Bite Night: Five Essential Vampire Movies for Halloween
I love a solid vampire movie. Whether it’s bloodsuckers lurking in dingy, neon-soaked alleyways or brooding aristocrats haunting the corridors of crumbling European castles, I’m in. When it comes to Halloween, vampires offer a predatory mix of gothic glamour and primal fear, and there are plenty of essential vampire movies for you to sink your fangs into.
Here’s the start of a list that includes one of my personal favourites:
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1. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023)
If you watch just one film on this introductory list, please let it be Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. This beautiful French-language Canadian film had me in a chokehold for a solid minute.
It’s ultimately a film that hits close to home, with mental health and suicide-related themes. Part of the beauty of it is that you could remove the vampirism and add almost anything that makes someone feel ostracised during their formative years. The othering of an individual, not quite fitting in with their family, not quite fitting in with the world, can be found at the core.
Sasha has to find her place among it all. Rather than being aggressive and hungry around potential prey, she becomes empathetic. This proves to be a problem her family isn’t equipped to handle. Personally, I love the opening scene. There’s something gripping in the choice to mix Sasha’s breathing and the squelching of what’s unfolding in front of her.
The therapy that follows, the fears, there are so many real-world parallels to be drawn, packaged in a vampire story. Visually, it’s breathtaking, with a muted palette and occasional neon lights.
Most importantly, in my opinion, is that the confessions are rarely neat, because these confessions don’t come wrapped in bows to make them easier to digest.
“Must be in her blood.”
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2. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
If you’ve seen both Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person and Only Lovers Left Alive, you might already be piecing together that I quite like the fed up of the world feeling in films about eternal life, especially at times like this. The modern world is quite the sight. Only Lovers Left Alive offers us a couple whose union has lasted centuries, stuck in a world humans are steadily tearing apart. Seem familiar? Mushrooms are even beginning to emerge out of season.
Do I think this is a film all vampire film fans will love? No. I think it’ll be too slow and too focused on the exhaustion of the modern world for some audiences. If that human reflection is something you enjoy, I would definitely recommend giving it a try. For me, the visuals carried where the story slowed. It’s a beautiful film, opening with a spinning record and a shot of the ethereal Tilda Swinton spinning. It pulls you into a trance, inviting you to feel just how disorientating this world might be for the characters who inhabit it.
While Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton’s characters are a couple, they live lives that are worlds apart. She still seems to find corners of the world beautiful, even after centuries of inhabiting it. He’s ordering himself a wooden bullet and wrapping himself in a blanket of weariness. Even in the way blood is procured by his character, we see a layer of human corruption. It’s always there in this world, with those drinking blood suffering as humans begin to pollute themselves.
“I think the world has enough chaos.”
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3. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Before I even begin, if you plan on watching Nosferatu the Vampyre and you’re happy to watch a film with subtitles (or you speak German), please watch the German version. The first time I watched the English version and didn’t really connect with it as a film, but as soon as I was watching the German version it clicked into place, as scenes were filmed simultaneously in both languages.
The opening scene is immediately unsettling, with Herzog grounding us in the reality of death among bodies that, for all intents and purposes, look like they must have been drained of life. There’s a documentary-style realism that exists to further the divide between reality and the supernatural, to bring it closer to how we’re used to perceiving our own world.
We know the story of Dracula, but as we watch Herzog’s Jonathan Harker clamber through sun-kissed meadows and past idyllic rapids, we feel like he’s entering pristine wilderness. Yet, the voyeuristic lens makes us feel like he isn’t alone here, like the beauty isn’t to be trusted. We follow on as he unknowingly seeks out a beast in the wild, knowing who he’s set to encounter. And when he finally meets him, the inspiration of Count Orlok on Herzog’s Nosferatu is clear as day, complete with rat-like fangs. But for me, it’s Klaus Kinski’s downturned eyes that pull it all together, making the haunter haunted.
“Time is an abyss, profound as a thousand nights.”
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4. 30 Days of Night (2007)
I’ve offered you two films grounded in the weariness of the modern world and a classic so I feel it’s only right that I now offer you something a little bit faster. 30 Days of Night transports you to Barrow, Alaska, where you can almost feel the chill against your skin as you watch the sun set for the final time in thirty days. Have you ever longed for warm days when the winter chill sets in? This is a movie that shares that hope.
The story closely follows the graphic novel, with a couple of important changes, but no real diversions from the core of the story. One thing it mirrors closely is the art style, especially the frenzied feeding. The vampires that descend on this Alaskan town aren’t interested in preserving their food source or making sure that it lasts the month.
Fire and blood, night and snow. It’s a recipe that comes together to create a perfect storm, where blood stains on the snow are all that’s left behind. Each splatter becomes a staple of the world, something to remind you that this town is no longer the domain of the living. The trap has already been sprung, the residents are already cut off from the world, but can anyone survive?
“Last sunset in a month,
always works.”
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5. The Lost Boys (1987)
The Lost Boys is an essential vampire film for me because it’s one of the first vampire films I ever watched. My dad had watched it in the 80s and held off showing me it for as long as he could, before finally breaking when I was 11. It was one of his favourites. Watching it as an adult I realise it’s quite the cheesy rollercoaster, but there’s a lot of nostalgia there for me.
Fictional Santa Carla provides quite the backdrop. As the sun goes down over the amusement park, it transforms from a fun novelty to a stalking ground. There’s something about the mixture of adrenaline and fear that works in this context, repackaged. Where better for vampires to haunt than somewhere where people are already looking for a thrill?
When I was young, the opening always had me in a trance. The pier at night, the ferris wheel, the bright lights of the merry-go-round. It’s a feeling that continues through the entire film. Even now I’m not surprised that I really wanted to go there. Maybe sans the fever dream qualities, but maybe they were exactly what made it so appealing.
“One thing about living in Santa Carla
I never could stomach…
all the damn vampires.
Final Thoughts
It’s safe to say that there are plenty more essential vampire films out there, but I’m going to leave this article here and start working on another once daylight returns. Let the Right One In (2008) will have to make an appearance, along with some more fan favourites. If you have any favourite vampire films you would like to share, I would love to hear about them in the comments below.
Bonus points if you can guess which of these is one of my personal favourites!
Kimberley Ann Ashby
Kimberley is currently working on her first short film, a psychological thriller that explores how trauma can transform space. When not writing, she's usually found watching movies, playing records or partaking in whatever new hobby is soon to join the hobby graveyard.
Kimberley Ann Ashby
Kimberley is currently working on her first short film, a psychological thriller that explores how trauma can transform space. When not writing, she's usually found watching movies, playing records or partaking in whatever new hobby is soon to join the hobby graveyard.
