Have there been any good vampire HORROR movies recently?

[Jeivar]

It seems almost all vampire movies these days are either action movies, drama movies, teen romance movies (ugh!), or some combination thereof. But what about horror? You know, where the vampire is a creepy parasitic monster rather than a charismatic sex god who doesn't kill to feed, and blood sucking is frightening and disgusting rather than erotic. A movie with creepy atmosphere rather than explosions and chair legs that pierce hearts like butter.

Anything? Aside from 30 Days Of Night?

[kamikasei]

Let The Right One In.

[Yora]

There was a Dracula movie in 1992, but that's the only one I know about in the last 30 years.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Bram Stoker's original Dracula novel is about the only vampire anything I'll bother with. The book was inspired. Everything that came after needs a stake through it's heart...

[kpenguin]

And you don't think Dracula needed a stake through his heart? Dude was a monster, a MONSTER.

[Prime32]

The Vampire's Assistant was based on a (quite good) horror series (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSagaOfDarrenShan), but came out as a comedy. :smallsigh:

[comicshorse]

Daybreakers had its moments even if I hated the ending.

[LurkerInPlayground]

Let The Right One In.
Ditto.

But don't bother with the American version that's coming out. Get the original if you can.

[Brewdude]

John Carpenter's Vampires (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4CNP56Csuw)
Near Dark (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6VeaiSSupI)

Complete list of vampire movies. (http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/vampirefilms.html)

[mangosta71]

Are you implying that Twilight wasn't a horror film?

On a serious note, John Carpenter (I think) did a vampire movie. Think it was in the 90s. I don't know if I'd say it was good, but it at least tried to be horror.

[Dr.Epic]

Thanks to Twilight it's impossible to use "vampire," "horror," "good," and "recently" in the same sentence. Although, interestingly enough, you can use "vampire," "disturbing," and "recently" in the same sentence.

[Optimystik]

Daybreakers had its moments even if I hated the ending.

Beat me to it.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

It seems almost all vampire movies these days are either action movies, drama movies, teen romance movies (ugh!), or some combination thereof. But what about horror? You know, where the vampire is a creepy parasitic monster rather than a charismatic sex god who doesn't kill to feed, and blood sucking is frightening and disgusting rather than erotic. A movie with creepy atmosphere rather than explosions and chair legs that pierce hearts like butter.

Anything? Aside from 30 Days Of Night?

I think you'll find that the majority of vampire movies are more along the lines of action or drama. Especially since the 70's. I think you'll also find that not just recently, but vampires have for some time been of a sensual nature. Dracula, Interview with a Vampire, the Ann Rice vampires illustrate that very well just to name a few


Bram Stoker's original Dracula novel is about the only vampire anything I'll bother with. The book was inspired. Everything that came after needs a stake through it's heart...

I wouldn't go that far. I personally like Blade (the first one is rather good, the other two are just ok). While not a great movie, Dracula 2000 puts an interesting twist on the Dracula mythos. From Dusk Til Dawn, and Bordello of Blood are good for pure campyness too.




On a serious note, John Carpenter (I think) did a vampire movie. Think it was in the 90s. I don't know if I'd say it was good, but it at least tried to be horror.

Yes, John Carpenter's Vampires (yes actual name of the movie), came out in '98 staring James Woods. It's another one I actually do like, and probably one of the better vampire movies from the 90's, but it's more along the action than horror line.

I suggest looking outside of movies if you want more horror-themed vampire stuff. I remember taking a class in college about vampire folklore that was quite an interesting course.

[devinkowalczyk]

Bram Stoker's original Dracula novel is about the only vampire anything I'll bother with. The book was inspired. Everything that came after needs a stake through it's heart...

I think interview with a vampire the book was good as well. The movie was alright. Along the same whiny vein as todays stuff but inspired by more believable problems of immortality other than "omg i luv u"

[Closet_Skeleton]

To be honest, most of the vampire horror movies sucked just as much as the vampire romance ones. If you take out easy targets like porn, horror is one of the genres that most deserves its reputation for badness. Horror films tend to be so bad that the only way to judge as good is to compare them to other horror movies, because the moment you actually try to see if they're a good movie or not they just fall flat.

I can think of very few horror films I actually liked.

