The Vampire Films Mini-List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

[Maltic]

1. Nosferatu (1922)
2. The Brides of Dracula (1960)
3. Near Dark (1987)
4. Vampyr (1932)
5. Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
6. Black Sunday (1960)
7. Dracula (1958)
8. Blood for Dracula (1974)
9. Son of Dracula (1943)
10. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
11. The Addiction (1995)
12. Hotel Transylvania (2012)
13. The Mark of the Vampire (1935)
14. Vampire Circus (1972)

I Vampiri

A great film which has as many vampires as Lewton's The Ghost Ship has ghosts, I would say.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Thanks for compiling the list, Matt.

I submitted 20 films (below).

1. Fascination (Rollin)
2. Daughters of Darkness (Kumel)
3. The Addiction (Ferrara)
4. The Planet of the Vampires (Bava)
5. Valerie and her Week of Wonders (Jires)
6. Let's Scare Jessica to Death (Hancock)
7. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jarmusch)
8. The She-Butterfly (Kadijevic)
9. Lifeforce (Hooper)
10. Cronos (Del Toro)
11. 30 Days of Night (Slade)
12. Let The Right One In (Alfredson)
13. Martin (Romero)
14. Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin / Gillett)
15. Twins of Evil (Hough)
15. Nosferatu (Murnau)
17. Bram Stoker's Dracula (Coppola)
18. Dracula (Fisher)
19. I Am Legend (Lawrence)
20. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (Amirpour)

[thirtyframesasecond]

1. Nosferatu (1922)
2. The Brides of Dracula (1960)
3. Near Dark (1987)
4. Vampyr (1932)
5. Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
6. Black Sunday (1960)
7. Dracula (1958)
8. Blood for Dracula (1974)
9. Son of Dracula (1943)
10. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
11. The Addiction (1995)
12. Hotel Transylvania (2012)
13. The Mark of the Vampire (1935)
14. Vampire Circus (1972)

I Vampiri

A great film which has as many vampires as Lewton's The Ghost Ship has ghosts, I would say.

Ah, if I'd remembered it, I'd have included Vampire Circus - that was a fun film.

[Maltic]

One I forgot/failed to consider was Lifeforce.

[Feego]

My list:

1. Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht (1979, Werner Herzog)
2. Vampyr (1932, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
3. Horror of Dracula (1958, Terence Fisher)
4. Nosferatu (1922, F. W. Murnau)
5. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992, Francis Ford Coppola)
6. Vampire Hunter D (1985, Toyoo Ashida)
7. Blood for Dracula (1974, Paul Morrissey)
8. Black Sabbath (1963, Mario Bava)
9. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970, Jaromil Jires)
10. Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (1973, Richard Blackburn)

[colinr0380]

My list was:

1. Martin
2. Near Dark
3. Salem’s Lot (1979)
4. Nadja
5. The Addiction
6. Fright Night (1985)
7. 30 Days of Night
8. Cronos
9. Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horrors
10. The Hunger
11. Dracula: Prince of Darkness
12. Dracula (1931)
13. Fascination
14. The Shiver of the Vampires
15. Interview With A Vampire
16. Innocent Blood
17. Vamp (1986)
18. The Lost Boys
19. The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me But Your Teeth Are In My Neck
20. The Last Vampire on Earth (2009)

Sadly no room for all the other Hammers (Countess Dracula was hard to let go of); other 70s classics like Zoltan: Hound of Dracula (aka Dracula's Dog) and the Count Yorga films; and I had put too many other essential 80s vampire films in there to feel able to add in LifeForce and felt that Vamp needed a bit more of the attention. Similarly I went back and forth on whether I could justify adding The Neon Demon to the list since I was not certain if it would be seen as a vampire film or not! Glad to see that others appreciate 30 Days of Night too!

I do have the disc of Resurrection on its way to me, zedz, so have not yet seen that one. But it is interesting that the last few years had a rush of vampire-related material such as Sinners and the Interview with a Vampire TV series, to the two separate Dracula adaptations of just last year and the Robert Eggers Nosferatu! (Plus The Vourdalak). So it seems that there is a bit more blood left the in subgenre's neck still!

