It's not that long a movie. I watched it on my Macbook while sitting in a coffee shop waiting for a friend who was very, very late.

That is everything that I love about silent film!

It doesn't get better than Shreck, does it? As much as I love Bela's rendition, Max is first in my heart. Creepy sexy!



Although Dracula(Lugosi) is also fabulous as are all of the movies with Christopher Lee and Frank Langella. MMmmmmm.....aristocrats...

I'll say still the two standouts for me are Bram Stoker's Dracula and Interview with the Vampire. Nosferatu had it's moments, as well as Shadow of the Vampire had an interesting take, but the other two hit it well.

I do like Queen of the Damned in a cheesy sort of way, since it's entertaining to watch, but it doesn't give off as somber a vibe as it could.

As much as they fubarred the story, I can't help but love Queen of The Damned. I love watching Aaliyah dance in it.

^_^

Yeah, the Aaliyah dance is good, along with the beginning graveyard scene.

Personally, I can't stand movies like Queen of the Damned I find it hard to get into new horror cinema these days.

Nosferatu, mos definitely.

Then Bela. Lost Boys

& in a satirical sense, From Dusk Til Dawn

I have to go with Fright Night. I just love that movie and can only now appreciate how completely cheesy the effects in it are, but love it all the more for them.

And I have to put in my two cents on Nosferatu...the movie is actually a direct ripoff of Bram Stoker's novel. His widow sued Murnau for copyright infringement and won the case demading, unsuccessfully, that every copy of the film be destroyed. I am only saying this because it was mentioned that this film stands on it's own merits storywise, which it does not. What made it truly spectacular was that it was the first movie to be filmed outside a studio and on-location, not to mention Murnau's use of old magicians tricks to recreate some of the scenes that shocked the audiences of the day. Trust me, I love this movie, it's just not one I can watch over and over.

~spidey

I completely forgot about Fright Night! Another thumbs up for it!

I love watching Dracula (although when I was a kid I would hide behind my brother whenever Dracula comes out..I know better now) and Interview with the Vampire. I also watched Queen of the Damned and I somewhat enjoyed watching it..Aaliyah was good. But none of those no-fangs vampire movies though...

has to be the original Dracula with Bela Lugosi for me. Underworld is right up there though. How can you go wrong with Kate Beckinsale, guns and vampires?

Out of the three, Evolution was the best for vampire lovers just because of the monstrous Marcus hybrid. But I think Rise of the Lycans was probably my favorite but doesn't count for this thread because it's more focused on werewolves.

My personal faves are Near Dark, The Addiction, The Lost Boys, Blood : The Last Vampire (the anime, not that travesty currently doing the rounds in the cinema)and Bram Stokers Dracula.
I thought Interview With The Vampire was very pretty, but didn't do much for me beyond that.

Let The Right One In

This is easily the best vampire movie I've even seen. Very spare and measured, the director takes his time developing a sense of place, both externally with the setting, and internally with the moods and emotions of the characters.

The most interesting aspect of this movie is the romantic element. The adults are shown to be involved in complicated relationships that have spun out of control. Oskar, the main character, is shown discovering the idea of romance even as he discovers the reality of a supernatural being (interesting parallel, no?)

There's nothing I can say that would do this film justice. the director is a genius, the writer taps into a wealth of emotion, and the cinematographer has a wonderful eye for using the visual to say what the characters leave unsaid (two words: pool scene).

And not to get off on a rant here, but personally, I've never been a fan of the whole vampire as "ultimate sexual being" or "ultimate killing machine" aspects of popular movies. As apart of the foundation for the Gothic literary canon, vampires were popularized as an analogy for the darker aspects human nature. Their existence was a lesson to those who would take human nature lightly or ignore the natural in favor of the intellectual.

I find it unfortunate that forbidden desire, sexual repression, and ass-kicking have become the only aspects of the vampires legend people are willing to explore. I trace most of the modern infatuation with the foppish vampire tortured with his/her existence to Anne Rice and her overwrought, grief-soaked "Interview with the Vampire" (written in the wake of her son's tragic death, btw). As for the vampire hero, this is only the flavor du jour for action heroes, just as the one-liner hero a la the Stallone/Schwarzenegger/Willis archetype was for the 80s and 90s.

What happen to the monstrosity of this ghoul, their desire to feast on the blood of the living, to revel in their existence? If any of you have read the graphic novel or seen the movie 30 Days of Night, or have taken the time to see Let the Right One In, you have glimpsed the Gothic roots of the vampire. These are no "Twilight" teens in heat and they are not superheroes; they are the embodiment of those aspects of human nature we hide behind masks for propriety.

This is why I dislike the Stephenie Meyer/Anne Rice-style of movies so much, and why Underworld/Blade-style vampires-as-action-heroes hold very little appeal for me. Those visions of vampires pulled vampires out of their Gothic literary roots and painted them up in a way that made them palatable to the masses. With movies like that, all that was truly Gothic about them has been stripped away.

/rant


- Heretic

It's a tie between The Queen of the Damned and The Hunger for me. ^^

Bela's Dracula!!! it makes me happy, and i've watched it since i was a child!! i would marry that man, but sadly, <bela lugosi is dead>