[5] Three college boys drive to the big city to hire a stripper for a fraternity party, only to discover the strip club is really just a front for blood-thirsty vampires. Vamp doesn’t stray far from ’80s horror formula, especially in the third act, when it feels obliged to throw the kitchen sink into the fray. Chris Makepeace (My Bodyguard) lacks charisma as the underwritten …
[8] Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie play vampire lovers living in modern-day New York who seek the help of a gerontologist played by Susan Sarandon. If that sounds oxymoronic, therein lies the rub. Bowie’s character has suddenly begun aging, following in the doomed footsteps of Deneuve’s past lovers who enjoy eternal youth for a few hundred years before mysteriously aging and dying within mere weeks. …
[7] Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) directs this made-for-TV adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about a writer who discovers his hometown is being overtaken by vampires. The most remarkable thing about Hooper’s work here is how genuinely scary Salem’s Lot is without ever resorting to gore or excessive violence. Scenes of vampire children floating outside bedroom windows, beckoning their next victims to let …
[5] Tim Burton’s big-screen adaptation of Dan Curtis’ cult TV show Dark Shadows wants to be a comedy about a vampire transplanted from centuries past into the 1970s. That movie – one that focused on the vampire’s relationships with his surviving relatives, perhaps gaining their trust by helping them financially — could have been a good one. And thirty minutes into the movie, it looks …
[7] Director Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days, The Hurt Locker) serves up a stylish, brooding vampire tale set in the southwest. I dig Bigelow’s tone, atmosphere, and terrific casting. Bigelow tapped into the Aliens ensemble to cast Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, and Jenette Goldstein as a family of nomadic vamps. Paxton and Henriksen bring much-needed energy to the somber storytelling in a pair of fearless, over …
[7] Of the handful of silent films that still have shelf life, Nosferatu is perhaps the most popular. It’s the cornerstone of the entire horror genre, as well as the first time audiences ever saw a vampire on film. It’s an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but for legal reasons, the character names have been changed. The pacing, like most silent films, requires a little …
[7] John Malkovich stars as renowned German film director F.W. Murnau during the making of the seminal 1922 horror movie, Nosferatu. Willem Dafoe co-stars as enigmatic, creepy-as-shit Max Schreck, who played the vampire in Murnau’s classic. But that’s just the springboard for Shadow of the Vampire, which is really more concerned about creating its own fiction than depicting any behind-the-scenes reality. The gimmick here is …
[6] Christopher Lee dons the fangs again for this sequel to Hammer’s original Horror of Dracula, but he hated his dialogue so much that he refused to say any lines. Even though he’s mute and his screen time is limited, a little Lee goes a long way. His performance is interesting and unusual, a more feral depiction than any of his other Dracula outings. Unfortunately, …
[7] This vampire flick from the Spierig brothers (Undead) is good old-fashioned B-movie fun. The concept of a world full of vampires on the brink of a blood shortage is interesting, even if the plot goes silly at times. I liked Ethan Hawke as the vampire in charge of finding a blood substitute (just when I was pretty sure I’d never like Ethan Hawke again). …
[6] You’ll find immense, beautifully dressed sets and breathtaking oceanside locations in the 1979 Dracula. You’ll also hear a richly romantic John Williams score. These elements go a long way in creating a mood and atmosphere that are more lush than any Dracula movie has ever had before — and are enough to warrant a recommendation. But I think the superlatives end there. Frank Langella …
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