[Matt]

Also-rans and #1 placements have been added to the results post.

I made an error in tabulation which has been corrected in that post. This resulted in Terence Fisher's Horror of Dracula to (rightfully) rise in the top 20.

[domino harvey]

For those wondering what Marty Supreme is doing on someone’s ballot

[Mr Sausage]

Also-rans and #1 placements have been added to the results post.

I made an error in tabulation which has been corrected in that post. This resulted in Terence Fisher's Horror of Dracula to (rightfully) rise in the top 20.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is listed as an orphan, but two people voted for it (me and thirtyframesasecond).

[Maltic]

For those wondering what Marty Supreme is doing on someone’s ballot

Is it just me who found the 'Rockwell' name for that character (and company/brand) a bit too on-the-nose?

Good film, though.

[Lowry_Sam]

Was actually thinking of music videos to fill out the list & Somebody's Watching Me was the first thing that came to mind, but I never saw fangs or neck biting so I didn't include it.

As Long as You've Got Your Health (Étaix, 1966)

Completely forgot about this one, would have included it.

[domino harvey]

Was actually thinking of music videos to fill out the list & Somebody's Watching Me was the first thing that came to mind, but I never saw fangs or neck biting so I didn't include it.

Alex Ross Perry’s video for Aly & AJ’s “Take Me Out” has you covered on that front at least

[Matt]

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is listed as an orphan, but two people voted for it (me and thirtyframesasecond).

Sorry. I’ll fix that. Clearly I’m no swo17 or domino when it comes to tabulating lists.

[Mr Sausage]

I'm really happy that you went through all the work for this, Matt! The list was a lot of fun, even if I did end with a really high shit-to-gold ratio in my viewings.

[Matt]

Somehow I put several films in the orphans that had more than one vote. The top 20 was not affected, and I've updated the results.

Boy, is my face [blood] red!

[domino harvey]

Was actually thinking of music videos to fill out the list & Somebody's Watching Me was the first thing that came to mind, but I never saw fangs or neck biting so I didn't include it.

Alex Ross Perry’s video for Aly & AJ’s “Take Me Out” has you covered on that front at least

Lio’s “Bebe vampire” too

[thirtyframesasecond]

Was actually thinking of music videos to fill out the list & Somebody's Watching Me was the first thing that came to mind, but I never saw fangs or neck biting so I didn't include it.

As Long as You've Got Your Health (Étaix, 1966)

Completely forgot about this one, would have included it.

You could've had Heart by PSB - https://youtu.be/wTkfK2g4pKI?si=6PLg67I5Cp_OYRck

[Lowry_Sam]

You could've had Heart by PSB - https://youtu.be/wTkfK2g4pKI?si=6PLg67I5Cp_OYRck

I knew there was a vampire music video I was forgetting & that's it! Oh well, next time.

[Mr Sausage]

Horror and Sci-Fi are the only genres I can think of where I don't generally prefer outputs from the studio era. Maybe there's something inherent in these kinds of source materials that calls out for more freedoms of expression or special effects

I know this is from a few weeks ago, but I was randomly thinking about it today and I may have an answer.

We tend to have two rough expectations of genres: genres where the best work transcends its genre, and genres where the best work epitomizes its genre. With genres like screwball and noir, for example, we usually favour films that epitomize their respective genres, hence old Hollywood dominates because it offers the purest examples of our expectations. But horror and sci fi we tend to expect to transcend genre, either by subverting the old standards or by establishing new ones. So classical Hollywood can't dominate since it's establishing the old standard.

Might go some way to explaining why these two genres are different for you.

[knives]

I also feel like in the case of Sci-fi feature film, especially live action, just isn’t the best medium for what is compelling about it which might be why the best of the genre (as well as fantasy) in live action features are often very literary or cartoonish. Probably the easiest point of reference for people is the superhero stuff where the features often feel lacking in comparison to television and comic models.