With Robert Eggers’ long-planned Nosferatu finally arriving in cinemas this week, Dominic Corry takes a look at ten of cinema’s most notable vampires from over the years. It’s 60% Draculas.
Max Schrek in Nosferatu (1922)
Although technically not the first vampire movie, this unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula set a template for horror movies that still exists today. Much of that has to do with the director F.W. Murnau’s dizzyingly atmospheric German Expressionist visuals, but Schrek’s performance as “Count Orlok” deserves equal credit. Before Eggers got around to his remake, Werner Herzog mounted a (quite different) version in 1979, Nosferatu the Vampyre, starring Klaus Kinski as “Count Dracula”, and the 2000 film Shadow of the Vampire depicted the making of the 1922 silent film, cheekily positing that Schrek himself (played by Willem Dafoe) was a real vampire.
Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931)
Dracula
Tod Browning’s adaptation of a stage play version of Stoker’s novel arguably remains the most iconic horror movie ever made, enduring in the culture with much more prominence than Murnau’s silent film, although the earlier film’s stature has risen in recent decades. All subsequent vampire performances exist in the (uncast) shadow of Lugosi, who brought charismatic power and sexual danger to the character. You can perceive its reach in everything from The Count on Sesame Street to Alexander Skarsgård in True Blood.
Christopher Lee in Dracula (1958) and six other films
The first in a long series of Hammer Horror films featuring Lee as an even sexier version of the character, you could argue that Lee is who most people picture when they think of the Drac man. The tall, peerless actor is powerful in the role, often opposite Peter Cushing as Van Helsing (okay, Lee had one peer), but the endless trips back to the well arguably helped neuter the “old” idea of Dracula, with the cape and the looming.
William Marshall in Blacula (1972) and Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973)
Blacula
Said neuturing gave rise to alternative takes on the character, such as this cult favourite blaxploitation effort which was successful enough to inspire a wave of blaxploitation horror movies.
Frank Langella in Dracula (1979)
Dracula (1979)
Langella made his name (and garnered a Tony nomination) playing Dracula in a Broadway staging of the play the 1931 film was based on, so in the late ‘ 70s they made a movie out of it directed by John Badham. Langella brings an interesting combination of Lugosi, Lee and his own unique flavour in a largely forgotten film in which Laurence Olivier plays Van Helsing.
Kiefer Sutherland (and friends) in The Lost Boys (1987)
The Lost Boys
Joel Schumacher brought music video aesthetics and teen smoulder to the vampire movie with what might be the most ’80s movie ever made. Sutherland plays David, who leads a gang of vampires who look like rock stars and hang around near dry ice generators. All the vampires here (which include future Bill, Alex Winter) are great, as is Jason Patric as a new recruit, but Kiefer has never been better. More influential than it is given credit for, this introduced the still-dominant notion of the vampire as teen idol.
Bill Paxton (and friends) in Near Dark (1987)
You’d never know from the poster, nothing about which suggests a vampire movie, but Near Dark is one, and an amazing one at that. Somewhat overshadowed by The Lost Boys, released just months earlier, Near Dark adopts a grittier but-still-very-1980s aesthetic, depicting a nomadic clan of bar-hopping sexy hick vamps mostly comprised of cast members from Aliens. Lance Henriksen plays their leader, but it’s Bill Paxton’s loose unit Severen that made the most impact on me. It’s yet another fantastic good ol’ boy performance from the sadly departed actor.
Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1990)
Bram Stoker's Dracula
If you thought all those other Draculas were sexy, just wait until Gazza gets here. Amidst a reverent adaptation featuring a dazzling collage of aesthetics, Francis Ford Coppola leaned hard to the tragic gothic romance at Dracula’s core, but also had his leading man embody groteseque and heroic conceptions of the character.
Wesley Snipes in Blade (1998) and sequels
He’s not the only vampire (well, half-vampire) who ever decided to do the right thing and fight his own kind, but he’s probably the coolest. A cameo in a certain recent blockbuster may have revved up nostalgia for this Marvel Comics adaptation, and the (first two) movies are always worth a revisit. They’ve been threatening a Mahershala Ali take on the character for ages now, but that keeps falling over.
Robert Pattinson in Twilight (2008) and sequels
These films never clicked for me, but you can’t argue with results. A lot of people seem to enjoy Pattinson’s gulping, withdrawn performance, which took the notion of vampire-as-preferred-virginity-taker to unheralded heights. I’m sure the books were good.
