Best Vampire Movies of All Time, Ranked
51. Once Bitten (1985)
Howard Storm’s horror-comedy is best known as the first starring vehicle of Jim Carrey, who plays a bumbling high-school student seduced by a beautiful woman who turns out to be an ancient vampire. Once Bitten received marginally positive reviews and opened atop the U.S. box office. Years later, Carrey became the first star in history to earn a standard $20 million per picture.
50. Queen of the Damned (1995)
Based on the third installment of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, Michael Rymer’s horror pic saw Stuart Townsend take over the role of Lestat. The picture was a modest box-office hit despite less-than-glowing reviews. Queen of the Damned is best known as the final film of Aaliyah, who died just after its completion.
49. Blade Trinity (2004)
In the third and final film of the Wesley Snipes trilogy, the war between vampires and humans rages on; it also gets duller and more convoluted. Series newcomer Ryan Reynolds brings some undeniable charm to the proceedings, at least.
48. Van Helsing (2004)
Stephen Sommers’ summer tentpole was all over the map when it should have been a home run. Mega-watt, appropriately self-aware performances from Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale are at odds with tonal inconsistencies, a messy plot and awful CGI. Despite negative critical notices, Van Helsing grossed over $300 million at the box office.
47. New Moon (2009)
The weakest and silliest of the Twilight films is the one that caused “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” to take off. Despite the series’ weakest reviews, New Moon was a flat-out phenomenon at the box office, setting records for biggest cumes for midnight previews and single-day opening-day grosses (among others).
46. Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)
The union of mega-talents Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett and director Wes Craven should have been gold. Instead, Vampire in Brooklyn was a critical and commercial disappointment in 1995. Modern reassessments are more favorable, praising the chemistry of the stars and Craven’s direction specifically. This is a bona fide cult classic.
45. The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Four decades before Will Smith starred in I Am Legend, Richard Matheson’s book of that title was adapted into this post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror picture starring Vincent Price. The Last Man on Earth entered the public domain in the 1980s.
44. Hotel Transylvania (2012)
The vocal talents of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg and Selena Gomez fill in this family-friendly hit from Sony Pictures Animation. Three sequels followed in 2015, 2018 and 2022.
43. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 1 (2011)
In the penultimate film, Bella (Kristen Stewart) is a pregnant vampire. Stewart’s committed performance and the overdue introduction of some actual sex into the franchise are the film’s highlights.
42. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
Team Edward (Robert Pattinson) versus Team Jacob (Taylor Lautner) reaches its zenith in the third Twilight installment, which is also the most fun one. Dakota Fanning steals a lot of scenes, and Lautner takes his shirt off innumerable times. Eclipse is harmless fun.
41. Vampire’s Kiss (1988)
Robert Bierman’s supernatural black comedy is best known for what is arguably the most meme-worthy and iconic Nicolas Cage “Cage rage” freakout in film history. Share the magic of the scene above with your friends and loved ones. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
40. Daybreakers (2009)
Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe star in this post-apocalyptic actioner set in a dystopia ruled by vampires. Daybreakers grossed twice its budget and received mixed-to-positive reviews.
39. Blacula (1972)
William Crain’s blaxploitation fantasy film received mixed reviews, but was a major financial success—one of the year’s highest-grossing films against a small budget. This is the most well-known blaxploitation horror film. A sequel titled Scream Blacula Scream followed a year later.
38. Underworld (2003)
Len Wiseman’s action-horror hybrid was a surprise hit at the box office, with audiences falling for the mix of vampires versus werewolves mythology, impressive set pieces and S&M imagery. The series absolutely would not have taken off the way that it did without Kate Beckinsale’s composed, sexy turn as Death Dealer Selene, one of the 21st century’s most popular action heroines.
37. 30 Days of Night (2007)
Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston and Ben Foster star in this meat-and-potatoes action picture about a showdown between bloodsuckers and small-town folk in an Alaskan blackout. Based on the comic book series of the same name.
36. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 2 (2012)
Bill Condon took the reins for the final Twilight films, and the series went out with a bang. Breaking Dawn: Part 2 surprised and rocked Twi-Hards with a gory epic battle sequence fakeout that’s not in the books. BD2 grossed a massive $830 million, the highest-earning film of the mammoth franchise.
35. Fright Night (1985)
Tom Holland’s directorial debut—about a 17-year-old kid who discovers his next-door neighbor is a vampire—was a success in its day, and it remains a cult favorite. Fright Night spawned a direct sequel, as well as Hollywood and Bollywood remakes.
34. Martin (1977)
Late horror master George A. Romero said Martin was his favorite of all his films. The deliberately paced, stylish psychological thriller stars John Amplas as a young man who believes he is a vampire. Martin was the first collaboration between Romero and iconic effects master Tom Savini.
