Vampire movies. There are a lot of them. Believe me, your fellow commenter DourifLeMoko.

That there are so many of them and I could think of so many that I liked got me thinking one day, “What am I missing?” I could name a few vampire flicks off the top of my head that I hadn’t seen yet and was curious about, but I am sometimes the kind of person where “off the top of my head” isn’t good enough, so I took a deeper look. When I really started looking, I realized that even beginning to get a handle on all the different kinds of vampire movies out there would take some work.

So late this past summer I kicked off a pretty serious vampire movie watching project. I created a spreadsheet, put as many vampire movies as I could think of that I’d seen in it and then figured that with a little effort I could probably find at least a hundred of them that I didn’t “dislike.” After a couple of weeks of watching these movies and continually striking gold, I said to myself, “actually, I bet I could find a hundred to like or love.”

And that’s when this project really got its fangs in me.

I decided on some limitations. I would only watch feature-length vampire films, preferably an hour at least in length. My definition of “vampire movie” would be vampire or vampire-adjacent, vaguely supernatural / sci-fi bloodsucking to Bela Lugosi in a fancy cape and everything in between (Starry Eyes probably the least vampire-like supernatural film that I still decided would fit). I kicked out movies that had fake vampires where nobody is actually a vampire (spoiler for Vampire’s Kiss) but as long as it was ambiguous enough, I’d keep it in (2019’s Carmilla is probably the most ambiguous one that squeaked in).

But how to decide what to watch? I tried to limit rewatches of things I’d already seen to a minimum (my recollection of the Underworld and Twilight franchises would have to suffice). I hunted down lists, recommendations, and sometimes just plucked some obscurity from nowhere. As I watched I ranked them on a scale I’ll get to below, and then posted about it constantly in the various Open Threads (commenters present were kind and put up with me). All in all, I started in late August and finally found one hundred that I liked or loved in early December after watching between 245 and 265 films.

My lowest ranking I’ll call “unwatchable.” These are movies that I found so trashy or unengaging that I couldn’t even finish them. Usually I’d watch 10-30 minutes and give up. I’m not even going to list these out because it’s unnecessary. Just go on Tubi and start clicking around on micro-budgeted vampire movies and you’ll get an idea of what I’m talking about here. There were between 40-60 of these.

The next ranking is “dislike.” Some of these I outright hated and some I just could not think of a single positive thing to say about them other than “decent enough to watch from beginning to end.”

Here are all the films I watched that fit that category: Adze the African Vampire; Billy the Kid vs Dracula; Blood for Dracula; Blood: The Last Vampire (2009); BloodRayne; Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant; Count Dracula (1970); Daybreakers; Dead Men Walk; Desire, the Vampire; Dracula Dead and Loving It; Dracula in Love; Dracula: The Impaler; Dracula: The Original Living Vampire; Embrace of the Vampire; Female Vampire; Frostbite; HollyBlood; I Am Legend; Last Voyage of the Demeter; Living Among Us; Love at First Bite; Malenka: The Niece of the Vampire; Moon Child; Morbius; Pale Blood; Planet of the Vampires; Red Snow; Renfield; Slayers; The Batman vs. Dracula; The Brides of Sodom; The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires; The Nude Vampire; The Return of Count Yorga; The Sisterhood; The Vampire Next Door; The Velvet Vampire; To Sleep with a Vampire; Vampire Circus; Vampire Lake; Vampirella; Vampires (1998); Vampyros Lesbos; Vlad.

My next ranking was neutral or “meh” in some cases. These are movies where sometimes they are entirely passable or mediocre films with no standout qualities, but they can also be movies that excelled in one or two ways while also having some major problems, evening things out.

Here are all the films I watched that fit that category: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter; B’Twixt Now and the Sunrise; Beautiful Vampire; Black as Night; Black Sabbath; Bloodsucking Bastards; Brides of Dracula; Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter; Countess Dracula; Curse of the Undead; Da Sweet Blood of Jesus; Day Watch; Deafula; Dracula 3D; Dracula II: Ascension; Dracula Untold; Dracula: Prince of Darkness; El Vampiro; Fright Night (2011); Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell; House of Dark Shadows; I Vampiri; Lemora; Let Me In; Lips of Blood; Lust of the Vampire; My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To; Nadja; Neighbours: They Are Vampires; Night Watch; Once Bitten; Priest; Rigor Mortis; Rise: Blood Hunter; Scars of Dracula; Strigoi; Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat; Taste the Blood of Dracula; The Fearless Vampire Hunters; The Forsaken; The Invitation; The Last Man on Earth; The Living Dead Girl; The Omega Man; The Radleys; The Return of Dracula; The Unwanted; Twilight; Twilight: Breaking Dawn pt 1; Twilight: Breaking Dawn pt 2; Twilight: Eclipse; Underworld: Evolution; Underworld: Rise of the Lycans; Vamp U; Vampire Academy; Vampire Cleanup Department; Vampire Virus; Vampires vs The Bronx; Vampyres; Yakuza Apocalypse.

I in no way recommend the previous two paragraphs of films despite finding some to have charming qualities here and there.

Now finally we have the one hundred that I liked or loved. Some of these may be “bad” films, and if that bothers you I hope you find someone who can help you with this. It probably won’t be me. If something is on here it means that I found it had great value and yes, in some cases this is in spite of it not necessarily being a filmmaking marvel. This list changes from “like” to “love” about halfway down it (I was surprised that it came out to an almost even 50/50 with just a few more films in the like column). These films range from TV films to Academy Award winners to direct-to-video trash to European erotic fantasies and on and on. I did put effort into variety, at least.

My ranking is purely based on my own personal feelings about these films, not their place in Vampire Film Canon History. Although, it’s certainly interesting to think about which ones were the most influential or made to the highest technical standards, that is not the approach here.

I’ve tried to provide title translations and alternate titles just because I find those things interesting, not for any real purpose here, but if there’s a literal translation along with an alternate title I’ve added that in with brackets [example]. I’ve used romanization when I could find it. Enjoy!