We’re all obsessed with vampires. Since Bram Stoker’s Dracula hit the bookstores back in the Victorian Era, we proved that our thirst for stories where seductive fanged monsters drank the blood of beautiful maidens was totally insatiable. After that, vampires became one of the favorite subjects for both horror readers and writers, and, later on, movie directors. Through the first decades of film history, we grew obsessed with Murnau’s Nosferatu and Browning’s take on Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. We found these creatures scary, yet somehow their charm remained intact.
In the last decade, the appeal for these creatures struck teenage girls the hardest, turning this allure into a romantic crush with badly developed characters. Still, not everything was lost. The vampire craze showed just how much power these creatures held over us and how we’d be willing to watch trashy Hollywood movies with bad acting and terrible plots just to have the opportunity to watch a movie featuring our favorite bloodsuckers. Luckily, the streaming culture now gives us the opportunity to watch any movie at our disposal, and there are great indie vampire movies around that can quench our thirst for blood better than any of those cheap Hollywood vampire flicks.
Thirst (2009)— Park Chan-Wook
The director of Oldboy stands out as a director who can make gore classy by writing compelling stories and telling them through a dynamic and enticing visual style. Thirst is no exception, but in this case he takes things to unprecedented levels of violence and action sequences that look as if they stepped out of a superhero blockbuster. Check out this film if you’ve got the guts to see some bloody action tinged with a drama so bizarre you won’t even believe your eyes.
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)– Jim Jarmusch
Jarmusch gives a twist to the biblical myth of Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) by turning them into ruthless and classy vampires who have lived through humanity’s whole existence until its very doom. Locked inside an apartment in Detroit, they bask in each other’s presence, loathing the rest of the world, for them, humanity has become a soulless zombie. The soundtrack, which is supposedly composed by Hiddleston’s character, is somber and enticing — trust me, after watching it, you’ll go listen to it right away.
The Hunger (1983) — Tony Scott
What could go wrong in an erotic vampire thriller directed by the filmmaker behind Top Gun, starring the mythical David Bowie, the beautifully fatal Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon? An arousing movie that will cover you, layer by layer, with a dark atmosphere of gore.
Martin (1978) — George A. Romero
While Romero is widely regarded and applauded for magnificent zombie movies such as The Night of the Living Dead and the epic Dawn of the Dead, his take on vampire flicks is not too shabby either. Martin tells the story of a lonely vampire who acts like a serial killer: he stalks girls, drugs them, and afterwards drinks their blood. This trashy film gives an unexpected twist to a genre that was quite stagnated at the time of its release. Romero disposes of all the romantic mystery surrounding vampires, making them appear more humane than monstrous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNIGTSdKPl0
Midnight Son (2011) — Scott Leberecht
More than a horror movie, Leberecht’s take on vampire movies builds itself as a sort of somber psychological thriller with a little romance. The evolution of the main character, Jacob (Zak Kilberg) is slow and puzzling. Suffering from a strange skin disease, he has to live in isolation. But suddenly, things will eventually unravel after he falls in love with a local bartender and realizes that, in order to survive, he’ll have to start drinking other people’s blood.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) — Ana Lily Amirpour
Amirpour’s vampire debut is a fashionable take on vampire stories with an amazing electronic soundtrack. Intertwining romance and horror, her noir-inspired film feels like a dark Western set right in the middle of Iran. Youthful and sexy, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night gives a feminist twist to vampires and finds through the power of violent metaphors the opportunity to make a social commentary.
Let the Right One In (2008) – Tomas Alfredson
Who would ever suspect that an innocent child can be something as monstrous as a vampire? Since its release, Alfredson’s work became a cult film for the way he manages to tell a love story between two children while also building a dark, horrific atmosphere underlying the surface of their lives. The success of the film in Sweden was so unexpected that, just two years after its release, there was a Hollywood reboot with the lovely Chloë Grace Moretz. The original version, however, explores much darker topics and builds a starker, colder atmosphere.
If you still haven’t quenched your thirst for blood and horror, satiate your cravings with the 10 violent paintings that only lovers of horror admire and the 10 horror movies you wouldn’t dare to watch on your own.
References
Indiewire
Ghost Diaries
