Leaving the vintage vampire behind, I thought I’d start this piece with a trigger warning: the Nineties and the Naughties are equal parts wonderful and terrible for the bloodsuckers. In certain regions, they’re even… sparkly. Nevertheless, I shall swallow my ‘puritanical’ pride and continue enriching this compendium with other fangers brought forth by film and TV over the past three decades as we pick up where we left off.

In fact, consider this second volume to be a bittersweetly fragranced potpourri of the good, the bad, and the highly marketable but terrible vampires—yes, I’m looking at you, Edward. All harmless jabs aside, however, a current can be easily observed beginning with the Nineties, and it’s mostly due to Warner’s intelligent move to dramatize Anne Rice’s ‘Interview with the Vampire’ bestselling gothic fantasy novel.

It was a turning point for the onscreen vampire as it morphed into the disarming yet deadly seducer that glamours our pants off. The sexy leather-and-white-ruffle-clad brooding romantic whose sadness is meant to discourage us from dreaming of immortality—yet we only end up wanting it more.

‘VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN’ (1995), ©PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Tom Cruise Like You’ll Never See Him Again

First and foremost, all hail to the queen of vampires, Anne Rice. It’s only fitting that the coming decade be crowned with an upcoming series based on her ‘The Vampire Chronicles’ novel series. She spruced up the 1990s, after all. She might as well save the 2020s.

If there is one form of the vampire that most may agree on as a classical, it is definitely ‘Interview with a Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles’, adapted for the screen by Ms Rice herself and directed by Neil Jordan. Other films based on her writings have fallen short of the source materials, but this one not only endures, it has become a precious page of vampire lore. And how could it not, when it shamelessly indulges in the talents of ridiculously young and thirsty Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt?

The story of Louis and Lestat, joined here by the eternal child Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) and the notorious Armand (Antonio Banderas), will never cease to cause wonder and melancholy, as it is ripe with weirdness and dark romance, with guilt and longing, with heart-breaking solitude and bone-crushing rage. Nothing tramples through the emotional spectrum harder than a Vampire Chronicles protagonist.

‘INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE: THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES’ (1994), ©WARNER BROS.

Robert Rodriguez Does Vamps

You might remember that Robert Rodriguez underwent voluntary drug testing sessions to fund his first movie, ‘El Mariachi’ (1992). Just four years later, the visionary director added his own version of vampires to this marvellous compendium with ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’, starring George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino.

It’s the two-movies-in-one-gritty-experience that ‘Grindhouse’ (2007) could have been, as the first half follows two brothers and bank robbers on a spree headed south of the border, and the second half brings them to the Titty Twister, which turns out to be a vampire coven—anyone alive that is caught in this place must fight until dawn if they wish to survive.

Harvey Keitel’s ministerial presence and Juliette Lewis’s virginal innocence form a robust contrast with the Gecko brothers’ murderous tendencies and the club’s lethal seductress portrayed by Salma Hayek. ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ glorifies the violence of night demons and humans alike, but not without a pinch of guilt—just enough to remind the Gecko brothers (alongside the viewers, of course), that for all its appeal, immortality is not without a price. Based on a story by Robert Kurtzman and written by Quentin Tarantino, the film was later made into a series by Rodriguez, which spanned three seasons.

‘FROM DUSK TILL DAWN’ (1996), ©DIMENSION FILMS

The Blade That Changed Everything

Before the CGI-riddled superhero sagas from Marvel and DC, Hollywood made room on its roster for David S. Goyer’s take on the comic antihero known as Blade. With Stephen Norrington directing and Wesley Snipes as the iconic half-vampire-half-human vigilante, ‘Blade’ (1998) broke a lot of boundaries and pushed the bloodsuckers’ genre into previously uncharted territory.

The screenplay established the ‘gritty but realistic’ allure that later delivered ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy and ‘Man of Steel’ (2013), and it offered vampires as bloodthirsty fiends that simply asked for a proper beheading. Blade himself was an interesting take, since his human side allowed him to walk in the daylight.

Defined by athletic spectacle and a festival of hacking, slashing and slicing, ‘Blade’ recorded a tremendous commercial success that later grew into a trilogy—the third installment helped Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel grow out of their ‘Van Wilder: Party Liaison’ (2002) and ‘7^th Heaven’ (1996-2006) childlike ruts, respectively. Blade was the first of his kind, and none have been able to replace him.

