Vampire Movies: Love at First Bite
Richard Brunner
We love going to the movies. There we can live vicariously through the characters on the screen. In the dark movie theatre we laugh, cry, fall in love and more importantly we get scared. The presence of vampires in the cinema has a very long history dating back to the first silent films through today’s special effect spectacular blockbusters. We love the vampire movies for many different reasons. We love watching the ultimate battle between good especially when evil is destroyed in the end. The following is a list of some of the great vampire movies throughout the decades.
1935 Mark of the Vampire
In this remake of Browning’s silent London at Midnight (1927) we are introduced to the granddaddy of all Draculas, Bela Lugosi. Lon Chaney was originally cast in the role of the Count but had passed away a few short months prior to the beginning of filming. Lugosi won the role and made history in this leading role. The interesting thing about this movie is that Bela Lugosi only plays a man pretending to be a vampire to lure out a killer. Dracula’s his partner Luna the Batwoman has a very interesting scene where she “morphs” into a bat. This is very impressive considering it was made in the 1930’s. This is not a great movie but a fun movie to watch.
1943 Son of Dracula
In this installment of the Dracula movies it is interesting to note that Lon Chaney Jr played the Son of Dracula. His father Lon Chaney played Dracula in Browning’s silent London at Midnight (1927) An interesting note is that the female lead was a strong role and not just a scream and die role. Kaye willingly becomes a vampire to have eternal life.
1958 Horror of Dracula
Christopher Lee takes on the role of Dracula for the first time in this movie. Lee is said to be the first actor that brought a noticeable sexuality to the Count. Lee played Dracula in 8 films total and also starred in two other vampire movies.
1967 The fearless Vampire Killers
The movie poster states clearly, Who says vampires are no laughing matter? This movie is a satire of movies such as Brides of Dracula. This movie Wonderfully blends a mixture of comedy and horror. Another interesting note is that this movie starred Sharon Tate. The same actress that was killed by Charles Manson’s minions.
1979 Salem’s Lot
Stephen King’s artful novel about a town plagued by vampires hits the small screen in the first mini series of its kind. This is re-released as one movie. Salem’s Lot takes back to the place where being a vampire isn’t pretty. After decades of handsome and suave vampires we are re introduced to horrifically scary vampires. One of the most haunting scenes is when one of the town youth is knocking on the window of his classmate, calling him into life eternal.
1987 The Lost Boys
"One thing about livin’ in Santa Carla I never could stomach – All the damn vampires!" One of the greatest lines in a vampire movie of all time. This movie brought vampires into a new age. The soundtrack is 80’s rock. It is hard enough being a teenager without being plagued by vampires. This movie hit its target audience, the teen audience.
1992 Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Not to be confused with Muffy The Vampire Layer. (1993) (Actual Title) Okay the movie stunk but it did inspire one of the best television shows that was on the WB network.
1992 Blade
The power of an immortal. The soul of a human. The heart of a hero. Blade is half human and half mortal. His goal is to protect the human race from the vampires. The main character is an interesting mixture of good and evil in one package. This is a fun movie that delivers on enough scares to keep us on the edge of our seats to the very end. The inspired sequels never quite reach the greatness of the original.
1994 Interview with a Vampire
Anne Rice brought the horrors of the vampires to a new age of readers in her Vampire chronicles. Rice poured her heart and soul into these books after the death of her own daughter to leukemia in 1973. This is one of the biggest blockbusters in the Vampire Genre with the big names of Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kristen Dunst and Antonio Banderas. The role that was played by Christian Slater was originally cast by River Phoenix. Interview was unique in the fact that the movie was about vampires and the vampire culture and not the traditional man vs vampire/good vs evil plot line.
2000 Dracula 2000
Van Helsing has kept the body of Dracula hidden in his basement in a silver coffin. Van Helsing draws out the vampire blood with leeches to stay mortal. His assistant assumes that what is being carefully guarded will make her rich, she steals the silver coffin and brings the evil from the nineteenth century into the twenty first century. The ending of this movie was very unique in providing the beginning of the vampire. Having Dracula being the tortured soul of Judas Iscariot caused an uproar in the religious community while providing great press and interest in this visually stunning movie.
2003 Underworld
Once again this tale of the vampire world has an interesting twist. In the same vein as Interview with a vampire. The story is not a human-monster plot line. Vampires and Werewolves have been arch enemies from their inceptions. This battle for dominance is an interesting twist.
2004 Van Helsing
This 21st century adaptation of the Van Helsing Character was very unique. It portrays Van Helsing, who has been Dracula’s nemesis in numerous movies over the decades, is an agent for the Catholic Church. His job is to seek out and bring in notable monsters such as Dr. Jeckyll. He is dispatched to a far off land to help the last of the vampire hunters to destroy Dracula in order to save the souls of her family. This stunning movie plays more like a comic book than horror movie. The special effects are stunning and the movie is a lot of fun.
If I have left off one of your favorite Vampire movies or you would like to look at more of the hundreds vampire movies available to view please check out the following websites.
http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/vampirefilms.html
http://www.oddfilms.com/vampire.htm
http://www.vampyres-online.com/