1. The Lost Boys
(1987; Directed By: Joel Schumacher)
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Barnard Hughes
“Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.” The Lost Boys’ tag line set the mood for this hit ‘80s hybrid of a horror and teen movie.
A single mom, Lucy (Dianne Wiest) and her sons, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim), move to a California town to live with Lucy’s father (Barnard Hughes), who they think is a senile old man but turns out to know a thing or two about vampires. The protagonist, Michael falls in with some decadent teens led by David (Kiefer Sutherland) the ultimate Lost Boy. David is the leader of a local gang that actually are a pack of cruel vampires that terrorize the local residents.
Michael falls in love with one of their victims, Star (Jami Gertz). Sam starts to hang out with a pair of kids who work in a comic shop, Edward and Alan Frog (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander). It turns out they are mean, bad ass vampire hunters. Michael visits David’s hangout and unwittingly drinks from a bottle of vampire blood, which transforms him into an unwilling member of the vampire gang. So, it’s up to Sam and the Frog brothers to destroy David and his bloodsucker gang without killing Michael and Star.
The strengths of The Lost Boys lies in the characters, soundtrack and fine mix of comedy and action. If you enjoy vampire movies, but have not seen The Lost Boys then you have “Lost out”.
2. Let the Right One In
(2008; Directed By: Tomas Alfredson)
Cast: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar
Oskar, (Kåre Hedebrant) a 12-year-old outcast is constantly picked on by bullies in his class, he dreams of revenge, but is unable to stands up to the bullies. All of that begins to change when an eccentric new neighbor moves in next door. He befriends his new neighbor, a mysterious young girl whose arrival in town coincides with a series of brutal, horrifying murders.
As his friendship with his next door neighbor grows, Oskar realizes that she a vampire and responsible for all the recent deaths in his town. Oskar’s friendship with the vampire girl overcomes his fear of her.
Let The Right One In is director Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of the 2004 novel by author John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay. Let The Right One In is also the movie that the well-made American remake Let Me In was based on. Both use the exact same premise, but Let The Right One In is definitely the superior film.
3. Nosferatu
(1922; Directed By: F.W. Murnau)
Cast: Max Schreck, Gustav V. Wangenheim, Greta Schröder, Alexander Granach, Georg H. Schnell, Ruth Landshoff, John Gottowt
This 1922 silent classic is an unauthorized take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, so much so that Stoker’s widow went to court, demanding that the Murnau film be destroyed. She won, but fortunately for movie lovers, a number of prints survived and Nosferatu returned to haunt viewers. The character names have been changed, but Stoker fans will recognize their Dracula counterparts.
Nosferatu begins with real estate agent Hutter (Gustav von Wagenheim) traveling to close a sale with Herr Orlok (Max Schreck) high in the Carpathian mountains. Schreck’s vampire is not a handsome gothic playboy, but rather a monstrous, ugly rat-like creature. notices this and later sees the vampire host climbing into a coffin. Hutter's meeting of Orlok leads to the ghastly vampire setting out to Bremen via his coffin, which is sent on a ship headed to that city.
When Orlok’s ship arrives in Bremen, the captain and his crew have all been killed. Soon a series of mysterious deaths in Bremen occur. The local authorities say the deaths are due to a plague. But Ellen, (Greta Schröder), Hutter’s wife, figures out the truth. Ellen knows a vampire will die upon direct exposure to the rays of the sun. Ellen attempts to keep Orlok entertained until sunrise even if it means sacrificing her own life.
Schreck’s hideous facial makeup was pushed to greater extent by Klaus Kinski in Werner Herzog’s chilling 1979 remake - Nosferatu the Vampyre. Silent but deadly, Nosferatu is still a classic.
4. Interview with the Vampire
(1994; Directed By: Neil Jordan)
Cast: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, Kirsten Dunst, Thandie Newton
Interview With A Vampire is based off of the best-selling romantic horror novel by Anne Rice and director Neil Jordan’s kept the film close to its source material.