‘BLADE’ (1998), ©MARVEL ENTERPRISES

Vampire Children and Glittering Bloodsuckers

The year 2008 was a complicated one for the purposes of this compendium, which is why I find more value in cramming two films in a single, wholehearted breath. ‘Let the Right One In’, Tomas Alfredson’s Swedish bloody fantasy changed the way we looked at vampire. Written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, this particularly unsettling story focuses on the friendship between Oskar, a shy and bullied 12-year-old, and Eli, his pale and mysterious new neighbour.

Bonded by their darker sides, Oskar and Eli form a friendship as they reveal their true natures to one another. Despite its ‘bloody Valentine’ vibe, ‘Let the Right One In’ carries itself with a warm conclusion and just a pinch of infantile sweetness.

‘LET THE RIGHT ONE IN’ (2008), © EFTI/FILMPOOL NORD

But nothing was more impactful on vampire culture than ‘Twilight’, of all silver screen creations. Oh, ‘Twilight’. While I hate the franchise with the fire of a thousand suns, credit must be given where it’s due. Regardless of its underwhelming vampiric representation and gothic-bubblegum aesthetic, Catherine Hardwicke’s cinematic take on the Stephenie Meyer novels rightfully earned its place in this collection devoted to fanged dazzlers.

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were too young and their characters too superficially written to make an individual lasting impact. The storyline itself was predictable, at best, and clotted with clichés. But ‘Twilight’ gave the world a new kind of vampire—the kind that conquered a new generation and brought young people back to reading fantasy. Obviously, there were better tales deserving of such attention, but ‘Twilight’ changed the market altogether, becoming a starting point as readers and viewers alike grew and moved on to greater titles.

‘TWILIGHT’ (2008), ©SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT

Korean-Style Fangers

Having been accustomed to the unpredictable yet poetic violence of Park Chan-wook’s ‘Oldboy’ (2003) and ‘Sympathy for Mr Vengeance’ (2002), I wasn’t exactly shocked by the concept of ‘Thirst’ (2009). I was, however, blown away by the stylistic execution and flawless character design. Inspired by Émile Zola’s ‘Thérèse Raquin’, Mr Park’s horror fantasy follows a priest who is afflicted by vampirism and forced to remove himself from his ascetic ways while developing a sexual affair with the woman he feeds on.

Better known for his storytelling formula that blends brutality and controversy with light-hearted humour, the South Korean director pushed his method into a whole new realm through ‘Thirst’, a thought-provoking take on the colossal yet versatile vampire. Playing with gender roles and subversive editing, this particular bloodsucker’s tale is as ravishing as it is satyrical. Double points for Mr Park!

‘THIRST’ (2009), ©FOCUS FEATURES INTERNATIONAL

The Impoverished Vampire

Fast-forward to 2012, when Neil Jordan returned to the vampiric realm with ‘Byzantium’, starring the inimitable Saoirse Ronan and the severely underrated Gemma Arterton. Unlike most vampire stories, this visually astonishing yet coolly detached film does offer a polite nod to the director’s first foray with ‘Interview with the Vampire’. Unlike its more romantic predecessor, ‘Byzantium’ presents vampires not as elite charmers of the night, but as the necessitous or even downright beggarly creatures of a lower class.

Ronan’s protagonist feeds only on the blood of those that are already dying, while her mother, Arterton’s Clara, is an equal parts tragic and inspiring being—the former because she still makes a living as a prostitute, and the latter because she chose to become a vampire in a time when such a transition was reserved exclusively for men. What makes ‘Byzantium’ truly stand out is Mr Jordan’s treatment of blood in each and every scene where it is featured. The elaborate displays of scarlet are impossible to look away from, and the tinge of feminism neatly tucked within the story cannot be ignored, either.

‘BYZANTIUM’ (2012), ©DEMAREST FILMS

The Bloody Double Whammy

Another great year for vampires was 2013. Jim Jarmusch made an artful comeback with ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ in a time when the blood drinkers were already expanding their reputation throughout the television medium, as well. The American director’s treatment is superb, to say the least, as Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston emerge after centuries of bohemian living—two splendiferous though rather different sides of a coin.

Hiddleston’s vampire is tired and despondent. Swinton’s vampire is hopeful and warm, eager to bring him out of the darkness of their neverending existence and into the light of… well, their neverending existence.

