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Revenants.
Ghouls.
Children of the Night.
Vampires.
Every country has a name for supernatural creatures that have haunted the nights of the living for centuries. They come in many different forms from the most disgusting rotting body to a seducing charmer. Regardless of their shape they all want one thing: The nectar of life that flows through your veins.
Now that the stage has been set, here is a list of movies you should watch—or re-watch—this Halloween season. The vampires in these movies see humans as one thing: Dinner.
Near Dark
Cowboy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) meets gorgeous Mae (Jenny Wright) at a bar, and the two have an immediate attraction. But when Mae turns out to be a vampire and bites Caleb on the neck, their relationship gets complicated. Wracked with a craving for human blood, Caleb is forced to leave his family and ride with Mae and her gang of vampires, including the evil Severen. Along the way Caleb must decide between his new love of Mae and the love of his family.
Near Dark is not a movie for the squeamish. Blood, violence, (oh that bar scene, Bill Paxton’s portrayal of Severen is the reason I no longer trust people who wear spurs in public), explosions and oh yeah, sunlight doesn’t make these vamps explode or anything simple like that. No it makes them burn until they find shelter. These vamps do not live the glamorous life, they embrace their undead lives as what they are. Killers.
It isn’t all about the violence, there is a quite the love story going on in this film. Unlike some of the newer film it isn’t about living forever as a vampire. This movie sticks with you long after it ends.
Stake Land
After a plague turns America into a realm of vampires, a hunter (Nick Damici) of the depraved creatures travels cross-country with an orphan (Connor Paolo) he rescued, searching for a safe haven.
What the The Walking Dead world does for zombies, Stake Land does for vampires. The vampires aren’t slow moving though. Fast, rotting vamps with attacks being closer to wild animals than the people they once used to be is what we are treated with.
Stake Land has a great visual style while the script builds the characters so we can see how incompatible they are. Quite a few interesting ideas show up in the movie such as a group of god-fearing cultist who drop vampires from helicopters into crowds. Now that is something you just don’t see everyday.
30 Days of Night
In the far Northern Hemisphere, the small town of Barrow, Alaska, experiences a solid month of darkness every year. Though most of the residents head south for the winter, some townspeople remain behind. However, those that stay regret their decision when, one year, hungry vampires descend on Barrow to feed. Sheriff Eben (Josh Hartnett), his wife (Melissa George) and a dwindling band of survivors must try to last until dawn breaks over Barrow’s month long twilight.
If there has ever been a reason not to live in a land that has 30 days of night then this is it. Fast, brutal and nearly unstoppable these vamps move at times with some rather unnatural motions.The utter black of night sets the backdrop of the landscape while a deep rich arterial blood is splashed upon the crisp white snow.
These are not your mindless ghouls. These vampires have their own language that sounds as if it stretched back centuries. As they drag you out into the street screaming just know that the garlic and cross you hold will not save you.
This movie has a sequel, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, but instead of wasting your time watching that movie pick out another movie from this list.
Martin
Young Martin (John Amplas) is entirely convinced that he is an 84-year-old blood-sucking vampire. Without fangs or mystical powers, Martin injects women with sedatives and drinks their blood through wounds inflicted with razor blades. After moving to Braddock, Penn., to live with his superstitious uncle (Lincoln Maazel), who also believes Martin is a vampire, Martin tries to prey exclusively on criminals and thugs but stumbles when he falls for a housewife (Sara Venable).
When you hear the name George A Romero the first thing to mind is zombies, right? If so, that is the exact reason you need to see the movie the Romero often cites as the favorite of all of his films.
While this movie isn’t filled with hordes of vampires like the other movies have, that doesn’t mean you should skip it. Romero is a national treasure after all. There are quite a few things left unanswered which will leave you wondering about Martin long after the screen goes dark.
The movie came out in 1977 so finding it on DVD might not be that easy to find, but it can be found online.
From Dusk Till Dawn
On the run from a bank robbery that left several police officers dead, Seth Gecko (George Clooney) and his paranoid, loose-cannon brother, Richard (Quentin Tarantino), hightail it to the Mexican border. Kidnapping preacher Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel) and his kids, the criminals sneak across the border in the family’s RV and hole up in a topless bar. Unfortunately, the bar also happens to be home base for a gang of vampires, and the brothers and their hostages have to fight their way out.
This movie has a sequel as well, but skip that and just go to Netflix then add the series to your queue. It is also the only movie that has a Snickers commercial. Yes, you heard right: Danny Trejo is in a Snickers commercial where he has to eat one of the candy bars so he doesn’t turn into Santanico Pandemonium, who was portrayed by Salma Hayek in the original movie. The movie has exceptional effects, great one liners, and the characters stick with you. Seriously, after all of that why aren’t you running out to get this movie now? Oh, you need more? Tom Savini’s (who also had a part in Martin) character Sex Machine has a mini gun attached to his crotch.
Let me know your favorite vampire movie in the comments section below.