The story is about a young reporter (Christian Slater) interviewing a man who claims to be a 200-year-old vampire. The man being interviewed, Louis (Brad Pitt), tells the reporter his story, which begins in New Orleans in the 18th-century where he first meets the charming vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise). Lestat turns Louis into an immortal vampire. These vampires are more like the beautiful love-some “Twilight” ones, rather than the Bram Stoker’s hideous creatures.
Louis does not share Lestat’s virtues, and torments himself with guilt over his new life. Despite their differences, the two vampires remain connected over the next two centuries. This movie has a great plot, and an incredible cast including Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, and Kirsten Dunst in supporting roles.
Interview With A Vampire is a story from the point of view of a vampire and tells everything you wanted to know about vampires, how they live, feed, sleep and avoid attention. In one view it shows that immortality may not be such a gift, everything changes around the main characters, and everyone dies except them.
Rice initially spoke out against the casting of Cruise as Lestat, but later upon seeing the film changed her mind. It’s a shame that these stars were not brought back to star in the next adaptation of Rice’s other Lestat novels. Queen of the Damned did not bring back any of the original actors, rather than killing victims, it killed the movie franchise instead.
5. Near Dark
(1987; Directed By: Kathryn Bigelow)
Cast: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, Tim Thomerson, Joshua John Miller
Director Kathryn Bigelow co-wrote and directed this teen romance vampire film about Caleb (Adrian Pasdar), a restless young farm boy, who after meeting the wrong girl, Mae (Jenny Wright), falls in with a pack of creatures of the night. The movie has the feel of an old Western where the vampires aren’t elegant. They are a gun-toting group that looks like a motorcycle gang and oddly the word “vampire,” is never used in the film.
Mae reveals herself to Caleb as a vampire, then turns him into a blood sucker, rather than kill him. The rest of her group does not accept him. The group's leader, Jesse (Lance Henriksen), and the wild and deadly Severen (Bill Paxton), make it clear Caleb has to pitch in and follow in their ways or die.
He’s unable to bring himself to kill, but wins the gang’s approval when he rescues them in a daytime gunfight where every bullet hole lets in deadly rays of sunlight. Caleb faces a life or death situation when the vampire gang threaten his real family.
Star Trek was once thought of as a western turned into a sci-fi show, well Near Dark is a western turned into a vampire film.
6. Blade (1998)/Blade II (2002)
(Blade 1998;Directed By: Stephen Norrington,
Blade II 1998; Directed By: Guillermo del Toro)
Cast: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Sanaa Lathan, Stephen Dorff, Donal Logue, N’Bushe Wright, Traci Lords
Blade (Snipes) is the story of a day-walking, half-human/half-vampire hybrid who seeks revenge on the vampires who killed his mother and is determined to rid the Earth of vampires. The film has a lot of action as Wesley Snipes kicks a whole lot of vampire butt as the title character. Blade director Stephen Norrington helmed this adaptation of the Marvel Comics character Blade created in 1973 by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan.
Blade’s Marvel origin is used in this film, Blade’s mother was bitten by a vampire just before she gave birth, which made Blade immune to vampires. Years pass and Blade seeks his revenge by becoming a vampire hunter with help from vampire detective Hannibal King and Dracula-descendant Frank Drake.
Blade must also battle his genetic makeup stuck somewhere between the two worlds, not human, but not fully vampire. Blades’s mentor, Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), makes an antidote to keep Blade from turning into a full-fledged vampire and builds weapons for Blade to use against the horde of blood suckers.
Blade’s vampire enemy, Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) is trying to bring down the old-guard vampire council, and start the Blood Tide — an event in which would transform everyone in the world into a vampire.
Frost's plan leads to Blade storming vampire lairs and engaging in action-filled bloodbaths that manages to wipe out most of the blood-thirsty vampires.
Blade II (2002)
Cast: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Norman Reedus, Leonor Varela, Luke Goss
Blade II is an amazing sequel to the original film that starred Wesley Snipes reprising his role as the part-human, part-vampire hybrid superhero based on the Marvel Comics character.