There is a flow of ideas happening in Mr Jarmusch’s movie. A love of life and an appreciation of mystery that doesn’t dwindle after hundreds of years of living. It’s an optimistic angle, sure, but it’s a most welcome setup. Among all the vampire productions included in this collection, I’d venture to say that ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ is the most human, aiming to inspire and thrive, to encourage viewers to step into new realms and experience adventure. To never stop breathing and wondering and living.

‘ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE’ (2013), ©RECORDED PICTURE COMPANY (RPC)

And while on one hand we have this honey-like drizzle of vampirical romanticism, Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ (2014) comes as a most welcome dollop of humour—something we’ve not seen much of since Udo Kier’s Warholian vampire. In this 86-minute comedy, Clement and Waititi are joined by Jonathan Brugh and Ben Fransham as four fangers who were turned during different time periods. That leads to some hilarious conflicts of culture and personality, while the misery of eternal living persists somewhere in the background, much like an uncomfortable wart.

Deadpan mockumentary humour aside, ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ is a brilliant take on the vampire as it’s dragged out of its gothic pizzazz and thrust into the real world today, where dishes have to be washed and bouncers can refuse one’s entry into a nightclub. Perhaps too short in its feature form, the film did go on to evolve into an eponymous series helmed by Mr Clement. Can’t say I mind it. Not even a bit.

‘WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS’ (2014), ©UNISON FILMS

The Vampire On TV

On the small screen, vampires have been wreaking havoc and building gargantuan fan bases on a weekly basis and across different age groups. From HBO’s ‘True Blood’ (2008-2014), based on Charlaine Harris’s ‘The Southern Vampire Mysteries’, which made everyone—absolutely everyone—fall head over heels with Alexander Skarsgård, to ‘The Vampire Diaries’ (2009-2017), which appealed to the young adult audience but then lost its vampire theme somehow between seasons 3 and 4, TV does not fall short in this uniquely diverse fantasy category.

‘True Blood’ was better because of its stellar cast—I shall never forget Nelsan Ellis as Lafayette, nor Rutina Wesley’s intensely broken Tara. ‘The Vampire Diaries’ made Ian Somerhalder into a household name, and I can unrepentantly state that those piercing blue eyes of his are pretty much the show’s only redeeming quality.

But before these vampires we had Spike and his weird-eyed cohorts in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (1997-2003), and David Boreanaz’s iconic Angel that got his own spin-off with a darker and more mature treatment. We had the phenomenal Famke Janssen and Bill Skarsgård’s upirs in ‘Hemlock Grove’ (2013-2015), too, part of Netflix’s plunge into the vampire trend that dominated this sundowning decade. And ‘Being Human’ in both its UK and US versions struck a particular chord with fans on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean by making ghosts and vampires and werewolves live together under the same roof.

‘TRUE BLOOD’ (2008-2014), ©HBO/HOME BOX OFFICE

While most vampires follow the usual ‘sexy predator’ trope, there are some who stand out as multifaceted and intensely human, and a few who are truly unforgettable, savagely fun and interesting.

Ultimately, there is one change from the ancient vampers to the present-day fangers that stands out and is key to a show or a feature film’s success: they no longer take themselves too seriously. Yes, they are fierce and lethal and gory, able to tear one’s throat open for a mere sip, yet at the same time they manage to appear vulnerable, in some cases even silly, but always riding that wave of immortality better than their predecessors ever could. I, for one, appreciate the modern vampire more because it lives past the otherwise unavoidable tragedy of death and the end of things.

It lives past everything, and it asks the most daring question of all: what does forever look like?

For as long as people have told stories, there have been vampires in our folklore: in orally transmitted tales, in novels, and more recently, in film and television. They go out of fashion once in a while, but then they come back with a vengeance and a hunger for the macabre. The vampire is a timeless element of fantasy. It’s time to dig into its history.

Mythology with Fangs

Supernatural beings who drank the blood of innocent humans have popped up in almost every culture across the globe, from Antiquity and well into the Middle Ages. From the Indian vetālas and the Babylonian Lilitu (synonymous to the Hebrew Lilith) to the Ancient Greek Lamia and the Brazilian Jaracaca, and from the Eastern European versions including the Romanian strigoi, the African Asasabonsam, the Old Norse draugr, and the old-fashioned English revenant, our storybooks are loaded with blood-drinking fiends of the night.

