Vampires are mythological beings that are renowned for subsisting on human blood or soul. Although vampires have different characteristics depending on which story one reads (or movie one watches), in most cases, they are described as reanimated corpses who feed by draining and consuming the blood of living beings.

The term was popularized in the early 18th century and arose from the folklore of southeastern Europe, particularly the Balkans and Greece. In 1897, Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, brought folklore into the realm of published fiction. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular today. Books and films of the genre have portrayed vampires with attributes markedly distinct from those of original folkloric vampires. With Count Dracula, the gaunt, fanged noble undead, vulnerable to sunlight was born. However, traits such as aversion to garlic and vulnerability to staking were simply incorporated from the folklore.

Vampires have also proven to be a rich subject for the film and gaming industries. Dracula is a major character in more movies than any other except Sherlock Holmes.

Here is a list by snarkerati.com of the Top 70 Vampire Movies of All Time, ranked according to an average score from both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

1. Nosferatu (1922)
2. Dracula (1931)
3. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
4. Black Sunday (1960)
5. Martin (1977)
6. Horror of Dracula (1958)
7. Near Dark (1987)
8. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)
9. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)
10. Cronos (1993)
11. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
12. The Night Stalker (1972)
13. Fright Night (1985)
14. Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
15. Interview with the Vampire (1994)
16. Sundown: The Vampire In Retreat (1991)
17. Day Watch (2006) AKA Dnevnoy Dozor
18. The Lost Boys (1987)
19. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
20. The Last Man on Earth (1964)
21. The Fearless Vampire Killers/ Dance of the Vampires (1967)
22. Salem’s Lot (1979)
23. The Monster Squad (1987)
24. JC Vampire Hunter (2001)
25. House of Dracula (1945)
26. Vampyres (1974)
27. Dracula’s Daughter (1936)
28. Brides of Dracula (1960)
29. Vampire Hunter D (1985)
30. Blade (1998)
31. Blade II (2002)
32. Night Watch (2004) AKA Nochnoy Dozor
33. John Badham’s Dracula (1979)
34. The Addiction (1995)
35. Vampire Effect (2003) AKA The Twins Effect
36. Blood: The Last Vampire (2000)
37. Blood and Donuts (1995)
38. Nadja (1994)
39. Love at First Bite (1979)
40. Rabid (1977)
41. Vampire’s Kiss (1989)
42. BioHunter (1995)
43. Frostbitten (2006)
44. Son of Dracula (1943)
45. The Return of the Vampire (1944)
46. Blood for Dracula (1974) AKA Andy Warhol’s Dracula
47. The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998)
48. The Hunger (1983)
49. The Vampire Lovers (1970)
50. Underworld (2003)
51. Subspecies (1991)
52. Ganja & Hess (1973)
53. Innocent Blood (1992)
54. Vampyros Lesbos (1970)
55. John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998)
56. The Night Flier (1997)
57. Lifeforce (1985)
58. Underworld: Evolution (2006)
59. Blade: Trinity (2004)
60. Vamp (1986)
61. Fright Night Part 2 (1988)
62. Van Helsing (2004)
63. Blacula (1972)
64. The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974)
65. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
66. The Forsaken (2001)
67. Queen of the Damned (2002)
68. Dracula 2000 (2000)
69. Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)
70. Bordello of Blood (1996)

Honorable Mentions:

• Ultraviolet (1998)
• Hellsing (2006)

Others:

• Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (1973) – A young girl who returns to her hometown to see her dying father finds herself being drawn into a web of vampirism and witchcraft.
• Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) – Sixties couples Michael and Donna and Paul and Erica become involved with the intense Count Yorga at a Los Angeles seance, the Count having latterly been involved with Erica’s just-dead mother. After taking the Count home, Paul and Erica are waylayed, and next day a listless Erica is diagnosed by their doctor as having lost a lot of blood. When she is later found feasting on the family cat the doctor becomes convinced vampirism is at work, and that its focus is Count Yorga and his large isolated house.
• The Return of Count Yorga (1971) – Count Yorga continues to prey on the local community while living by a nearby orphanage. He also intends to take a new wife, while feeding his bevy of female vampires.
• 30 Days of Night (2007) – This is the story of an isolated Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon. As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only the small town’s husband-and-wife Sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction.
• Once Bitten (1985) – The Countess has a problem. She is a 400 year old vampire who will cease to look young unless she is able to feed on a virgin three times before Holloween, a week away. She sends Sebastian, her servant and all of her lesser vampires out to find one. Finding a virgin is difficult in Los Angeles. Mark has a problem. He wants to ‘do it’ with Robin in the worst way, but she wants to wait. Jamie and Russ, Mark’s goofy friends convince him to go to a Hollywood pick up spot where Mark meets the Countess, on the prowl. Robin’s not going to understand.
• Embrace of the Vampire (1995) – Charlotte is a good girl virgin who is having some very bad dreams about sex. These dreams are courtesy of the vampire. Charlotte begins to change but as long as she remains pure for three days, the vampire will take her and they will live eternally together.
• Dracula: Dead and loving it (1995) – Another spoof from the mind of Mel Brooks. This time he’s out to poke fun at the Dracula myth. Basically, he took "Bram Stoker’s Dracula," gave it a new cast and a new script and made a big joke out of it. The usual, rich English are attacked by Dracula (Leslie Nielsen) and Dr. Van Helsing (Mel Brooks) is brought in to save the day.
• Dracula AD 1972 (1972) – In London 1872 – the final battle between Lawrence van Helsing and Count Dracula on top of a coach results in Dracula dying from a stake made from the remains of a wooden wheel. Lawrence dies from his wounds and, as he is buried, a servant of Dracula buries the remains of the stake by the grave and keeps a bottle of Dracula’s ashes and the ring. One hundred years later, the colourful 1972, Johnny, the great-grandson of the servant joins up with a "group" containing Jessica, the grand-daughter of the present vampire hunter, Abraham van Helsing and with their unknowing help resurrect Dracula in the 20th Century who is determined to destroy the house of Van Helsing, but who can believe that The king of the Vampires really exists and is alive – in 20th Century London?

Popularity: 8%

Video games have an extraordinary ability to creep out a player. When watching a scary movie, it’s the characters on screen that finds out what’s hiding around the corner. However, when playing a horror video game, you are the one who must creep into the darkness.

Colette Bennett at destructiod.com makes the case that the horror genre is being redefined by video games rather than the cinema:

…horror games are outdoing horror films by a landslide in quality. What’s the reason? Perhaps games allow for more detail in the storyline (twenty gameplay hours sure beats two in the theatre for building an engaging story). It also helps that games do not require brand name talent…

Why aren’t the films able to generate the same powerful reactions the games did, even though they are telling very similar stories? What do the games have that films can’t seem to capture? Some suggest that immersion and conflicting interests are the problems:

• There’s actually a chance the main character will die. The movie is a completed product, with a set story. In the back of your mind you can think, how is the main character going to get out of this one – no such guarantee in games. At any moment, some zombie/giant spider/hatchet murderer could rip your head off. Movies simply cannot create the suspense and adrenaline rush that a game creates because the main characters almost never actually dies.
• Horror games allow us to take a more personal role. Instead of watching the drama unfold, you decide when to walk through the door/dark hallway/basement. The movie builds the suspense, but when to take the plunge is decided for you, you can even turn away and “Is it over yet?” as some must.
• Excellent movies are hard to make; most movie studios are interested in keeping costs low (mediocre actors and directors) and courting the teen dollar.

For those who prefer video scare to film ones, gamergirl.com presents the Top 7 Scariest Games (descriptions form Wikipedia):

1. Fatal Frame (2001, Xbox, PlayStation 2) – On a dark September night in 1986, a young college student named Miku Hinasaki arrived at the Himuro Mansion to look for her missing brother, Mafuyu. Mafuyu went to the mansion to find his friend and mentor, a mystery novelist named Junsei Takamine, who went there previously to research a book with his editor, Koji Ogata, and a friend versed in the paranormal, Tomoe Hirasaka. Armed with only a flashlight, Miku enters Himuro Mansion, which has a long history of bloodshed, curses, and horrific rituals. She later finds the mysterious camera that Mafuyu had brought with him, and that the siblings’ mother passed down to them that can kill ghosts when she takes pictures of them. During her time in the mansion, she sees various apparitions of her missing brother, Mafuyu. She also sees a young girl on many occasions and an angry female spirit, Kirie, who on many occasions tries to kill Miku. (more…)

