Movie monsters come in all shapes and sizes, from the ancient horrors of the past to the speculative alien forces of the future. Some nightmarish figures seem to inhabit the mind, constantly growing and changing through new iterations and ideas. But, not every clever take on vampires gets its night in the moon.
The pop-cultural history of the vampire is an interesting cross-breed between historical superstition and groundbreaking fictional literature. When Bram Stoker blended the tale of Vlad III of Wallachia with the New England vampire panic to create Dracula, he could've never imagined the worlds of fiction he'd go on to inspire.
30 Days of Night
In 2002, comic book writer Steve Niles, otherwise best known for his brief 2005 run on Batman, wrote a miniseries that cast vampires in a new light. Where most vampire stories of the time cast the creatures of the night as powerful aristocratic romantics, Niles depicted them as vicious vaguely humanoid wolves. Niles' comic became a sleeper hit and was swiftly picked up for adaptation. Sam Raimi was originally attached, but over the three-year adaptation process, the studio went in a different direction. Director David Slade and writer Brian Nelson, who previously teamed up on the spectacular Hard Candy, joined the project to great success. 30 Days of Night tells the tale of a small town in Alaska during their well-known polar night period. A pack of hungry vampires invades and the townspeople must struggle to survive. It's a clever horror/action film that doesn't reinvent the wheel but does exactly what it sets out to do with aplomb.
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Make no mistake, the second film adaptation of Hideyuki Kikuchi's seminal novel series is an absolute masterpiece. It belongs among the best of early anime cinema, but a minuscule American release and years out of print made it notoriously hard to find. Bloodlust tells the tale of D, the iconic dhampir who hunts the creatures of the night, as he attempts to rescue a young lady from a vampire lord. On his way, he must contend with the deadly Marcus Brothers, who have also been hired for the same job. Bloodlust features some of the best animation of the era, bringing its beautiful genre-bending aesthetic to life. Its action scenes stand out today for their impactful flow and perfect presentation. Fans of vampires or anime must see Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, it's every bit as good today as it was when it was released twenty years ago.
Daybreakers
In a dystopian world ruled by vampires, humanity is hunted down and turned into cattle. Even this cruel system is beginning to fail, however, as all attempts to synthesize a replacement for human blood seem to fall apart. Vampirism, in this film's plot, occurs due to a nightmarish pandemic that has afflicted most of mankind. Society has had to adjust, building a complex infrastructure to avoid the sun while maintaining the functions of everyday life. Unfortunately, as a side effect of vampirism, those who go without blood for too long become monstrous "subsiders", who must swiftly be put down. Ethan Hawke stars as a determined hematologist who, after a chance encounter with the human resistance, finds himself questioning the society he has worked all his life to preserve. Daybreakers sports a clever blue-gray brutalist sci-fi look and a ton of unique action to stand out. It's not a perfect movie, but it's got a lot going on that fans couldn't stumble into elsewhere.
Thirst
Vampires have always been tied in with a few metaphorical elements, including wealth, religion, and sexuality. The best modern vampire stories continue to play with those ideas. The great Park Chan-Wook is known primarily for his masterful Vengeance Trilogy, but his 2009 horror outing is an underrated classic. Thirst tells the story of Sang-hyun, a Catholic priest who makes a miraculous recovery from a lethal disease after a mysterious blood transfusion. This transfusion transforms Sang-hyun into a classic vampire, but it also changes his personality. When Sang-hyun falls for a married woman, the two begin a torrid affair and a grim plot emerges. Thirst is an intense psychosexual thriller, and the supernatural elements only strengthen its pathos.
Martin
George A. Romero is the father of the zombie film genre, so it would stand to reason that he would also have a stellar take on the vampire concept. Released in 1978, Martin was Romero's fifth feature and his first collaboration with special effects master Tom Savini. The director repeatedly marked this strange horror piece as his favorite of the films he created. The eponymous Martin is a strange young man who behaves a bit like a vampire, but, takes every opportunity to explain that there is no magic. Not just in his condition, the ethos of Martin is that magic doesn't exist in any context, and that reality is as harsh a weapon as any pair of fangs. It may be radically different from any other vampire film, but Martin is a bizarre and wonderful film that must be seen to be believed.