Let the Right One In
El Orfanato
I wouldn't count Pan's Labyrynth as horror but let's put it here anyway
Peeping Tom (well, it was mildly interesting)
Nosferatu (more as an art piece than anything scary and even then not that great. you get the idea that you only like it because smarter people are telling you to)
Alien/Aliens (and only the first even really counts as horror)
Vampyr (its at least visually interesting, and has an ugly old woman lesbian vampire for originality points. Has the advantage of pre-dating most vampire tropes and not being famous enough to be copied to death)
Shawn of the Dead (don't really think it counts)

Not that I watch that many horror films or have a right to judge. Ones I saw and cared little for:

The Hunger (a lesbian vampire film where the only interesting thing is David Bowie, if you can't make lesbians more interesting than David Bowie you fail at film making. Except not, because the whole exploitation genre shows that nothing makes a film inherently interesting just by its inclusion)
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (when people talk about the thought provoking plot of this film they're actually talking about the last 5 minutes, which is incredibly tacked on and makes no sense in the light of the rest of the film. Its actually a really conventional murder mystery with theater set design)
Cat People (only noticable thing is how horrible the supposedly non-monstrous men in it are)
Rosemary's Baby (this film invites hype backlash)
Drag me to hell (just plain silly, I'm not honestly sure if comic horror is a good idea or not but this film wasn't even quotable.)
The Vampire Lovers (actually manages to be even more conservative and sexist than its victorian source material, and like all Hammer films is corny as hell)
Interview with the Vampire (Tom Cruise is mildly entertaining but it was hardly great and Brad Pitt doesn't make a good wangsty hero)
The Blair Witch Project (its not that bad really, for what it is, but its still a home movie about a camping trip)
Suspira (dubbing ruins everything)

I decided to never become a genre fan after I realised that it meant I had to watch the bad things in genres I liked after I ran out of the tiny amount of good stuff.

It appears I haven't actually seen a single werewolf film. That's odd. Must be the fact that none of my parents liked horror films.


Ditto.

But don't bother with the American version that's coming out. Get the original if you can.

You never know. There are good American remakes. Its merely more likely that any given film will be bad. Sturgeon's revelation and all that...

Let the Right One In is actually one of those dreaded 'vampire romance' films, its just also a horror film due to moral ambiguity.

[Bhu]

Seconding Let the Right One In...

There's a Korean vampire film called Thirst that has the usual erotic drama, but it's still pretty darn good. Honestly vampires have evolved from lone monsters in the mountains in teh early days to gangs now. Either gangs or wannabe porn stars. I do get to review lots of horror movies though, so if I see anything coming up I'll keep you in mind.

[Dr.Epic]

Next month there's a film called Vampires Suck mocking the whole Twilight fade which I thought would be hilarious but then I found out it was by the same jerks who did Date, Epic, and Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans.

[Lord Loss]

Twillight is horrific, but not what you're looking for...

Vampire Movies kinda died at Dracula 3000

[Platinum_Mongoose]

Let the Right One In. Agreed. And yes, don't wait for the American remake. Watch the Swedish original, with subtitles. The dubs are awful.

[Serpentine]

Let the Right One In is actually one of those dreaded 'vampire romance' films, its just also a horror film due to moral ambiguity.That's pushing it, I think. For starters, they're children. Maybe I need to watch it again, but I think it's more of "childhood intimate friendship" than "romance". Regardless, I strongly recommend it.
Also... what was it called? Vampire Hunter D? Is that the one with the little girl? But the anime, not the live-action movie - the latter's pretty awful.
Is Vampiros Lesbos a so-bad-it's-good classic, or a genuinely good movie? I haven't seen it.

I really liked Trick O' Treat. It's more general horror than vampire, but... well, it does sorta apply, at least partially.

Is I, Legend worth bringing up at all?

[kamikasei]

Also... what was it called? Vampire Hunter D? Is that the one with the little girl? But the anime, not the live-action movie - the latter's pretty awful.
Sounds like you're thinking of Blood: The Last Vampire. Which is okay, though action more than horror, but personally I find it too short and incomplete to recommend very strongly.

Vampire Hunter D (actually, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust - there's an earlier movie I haven't seen, and a series of novels they're based on) is more post-apocalyptic sci-fantasy action than horror. Good movie, though.

