Bram Stoker’s Dracula and his get

I have a strict rule on spoilers: I don’t post them, so what you’ll see below is tiny reviews/praise of a few genre classics.

The Vampire has been sitting atop a skeletal throne for the last ten years or so, thanks to mainstream successes such as Blade, Van Helsing and most recently the Twilight Saga, and has seen more depictions than Two-Face in a mirror maze, and so I want to highlight a few hidden or neglected gems of the blood-sucking genre. 

First and foremost I’d like to herald a little film called From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a film written by the great Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez, which I feel, is a little different to the common fare on our screens these days. The film stars George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino and the old timer Harvey Keitel and chronicles the journey of two merciless criminals as they crime spree their way towards Mexico, encountering a Keitel’s character and family along the way, who they quickly take up as hostages. The movie is a prime example of the recent blending of genres; it all starts off with a thriller feel before one thing leads to another and the group find themselves in a fight for survival against a horde of transforming vampires. As you’d expect from a Tarantino film, strong language, gory scenes and feet fetishes are aplenty. From Dusk Till Dawn is one of those films that seemingly divides audiences; but stick with it and you’ll find yourself enjoying a slapstick stake-fuelled bonanza. Lastly, but definitely by no means in the least, is that the voluptuous Selma Hayek makes an appearance and a lasting impression in this film.   


Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark (1987) is a vampire movie that stars Lance Henriksen! Need I say any more? This is most assuredly one of those films that has been lost to the general populace, perhaps due to it being released in the same year that the fantastic The Lost Boys was released, and is a film that simply gets vampires right. They’re portrayed as outsiders, roamers, killers and having that unexplainable lure to the opposite sex without it all getting a little too much antsy teenager. Of course I don’t really have to praise Bigelow’s directorial skills, as she’s been awarded an Academy Award for the direction of The Hurt Locker, so it’s safe to say this film looks good: rough, realised and realistic. Adrian Pasdar of Heroes fame stars as the film’s lead, Caleb.


The last film I want to plug in this post is a film directed by the Mexican who brought you Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy films so even if you had no knowledge of it you can imagine it’s going to have a distinct sombre and gothic palette. Made in 1996 Cronos, unlike a great many vampire flicks goes away with the idea of being turned by a Maker, instead imparting the gift of eternal life through means of a device. The film is as much about the device’s history as it is the familial struggles between the two conflicting families, and so a number of shots show the creation of this vampire-trigger. This is a far more muted, character driven tale than that of the two mentioned above and in my opinion has a greater connection with early films like Nosferatu. Guillermo Del Toro has weaved a dramatic, emotive narrative and if you were but to pick one of these three to take a chance on, this would be the one I implore you to watch.

Of course there are so many hidden, forgotten or neglected vampire films out there that I couldn’t write about them all so I cherry-picked a few notable ones.  

Extra shout-out: Buffy, Angel, True Blood are a few known shows but definitely worth a watch.

Take a chance,

Ashley Bullen-Cutting

Films mentioned in this post:

• Blade
• Van Helsing
• The Twilight Saga
• From Dusk Till Dawn
• Near Dark
• The Hurt Locker
• Pan’s Labyrinth
• Hellboy
• Cronos
• Nosferatu

Television shows mentioned in this post:

• Buffy
• Angel
• True Blood

Notable names mentioned in this post:

• Bram Stoker
• Quentin Tarantino
• Robert Rodriguez
• George Clooney
• Harvey Keitel
• Selma Hayek
• Kathryn Bigelow
• Adrian Pasdar
• Guillermo Del Toro