Popularity: 1%

Release: 2006
Runtime: 1 hour, 26 min
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Language: English
MPAA Rating: R
Starring: Cory Knauf, Samuel Child, Joseph McKelheer, Mackenzie Firgens, Rebekah Hoyle, Brittany Daniel

Amazon Link: The Hamiltons

SYNOPSIS: A low-budget frightener about a seemingly picture-perfect suburban family who harbors a terrible secret. When their parents are killed in a tragic accident, the eldest Hamilton sibling David (Samuel Child) relocates the family to a quiet California suburb and assumes the responsibility of caring for his orphaned siblings Wendell (Joseph McKelheer), Darlene (Mackenzie Firgens), and Francis (Cory Knauf). While twins Wendell and Darlene seem to share a incestuous bond that segregates them from the rest of the family, Francis the angst-ridden emo teen, acquires a video camera and sets out to film his family for a school project. As the all-seeing camera begins to reveal something malevolent in the Hamilton’s home, the youngest sibling is forced to choose between following family traditions or sparing the lives of his family’s victims.

Having seen several of the 2006 After Dark Horrorfest films, I’m beginning to think that I’ve been duped by the marketing machine at Lionsgate. The trailers and web site would have you believe that Liongate has gathered a horrorifying bevy of flicks as too “extreme” for normal audiences. So far, the only After Dark title worth watching has been Gravedancers. Others like Penny Dreadful and Dark Ride were lame at best. However, the worst so far is The Hamiltons – an amateurish, emo mess that deserves nothing less than an honored place in the direct-to-video bargain bin. The Hamiltons is directed by Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores under the moniker, The Butcher Brothers. With a name like that I had visions of a pair of disreputable gomers selling ‘homemade’ gorno movies out of the back of their Buick Regal, but the reality of their creative juices is far worse.

The Hamiltons are an orphaned group of siblings having difficulty adjusting to life after the death of their parents. Eldest brother David has taken up the patriarchal mantle and does his best keeping to support the family, when he isn’t busy trolling for homosexual drifters and transients. The twins Wendell and Darlene are extremely close after their parents’ death. How close? Well… to put it bluntly, they are incestuously close. The only ‘normal’ member of the family is the younger, angst-ridden brother Francis, who seems to have escaped the bizarre hunger afflicting his siblings. Oh, and then there is the unseen creature locked-up in the basement behind a chained door. So far the premise might sound intriguing, but trust me it isn’t nearly as good as it sounds.

While the DVD cover art suggests this is just another bandwagon-jumping slice of ‘torture-porn’, the reality is actually somewhat different and everyone in the room is now dumber for having watched it (apologies to Billy Madison). Feeling more like an indie drama written by emo kids than a horror flick, the movie is jam-packed with all the things that make low budget films so irritating: Clumsy screenwriting, wooden acting, stagnant pacing and a delusional sense of self-importance running rampant throughout.

You could probably describe The Hamiltons as Party of Five or Dawsons Creek with cannibals, incest and relatives locked behind closed doors ala V.C. Andrews, but that’d be way too kind. The Hamiltons feels more like an hour-long After School Special grafted to a few scenes of murder and mayhem. Viewers are supposed to find it ceaselessly shocking that the 4 ‘teen-somethings dabble in kidnapping, murder, blood-drinking and (of course) incest, but the story is presented in such dry and formless fashion, it’s tough to really care about the mess, bloody or otherwise. And the less said about the two ‘twists’ (what’s actually wrong with the family and what is in the box) the better, mainly because they’re predictable but also because they’re just stupid.

Goozlepipe Rating:Hated it

Popularity: 1%

For many horror fans, the beginning of the horror/ monster genre began with the classic Universal monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Wolf Man, the Phantom of the Opera, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. However, the relatively recent discovery of the Thomas Edison Company’s silent photoplay of Frankenstein (1910), demonstrates that horror subjects were present early on in motion pictures.

Indeed, two all-time horror classics were produced in the silent movie era: Nosferatu (1922) and The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (1919). The first was an unofficial version of Bram Stoker’s vampire epic Dracula. Caligari is the ultimate in dark German expressionism on celluloid. For both those who haven’t experienced these silent, but still scary horror gems and for those who have, the LikeTelevision Blog is listing (and streaming) the top 5 silent horror movies as part of its LikeTelevision Streaming Screamfest.

