see if I unfairly dismissed it as too much of a macho action movie.

 

George Romero's "Martin" - really, really good, if long forgotten.

" Vampire Lovers" - Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing -very sexy old school B movie

"Vampire Diaries" TV series, available on Netflix, is terrific

 

Seconded. Great, irreverent, off-the-wall vampire flick. Vampires in black leather, roaming the countryside in a battered van with tinfoil over the windows. What could be better than that?

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30 Days of Night

 

I'll thow out another one that is a departure from the norm... Innocent Blood. Vampires meet the Mafia. With Anne Parillaud, Anthony LaPaglia, Robert Loggia and Don Rickles.

 

"The Lost Boys"

 

New and old Lost Boys

 

Man, I think Salem's Lot is the best made-for-TV vampire film ever made, and (to me) among the top dozen or so best horror films made, period.

 

When I saw that as a kid I didn't sleep for weeks

 

I really love Let the Right One In, and Coppola's Dracula. It can be a little campy, but I really dig how they humanized Dracula.

 

I have so many I lost count...one day I'll put them in order!

 

I also enjoyed the American Version "Let Me In"...

 

the DVD is P&S..is it out on BR in widescreen? I love this movie as well...

 

yes... Vampires and snow! what a great combo...

 

I saw that one many moons ago, starnge but pretty good. The OP mentioned it, but 'Thirst' is a wild and crazy vampire movie from South Korea, a country that has produced some very good movies.

 

I really need to see the original Salem's Lot again - I haven't seen it since it aired. I was a big fan of the book and was very disappointed when they made Barlow into a non-speaking character. But they did nail a few things - James Mason as Straker was perfect, and I actually pictured Ben Mears looking like David Soul, so that worked for me even though it seemed rather corny at the time.

I wish someone would do a real, accurate treatment of Salem's Lot. The second miniseries with Rob Lowe corrected some things but screwed other things up horribly, sometimes simultaneously, such as Rutger Hauer's performance as Barlow, where they rightly made him a speaking character but picked the wrong actor. James Cromwell was brilliant as Father Callahan, and I actually liked the opening scene where Ben hunts down Father Callahan and takes him out the window, although it shatters my image of Callahan in the book as one who is deeply regretful of his capitulation to Barlow and flees the town either to drink himself to death or pursue personal redemption.

The 1931 Dracula is essential - especially with Philip Glass' retrofitted score. The eerie music coupled with the very melodramatic acting makes it almost like an opera. There's some really cheap, idiotic effects, like the giant rubber bat, but there's also some serious tension in many of the scenes.

The 1977 miniseries of Dracula starring Louis Jourdan is also interesting, inasmuch as it is one of the more faithful screen versions of the story. Jourdan seems somewhat miscast and there are some cheesy effects, but it's worth seeing for its faithfulness to the book, and again there are some very well done tense moments.

I'm surprised more people haven't recommended Interview With The Vampire, as I find it to be one of the more unflinching depictions of the vampire personality. There are many scenes that are genuinely disturbing and hard to watch, especially the scene where Louis and Lestat jointly seduce a prostitute literally to death, and she perishes apparently not even knowing that she's been so consumed by them. And Kirsten Dunst's performance as the little girl vampire who becomes increasingly frantic by the realization that she will never grow up is just perfect. I'm no expert by any means, but I can't think of another cinematic portrait of vampires that truly explores the likely hellish side of being an immortal killing machine.

 

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death might be considered a Vampire film. It is pretty airy. I have always been captivated by the mood of the film.

The Hunger has its merits.

 

Me, too. Chloe Moretz always delivers.

Watched Buffy on cable a while back. I happened to run into it channel surfing and 90 minutes later, I was reading the credits. I kind of blew off my errands, but it was worth it.

 

amazing actress...looking forward to seeing more of her in the future...Kick Ass 2 should be fun.

 

no BR and no WS DVD ever made it out...too bad, but I still enjoyed the film.