[Serpentine]

Yes, that's the one I'm thinking of. Though I've heard good things about Vampire Hunter D, too.

[Zen Monkey]

Shadow of the Vampire was pretty good. It's wasn't a typical horror movie, but was a good story.

[Syka]

Serp, I think your thinking I Am Legend.


I was shocked it hadn't been mentioned. It came out a couple years ago, but is worth seeing. I, frankly, loved it. Will Smith did a great job, I thought their vampires were fantastic...etc. The book was excellent, and I actually liked it more because it was able to go more in to the character's psyche. HOWEVER, there are major differences between the book and movie so it's best to take them on their own.


Also, it's hard to separate vampires from eroticism, because that is the vampire at it's core. It's supposed to be erotic. Granted, a lot of people take this way, WAY overboard but...it's still a central feature.

Pretty much I Am Legend and 30 Days of Night are the more recent 'good' vampire movies I can think of.




Closet, Shaun of the Dead classifies as horror. It's a horror-comedy, but it's still solidly horror. I still can't figure out how they managed to both parody the zombie genre and make a legitimate zombie movie...in the same movie. It's pretty brilliant.

[toasty]

Twillight is horrific, but not what you're looking for...

Stole the words from my mouth.

[Serpentine]

Oh gawd. I can't believe I called it that >.<

And apparently the script for Shaun of the Dead was originally a playing-it-straight horror movie. They just took it and added the comedy to it. Something like that. Might it explain it for you, anyway.

[Syka]

No worries. :) I do stuff like that all the time. Not too mention, you now gave me an idea for vampire robots. I'm not sure if it would be wonderful or deliciously campy. :smallamused:

[Serpentine]

They're not mutually exclusive :smallwink:

[Yulian]

30 Days of Night, anyone?

The vampires in the film were blood-caked, monstrous, barely controlled horrorshows.

- Yulian

[Serpentine]

Right there in the first post, m'dear:
Anything? Aside from 30 Days Of Night?

[Bhu]

Serp, I think your thinking I Am Legend.

Also, it's hard to separate vampires from eroticism, because that is the vampire at it's core. It's supposed to be erotic. Granted, a lot of people take this way, WAY overboard but...it's still a central feature.


That didn't really start until i think either the 60's or 70's in film. In most legends vampires still look like corpses, and smelled like the grave.

[Serpentine]

I'd say that at least it started with Dracula, and there's certainly plenty of seductive vampire-like monsters throughout world folklore.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Sounds like you're thinking of Blood: The Last Vampire. Which is okay, though action more than horror, but personally I find it too short and incomplete to recommend very strongly.

Blood the Last Vampire is a glorified tech demo that consists of the animators showing off and has no character exploration what so ever.

I liked the anime adaptation, Blood+, but it gets a lot of hate apparently. Some of it just from people who've only seen the apparently narm-filled dub, but not entirely. Only problem I had with it was you could see the animation budget wax and wane across the 50 episodes.


That didn't really start until i think either the 60's or 70's in film. In most legends vampires still look like corpses, and smelled like the grave.

Vampire appearances change a lot in legends. Some of them have no legs and can fly. Some have really long tongues. Some are midgets. Some have no skin. Some have all of the above.

Some are also vegetables, but we don't talk about them.


I'd say that at least it started with Dracula, and there's certainly plenty of seductive vampire-like monsters throughout world folklore.

Lamia and succubi are vampire like, but you can draw any distinction you want really. Mythological succubi also ignore seduction and skip straight to raping you in your sleep.

The germano-slavic traditions we actually get the word vampire from (though its just one word among thousands) looked like live people, but were ugly peasants and not sexualised at all.

[Jeivar]

Also, it's hard to separate vampires from eroticism, because that is the vampire at it's core. It's supposed to be erotic. Granted, a lot of people take this way, WAY overboard but...it's still a central feature.


I disagree with this widespread assessment. After all, the vampires of European legends were just blood-bloated corpses.

[Syka]

I disagree with this widespread assessment. After all, the vampires of European legends were just blood-bloated corpses.

Legends, yes. But legends are often distinct from their literary counterparts. I'm mostly referring to post-Dracula vampires.