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Vampires
“To die, to be really dead, that must be glorious”
My choices for the ten best Vampire films:
There are so many vampire films it's easy to miss dozens. Like other sub-genres, there is a basic story and an iconic film for vampires, but as there are so many, it is easier to find films that are farther from the icon than in other categories. And with vampires, there's developed a few extra main stories.
It all started with Dracula (making 1931's Dracula the representative film); the story in some modified form has been made over and over again. A vampire, normally from Eastern Europe, finds an innocent girl he wants and more often than not is connected to from ancient times. But the girl has a boyfriend/husband/fiancée who, with several accomplices, defeats the vampire and retrieves the girl. Initially these stories had the vampire coming to a Western city, but by the '60s, it was as common for the girl & fiancée to be the ones traveling.
While the Dracula story is still being made, another major story has popped up. In it, the conflict is no longer between vampire and human, but between vampire and vampire (or other supernatural creature). The fight is political, determining who will control the tribe, but there is still a love interest that the leaders of both sides want and whose existence has brought the political war to a head.
As there have been more vampire films than any other type of horror, you might expect the best ones to tower over other monster flicks. But it isn't the case. It is fairly easy to make a watchable vampire picture, but evidently tricky to make a really good one and no one has make one without significant flaws. I'm a sucker for the sub-genre, so it's disappointing that so few films show originality or even competence.
Scale:
(see it)
(matinee)
(wait for TV)
(skip it)
(toxic)