1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, 1921) A man named Francis relates a story about his best friend Alan and his fiancée Jane. Alan takes him to a fair where they meet Dr. Caligari, who exhibits a somnambulist, Cesare, that can predict the future. When Alan asks how long he has to live, Cesare says he has until dawn. The prophecy comes to pass, as Alan is murdered, and Cesare is a prime suspect. Cesare creeps into Jane’s bedroom and abducts her, running from the townspeople and finally dying of exhaustion. Meanwhile, the police discover a dummy in Cesare’s cabinet, while Caligari flees. Francis tracks Caligari to a mental asylum. He is the director! Or is he?
2. The Phantom of the Opera (1925) At the Opera of Paris, a mysterious phantom threatens a famous lyric singer, Carlotta and thus forces her to give up her role (Marguerite in Faust) for unknown Christine Daae. Christine meets this phantom (a masked man) in the catacombs, where he lives.
3. Nosferatu (1922) – This 1922 F.W. Murnau film is really creepy. Based on Bram Stoker’s epic novel Dracula, Max Schrek is amazingly frightening as the Vampire Nosferatu. (more…)

Popularity: 1%

“I thought you of all people would appreciate efforts to deconstruct the colonialist paternalistic agrarian hierarchy that disenfranchises the Tanga te Whenua and erodes the natural resources of Aotearoa.”
Release: 2006
Runtime: 1 hour, 27 min
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Language: English
MPAA Rating: R
Starring: Nathan Meister, Danielle Mason, Peter Feeney, Tammy Davis, Glenis Levestam, Tandi Wright, Oliver Driver, Matthew Chamberlain

Amazon Link: Black Sheep

SYNOPSIS: An experiment gone horribly wrong turns flocks of docile sheep into zombie sheep in this black comedy by Jonathan King. When the death of his father and probataphobia, fear of sheep, brings him to the verge of a nervous breakdown, skilled farmer, Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister), leaves the family farm. Fifteen years later, Henry discovers that his brother, Angus (Peter Feeney), has been performing genetic experiments on the sheep. Unfortunately for both the brothers and everyone else, the experiments have produced a strain of sheep that crave human flesh and will stop at nothing to satisfy their hunger.

In New Zealand, there are more 10 sheep for every person. Therefore, it can be assumed that it was only a matter of time before someone from that part of the world made a movie about the sheep. That person is Jonathan King. And as far black comedies go, King’s zombie sheep flick reminds viewers a great of deal of Edgar Wright’s zom com, Shaun of the Dead.

The Oldfield farm has been in the family for a hundred years but when dad dies, younger brother Henry moves away with a vicious phobia of sheep leaving older, evil brother Angus to mind the farm. Unfortunately, Angus has no interest in traditional farming and has adopts a genetic program to create a better sheep: the Oldfield.

When a pair of well-intentioned animal rights activists accidentally release one of the mutant sheep, they unwittingly trigger an ovine massacre. One bite from one of these genetic freaks has the power to turn regular sheep into rampaging bloodthirsty beasts Humans bitten are transformed into a monstrous were-sheep.

Now Henry has to overcome more than his phobia as he faces flesh-eating sheep with blood-soaked muzzles. He gets some help from the local farmhand Tucker (Tammy Davis) and a cute vegan named Experience (Danielle Mason).

Black Sheep is a horror-comedy, light on the horror (not the gore) and heavy on the comedy. Director Jonathan King wastes no time plunging in full-scale: The blood is hot and copious, the wool white and fluffy, and the dialogue and situations every bit as silly as you might expect. Black Sheep is more of a gross-out black comedy than a smartly crafted take on the zombie genre. But the film definitely has many hilarious moments. I give King credit for a clever twist on the zombie/gore formula; however, this isn’t the first time that warm and fuzzy creatures have turned lethal. There’s the killer rabbit from Monty Python’s Holy Grail and the unforgettable Night of the Lepus. Nonetheless, Black Sheep does deserve kudos for taking the genre to a nasty yet grossly funny extreme: Its a film that’s not sheepish about gore or the violence of the lambs. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Popularity: 3%