Halloween Related Top 10 List - Vampire Movies

These are my favorite vampire movies of all time. Granted I do become very picky when deciding how some movies will be classified - for instance Near Dark is a movie about vampires, but it clearly states that it's NOT A VAMPIRE MOVIE by its own description... so yeah, I like Near Dark but it's not on the list. Also, no Underworld. Yeah I said it, NO Underworld. Underworld is more like an action movie than a horror movie - the removal of the horror elements only delude the vampire aspects - good movie, I like it... but not on the list. Same goes for Ultra Violet - for both of the reasons mentioned before. I also have to exclude vampire movies with strong comedic undertones - Love At First Bite is great and so is Once Bitten, but unfortunately these are not horror films. I am mostly listing vampire movies that not only catch my attention, but also bluntly list their rules "sunlight, holy water, stake through the heart, garlic, etc." These are the vampire movies that fascinate me the most.

My Top 10 Vampire Movies

10. John Carpenter's Vampires - The opening seen with the tech savvy hunters going head strong against the nest, it won me over (even if the rest of the movie wasn't quite as interesting.)

9. Vamp - Once again the early scenes are amazing. If your car could recklessly spin-out resulting in you arriving in the wrong part of town (the vampire side), then I figured anything was possible in this movie.

8. The Hunger - David Bowie as the sympathetic vampire... 

I said David Bowie, 'nuff said.

7. Dracula (1931) - For being known as THE vampire movie it actually delivers very little fright, but for the time this movie is amazing and Bela Lugosi carries the entire movie with his presence.

6. Nosferatu (1922) - This remains the original vampire movie (as well as the first horror film). This movie has stood the tests of time.  To this day Max Schreck's version seems creepier than what all the money in Hollywood could produce for the next 70 years.

5. Shadow of the Vampire - Once you've seen Nosferatu, then watch this. This movie was so good that it unnerved me with its simplicity. Art meets horror in this instant classic starring Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich.

4. Fright Night - The formula that brought teenagers in the 1980's up to speed on vampire lore. After the Hammer series had overworked the classic story throughout the 1960's & 1970's - then this little gem came along woke everyone back up.  This movie is fun and scary.

3. Interview with a Vampire - I was only a fan after watching this a couple of times. I really think this world seems fast and full of mystery. I had never seen a vampire movie where heredity became part of the mystery, until this one.

2. Lost Boys - It took 1980's horror and made it timeless. This seems as much a part of my childhood as any other movie of the decade.  Sometimes I just need to watch Lost Boys... it's that good.

1. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - Gary Oldman is the Dracula that should've been emulated but never was (Vlad the Impaler from The Order of Dracul). This movie feels like a historical drama. It makes you forget that the Jonathan Harker character is played by one half of the Bill and Ted duo.  Every time I watch this movie, I see something new that I love about it.  Francis Ford Coppola made this movie epic in the way only he could have.  This is the Godfather of vampire movies.  If I only had one movie in this list to watch for the rest of my life, then this would be it.