Our fascination with these mythical creatures even devolved into a terrible frenzy during the 18^th century, which saw corpses staked and graves dug open to identify and destroy potential revenants. In that age, the immortality that bound one’s body to the night was a work attributed to the Devil himself. The only eternity that a soul could wish for came after death and with a proper burial for those so-called true Christians. Vampires were frightful creatures, capable of terrible things, a dark mirror image of ourselves, in the end, so of course, they thrived!

ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID HENRY FRISTON FOR ‘CAMILLA’ BY SHERIDAN LE FANU

A Silver Screen for Nosferatu

When the 20^th century came around, people had a new medium to tell vampire stories through. German director F.W. Murnau brought forth ‘Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror’ in 1922, which introduced Max Schreck as Count Orlok. It was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ novel of 1897—the first slightly more romantic take on the infamous bloodsucker.

In Murnau’s version, the charmingly terrifying vampire has an interest in a new residence and in his estate agent’s wife, portrayed by Greta Schröder. Today, ‘Nosferatu’ is a jewel of early cinema, even though Stoker’s heirs sued over copyright infringement. A court ruling ordered all copies of the film to be destroyed, but several prints survived. In 1929, seven years after its German premiere, ‘Nosferatu’ was released in the United States, later becoming one of the most influential masterpieces of the silver screen. So influential, in fact, that Werner Herzog revisited it through a breath-taking homage titled ‘Nosferatu, the Vampyre’ (1979).

‘NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR’ (1922)

Stoker’s Dracula Revisited

After Murnau’s foray into the vampire fantasy, Tod Browning took on the challenge of an authorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel—by proxy, since the film is actually based on the 1924 stage play written by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which, in turn, is based on the novel. Yes, this is quite the copyrighted pretzel! Garrett Fort penned the screenplay, and legendary actor Bela Lugosi played the part of Dracula in what quickly became a veritable oeuvre of its genre and generation.

It had an enormous commercial and critical success upon its release, and Lugosi’s version of Dracula quickly became a cultural icon, recognizable anywhere. He also served as the central framework for future vampire characters which would later blossom in the minds of writers like Anne Rice and Stephen King, to name but a few. The classy and deadly type. Eventually, ‘Dracula’ (1931) was selected by the United States Library of Congress for preservation in its National Film Registry, which deemed the film as ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant’.

‘DRACULA’ (1931), ©UNIVERSAL PICTURES

The Politically Infuriated Vampire

Over the decades following Browning’s ‘Dracula’, the vampire myth didn’t find much appeal within the film world. There was the occasional European dip such as ‘Daughters of Darkness’ (1971), but nothing truly notable until Bill Gunn arose and slapped America with ‘Ganja & Hess’ (1973), a racially tinted and remarkably audacious vampire tale. It chronicles a short-lived but mesmerizing affair between a wealthy widow named Ganja and Hess, a vampiric anthropologist with an impressive hold on his powers.

Hess is turned by Ganja’s husband, portrayed by the director himself, with the aid of a Myrthian dagger inherited from an ancient tribe of African blood drinkers. The film’s dominating conclusion is that even with his complex knowledge of the history of his people, Duane Jones’s Hess has not yet truly felt the anger of the tragedy that befell the African people—not until the dagger. It’s an interesting transformation to observe, dabbling through painful history and societal issues that are still hard to take off the table. Worth mentioning here is that years later, Spike Lee did a remake of ‘Ganja & Hess’ titled ‘Da Sweet Blood of Jesus’ (2014).

‘GANJA & HESS’ (1973), ©KELLY/JORDAN ENTERPRISES

A Parody of Bloodsuckers

Once upon a time, the vampire was still a relatively young creature in the pages of cinema, so certain directors (Paul Morrissey) and certain producers (Andy Warhol, of all people) decided that it would be a fabulous idea to create a farcically impotent version of Dracula, brought to life by Udo Kier in ‘Blood for Dracula’ (1974). This particular bloodsucker’s problem is that his body is getting weaker due to the dwindling number of virgins for him to feast on. His quest for ‘pure blood’ takes him to Italy, where eye-candy Joe Dallesandro bangs his way through the countryside with a thick Brooklyn accent in order to literally starve Dracula out.

With no virgins left, the night-lord will eventually wither and perish, giving a whole new meaning to the concept of ‘morning wood’. On one hand, viewers would find it easy to laugh at an impotent vampire, but Kier’s portrayal also represents the slow death of classicism in the face of a sexual revolution.