33. Fright Night (2011)
A little bit scarier, a little bit funnier, undeniably more polished, Craig Gillespie’s remake is arguably even better than the original. It’s a tough call, though. MVP here is hilarious, insanely sexy vampire Colin Farrell, and the film is a testament to the talents of late Anton Yelchin, tragically killed in an accident at 27. Gory Fright Night was released by Disney—under their Touchstone banner (reserved for less kid-friendly fare).
32. From Dusk till Dawn (1996)
Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez, From Dusk till Dawn stars George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Salma Hayek and Tarantino himself in a straight-to-the-point action flick about career criminals who face off against a vampire gang. This box-office hit is highly pleasurable junk food, made by pros who really know what they’re doing.
31. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
Joss Whedon wrote the script for this teen comedy that eventually was taken out of his control. The pleasurable enough, lightweight film is not what he’d intended. The future Avengers scribe took the reins for the long-running darker TV show starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, and the rest is history.
30. Horror of Dracula (1958)
The first of the iconic Hammer Horror films whose influence is very much felt to this day, Dracula is lavish, full of technical splendor instead of gory. Sophisticated, sexy and chilly, Christopher Lee’s embodiment of the Count is widely regarded as one of the best performances ever in a horror movie.
29. Ganja & Hess (1973)
More experimental and artistically accomplished than Blacula, Bill Gunn’s horror flick stars Duane Jones, best known for starring in 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. Ganja & Hess is about lovers who become vampires thanks to an ancient dagger. The picture was screened at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, and remade in 2014 as Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, by Spike Lee.
28. Blood for Dracula (1974)
A follow-up to Andy Warhol’s gore and nudity-soaked Flesh for Frankenstein, Paul Morrissey’s cult classic stars arthouse icons Udo Kier and Joe Dallesandro.
27. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)
Guy Maddin’s horror performance art film documents the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s production of Dracula. It’s mostly in black-and-white, with judicious splashes of color accenting the monochrome here and there.
26. Cronos (1993)
This stylish, well-acted and gory independent thriller about an antiques dealer and a quest for immortality put Guillermo del Toro on the map. Years later, he found success in the Hollywood studio system with Blade II.
25. The Lost Boys (1987)
Its title a reference to Peter Pan (a group of boys who never grow up), Joel Schumacher’s Santa Cruz-shot fan-favorite centers on two brothers and rivaling beach town gangs. The Lost Boys was a critical and commercial hit, with a strong cult following to this day.
24. Nadja (1994)
Michael Almereyda’s subtle arthouse picture stars Peter Fonda as Helsing, and Elina Löwensohn in the title role. The uneven but highly stylish picture channels Hal Hartley and David Lynch.
23. Vampires (1998)
Two decades after he practically reinvented modern horror with the box-office smash Halloween, John Carpenter adapted John Steakley’s novel Vampires. James Woods stars in the action-heavy indie horror Western.
22. Isle of the Dead (1945)
Inspired by the painting of the same name, this Val Lewton-produced RKO feature starred Boris Karloff nearly a decade and a half after he made history as Frankenstein’s monster. Martin Scorsese considers this one of the scariest films ever.
21. Byzantium (2012)
Neil Jordan’s British/American/Irish production is about a mother/daughter vampire duo who move into a rundown hotel to hide from other creatures of the night.
20. Thirst (2009)
Originally titled The Bat, South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook’s horror work centers on a forbidden love triangle between a Catholic priest, his best friend and his best friend’s wife. Fun fact: this is the first mainstream Korean film to feature full male nudity. It won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
19. Blade (1998)
Wesley Snipes kicks ass as Marvel’s half-mortal, vengeful vampire hunter. Hopes are high for Mahershala Ali’s take on Blade in the MCU.
18. Twilight (2008)
Haters gonna hate, but no one can deny the popularity and influence of the film series spun from Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling vampire chronicles, which practically ruled a pocket of the zeitgeist for nearly a decade. Thirteen director Catherine Hardwicke’s original picture stands tall as the best, overflowing with equal parts angst and eroticism.
17. Interview with the Vampire (1994)
Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt star in the most famous Anne Rice adaptation. Neil Jordan’s box-office hit also announced the formidable talents of young Kirsten Dunst, nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
16. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
This is the best American vampire Western in Persian you’ll ever see! Though it was shot in southern California, Ana Lily Amirpour’s feminist mood piece is the first screen vampire story ever to be set in the Middle East. In addition to having a brilliant, tantalizing title, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is sweet, sad and haunting, shot in widescreen black-and-white with the rhythm of classic silents.
