The first four novels in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles book series (Interview With The Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen Of The Damned, and The Tale Of The Body Thief) are pretty good. The rest are... not.
Love the vampire legend and the films that go with it. One more that is not seen much these days is Abel Ferrara's "The Addiction", an interesting big-city variant of the age-old tale.
Incidentally, TCM is airing a trio of Hammer Horror films starring Christopher Lee tomorrow night. Along with the non-Dracula The Devil's Bride (1968) at 8 pm ET, they're showing Horror of Dracula (1958) at 10 pm and Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966) at 11:30.
As far as vampires go, for me there's Dracula...and all the others. With respect to Oldman, Lugosi, Langella, and all the others who played the role, my favorite Dracula has always been Christopher Lee. Tall, foreboding, charismatic - there's nothing tragic about his Count Dracula. All the others seem to pine for a lost love or regret about not seeing the sunrise for 700 years or so...but not Lee. His Dracula seems to enjoy showing up in front of the French doors and sucking the life out of young maidens. Yeah, that pesky Peter Cushing shows up to make a mess of things...but on balance, Lee's Dracula seems as if he's been enabled by being the Prince of Darkness. Langella? He's solid - his initial entrance as Dracula is terrific - but he's more matinee idol than monster. Oddly, the movie begins with Dracula's arrival in London and not the usual tour of Transylvania and Dracula's un-Swiffered castle. My favorite Dracula movie however is Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula. Coppola figured out a way to make a Dracula movie that was vastly different than what had come before it - it's visually arresting, well-cast (for the most part), and more faithful to the novel. But Masterpiece Theater it isn't - and Coppola's not afraid to fill the movie full of boobs, blood, and bat monsters. There's also a couple of really good scares, too. ...this conversation makes me want a fun-sized Snickers bar!! It's Halloween!!
Great film except for Hart's attempt to romanticize the count - "Meenaah! I love you too much to condemn you!" That scene is sooo bad it makes me cringe!!! Then, as already pointed out, there's Keanu - is that really how to pronounce, Budapest?! What a tool! Vampires! Excellent!