‘BLOOD FOR DRACULA’ (1974), ©ANDY WARHOL PRESENTATION

Mr Romero’s Take

George Romero was no stranger to the horrors of supernatural. The vampire, in fact, was one of the primary influences for the filmmaker from a young age. Most might remember the master’s legacy through works like ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968), but it’s ‘Martin’ (1977) that made it into our vampiric compendium. It is a surprisingly inventive gem of its genre, uplifting the vampire mythos through its titular teenager. The kid gets his blood through syringes, and he’s one hell of a seducer. Mr Lugosi wouldn’t hold a candle to the strangely dazzling Martin.

There have been numerous imitators who have tried to claim Romero’s crown for ‘Martin’, though few filmmakers were ever able to deliver such psychological malaise by challenging the viewers’ imaginations. This young vampire holds his ground as a splendiferous anomaly and as an homage to the blood drinkers’ trope.

‘MARTIN’ (1977), ©LAUREL PRODUCTIONS

The Vampire Next Door

It’s safe to say that this trend started in 1985 with Tom Holland’s ‘Fright Night’, starring Chris Sarandon as the deviously seductive vampire who taunts his teenage neighbours by bringing a new girl home to victimize every night. There is a hilarious twist here, as the unexpected teen heroes enlist the services of an actor who kills vampires on TV to destroy the debonair bloodsucker. It’s an interesting collision between the voyeuristic cinema that Brian De Palma was better known for in the early ‘80s—works like ‘Body Double’ (1984) and ‘Dressed to Kill’ (1980), among them, and the teen comedy style that frequently pitted the unpopular boys and girls against the star athletes and mean bubble-gum cheerleaders.

It was the first time that the vampire was connected to adolescent angst, and it created an interesting effect over the following decades, as both the big and the small screen gradually noticed the nocturnal fiend’s appeal to younger audiences. By then, Anne Rice’s ‘Interview with the Vampire’ novel was already sparking raucous fires among readers with its romanticized immortals, though it would take another nine years for Lestat to reach the silver screen. ‘Fright Night’ was remade in 2011 by Craig Gillespie and featured intense performances from Colin Farrell, David Tennant, and the late Anton Yelchin.

‘FRIGHT NIGHT’ (1985), ©COLUMBIA PICTURES

Of Mullets and Biters

Ever the adaptable and chameleonic creature, the vampire found yet another formula to work with, this time through ‘The Lost Boys’ (1987), a cult darling directed by Joel Schumacher and featuring the memorable Kiefer Sutherland with a bleached mullet and a dreamy-looking Jason Patric. The story follows two brothers who move to a new town, only to discover that it’s swarming with badass vampires.

This time, it’s easy to see who the villain is. The vampire’s role is rendered simple, defined by bloodthirst and violence. While the film didn’t do much in terms of box office immediately after its release, ‘The Lost Boys’ gathered a loyal following across generations, made timeless by its delightful melange of spunk, gore, and everything else that was so ‘80s and worth immortalizing on cellulose acetate.

‘THE LOST BOYS’ (1987), ©WARNER BROS.

Coming Full Circle

Back to ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ (1992), directed by the luminary Francis Ford Coppola. I find it sad that too many people judge him solely based on the ‘Godfather’ trilogy—yes, we all know that ‘The Godfather: Part 3’ (1990) was bad, but from there to calling his take on the Dracula lore as no more than ‘campy’ was a painful stretch. Alas, that was what many critics said when the film was released. Never mind the stellar cast, featuring exquisite performances by Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, and even an ingenue Keanu Reeves. It was branded and set aside to rot in the shadows of greater works like ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979).

Yet the American director’s vision of the vampire went beyond the increasingly mainstream sexual interpretation. His Dracula was an expression of immortality and an unstoppable lust that transcended the physical, desperately treading through the marshes of a surreal hunger. His Dracula carried himself with a sharp sense of danger, a predator on the prowl that instilled a sense of dark madness.

‘BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA’ (1992), ©COLUMBIA PICTURES

After all, what is the vampire nowadays, after centuries’ worth of fabled evolution? A damned creature, a destroyer of hearts, a thief of bodies, and mankind’s guilty pleasure. Immortality is usually out of our reach, but we live eternally and vicariously through the vampire, at every turn reminded that a price must be paid if one wishes to never die. A deal with the devil, in a way, and a choice that many openly contemplate, otherwise vampires would never be so popular.