15. The Hunger (1983)
David Bowie, Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve star in Tony Scott’s divisive directorial debut, an erotic horror flick about a supernatural love triangle. Now a cult classic, The Hunger is based on Whitley Strieber’s 1981 novel of the same name.
14. Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Harry Kümel’s erotic vampire film centers on newlyweds who encounter the sexy supernatural at a hotel.
13. What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
No doubt the funniest picture on this list—it’s laugh-til-you-cry funny TBH, this shaggy, inventive mockumentary shot Taika Waititi out of a cannon for moviegoing audiences worldwide. He recently won an Oscar for his Jojo Rabbit screenplay.
12. Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Co-produced by Nicolas Cage, E. Elias Merhige’s work of arthouse metafiction imagines supernatural occurrences behind the scenes of Nosferatu. John Malkovich stars as F.W. Murnau; Willem Dafoe was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his tragicomic portrayal of Max Schreck.
11. The Addiction (1995)
Starring Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken and Annabella Sciorra, Abel Ferrara’s black-and-white indie centers on a philosophy student who gets bitten and becomes addicted to human blood. The film is a metaphor for drug addiction.
10. Let Me In (2010)
Nobody asked for a remake of the Swedish masterwork about a lonely boy who befriends a vampire—many fans and critics were even highly opposed to the idea—and then Matt Reeves’s American spin turned out to be brilliant in its own right: exciting, well-acted and touching. One of Reeves’s latest projects? The Batman starring Robert Pattinson. Perhaps you’ve seen it!
9. Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)
Nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Jim Jarmusch’s romantic comedy/fantasy stars Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as two romantically linked vampires in present day. Critical assessment of Only Lovers Left Alive has only grown since its release.
8. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves star in Francis Ford Coppola’s sumptuous take on Bram Stoker’s novel—with way more sex and gore than previous Hollywood studio versions. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was a substantial success, grossing $215 million worldwide and winning three Oscars in technical categories.
7. Blade II (2002)
A decade and a half before he swept the Academy Awards with The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro brought vivid artistic flourishes to the Blade franchise’s best entry. Roger Ebert was highly positive in his review, saying, “Blade II is a really rather brilliant vomitorium of viscera, a comic book with dreams of becoming a textbook for mad surgeons.”
6. Near Dark (1987)
Initially a box-office dud, Kathryn Bigelow’s neo-western received critical praise, and eventually became a bona fide classic. In 2010, Bigelow became the first woman ever to win the Academy Award for Best Director (for The Hurt Locker).
5. Nosferatu, The Vampyre (1979)
An exquisite work from a golden age of horror, Werner Herzog’s take on Murnau’s original is nearly as revered as its inspiration. The saturated color photography will floor you: gorgeous, dirty, dramatic. Above all, scary.
4. Dracula (1931)
Based on Stoker’s book and a hit 1924 Broadway play, Tod Browning’s “pre-Code” tale of supernatural terror is one of the best and most influential genre pictures in history. Equal parts dashing and menacing, Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of the Count is what made the character a cultural icon. There’s a tragic bookend to this Hollywood story: after the success of Dracula, the director had a lot of freedom. His follow-up was carnival sideshow-themed Freaks. Arguably an even greater horror work than Dracula, Freaks was too disturbing for audiences of the time. It was butchered by the studio, and Browning’s career was destroyed.
3. Drácula (1931)
Universal Pictures used the same script and the same sets to film English and Spanish-language adaptations of Stoker’s iconic novel. Today, most observers believe the Spanish version—sexier, scary, funnier, more artistically bold—is superior. The only notable asset the English picture has that this one does not is, of course, Lugosi. If he had been in this version, it’s conceivable it might be our number one pick on this list.
2. Let the Right One In (2008)
All at once tender and scary, delicate and badass, this now-iconic Swedish coming-of-age fable with a lot of gore is an adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist‘s 2004 novel about a horrifically bullied 12-year-old who befriends a vampire. No one asked for the American remake Let Me In…and then it turned out to be shockingly great.
1. Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (1922)
German Expressionism eschewed objective reality in favor of heightened, distorted images to convey powerful emotions. Murnau‘s unauthorized adaptation of Stoker‘s Dracula is one of the key films of this movement, and one of the most influential horror pictures ever. Nosferatu probably won’t make most modern audiences jump, but its grotesque beauty will haunt your dreams. That’s a hell of an accomplishment for a picture that’s nearly one hundred years old. Nosferatu wasn’t screened in the United States until 1929, seven years after its German release. Another remake from The VVitch‘s Robert Eggers was just announced. Honorable mentions: Bloodsucking Bastards (2015), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012), Dracula Untold (2014), Dracula 2000 (2000). Looking for more scary movies? These are the scariest movies on Disney Plus right now.