After Whistler’s death, Blade relocated to Prague and has joined forces with Scud (pre-The Walking Dead Norman Reedus), but he then discovers that Whistler’s not dead but infected with the vampire virus. Blade gets a bigger surprise when his biggest enemy, vampire leader Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann), wants to call a truce.
Enter Nomak, the carrier of a new scarier strain of vampirism (called the “Reaper” strain). Its carriers, called Reapers, are deadlier and harder to kill than the original vampires and are on a rampage of murder, killing both humans and vampires alike. Blade joins the Blood Pack, a group of tough vampires (including Ron Perlman), who were originally formed and trained to bring Blade down, but now end up having to team up with him to hunt down Nomak. Like the original, the action in Blade II is fantastic and includes not one but two incredible fight sequences between Blade and Nomak.
7. From Dusk Till Dawn
(1996; Directed By: Robert Rodriguez)
Cast: George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo, Fred Williamson, Tom Savini
From Dusk Till Dawn is a great modern vampire movie, it’s a “heist” film and a “vampire” movie combined. It is filled with a group of vampire slayers fighting the blood-suckers, blood, guts and half- naked women, all in a Mexican strip club. It’s an action-horror flick from director Robert Rodriguez and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino, Tarantino stars with George Clooney as a pair of badass bank robbing brothers named Seth and Richie Gecko.
The Gecko brothers decide to head south of the border after pulling off a string of gruesome robberies that left a river of blood. They kidnap Jacob Fuller, a widowed preacher played by Harvey Keitel, and his two children, Kate (Juliette Lewis) and Scott (Ernest Liu). Once in Mexico, they park at a strip bar called The Titty Twister, where the Gecko brothers are supposed to meet a local thug.
After a few drinks, they realize it’s not in a typical bar, as the entire place begins to fill up with vicious, blood-sucking creatures of the night. Scream Queen Salma Hayek, played the scantily clad stripper/vampire queen, Santanico Pandemonium, and performed a stage dance with a giant snake. With the odds stacked heavily against them, the kidnapped victims and the Geckos team together in hopes of defeating the vampires. Special Effects Makeup artist Tom Savini appears to help fight against the vampires, and Cheech Marin plays three different roles.
30 Days of Night is an adaptation of Steve Niles’ terrifying graphic novel of the same name. Niles collaborated with screenwriters Stuart Beattie and Brian Nelson to write the script. The graphic novel's artwork was dark, mysterious, and eerie. Director David Slade managed to capture this style and bring it to the screen. The film keeps the comics original premise of a pack of vampires attacking Barrow, Alaska, an isolated town as it enters its 30-day-long polar night. Barrow experiences a complete lack of sunlight for an entire month once a year because of its location near the Arctic Circle. 
Fright Night is a fun mix of horror and comedy. Teenager horror film addict Charley Brewster, realizes his new neighbor, Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon), is a vampire and is murdering call girls next door. The problems get worse for Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) when he explains his fears about fanged new neighbor.
Fright Night (2011) is as good as the original 1985 Fright Night. This time Colin Farrell took the role of the evil neighbor vampire. The vampire in this version is not noble, or lovesome. He’s a monster, he kills, and feeds off of innocent victims.
Dracula is a classic among horror films, with Bela Lugosi giving the performance of a lifetime as the charming, but eccentric Count Dracula. It begins with Renfield (Dwight Frye) on a business trip to Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania. He is welcomed by the erudite Count, "I am…Drac-u-la. I bid you velcome." Renfield does not realize that his host is a vampire and he is in grave danger.
One of the best directors of our time, Francis Ford Coppola created the masterpiece of the vampire genre with his masterful vision of the immortal Transylvanian vampire. Based on Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel, this film from Francis Ford Coppola and screenwriter James Victor Hart sets new standards for horror movies with stunning visual sets especially the Transylvania scenes with a dark gothic ambience. Bram Stoker’s Dracula went on to win three Academy Awards.
Shadow of the Vampire is a film within a film. It’s a story of a crew filming an unauthorized version of Dracula called Nosferatu. Director Frederich Wilhelm Murnau (John Malkovich) is determined to make this the most authentic vampire movie ever and won’t discuss the actor playing the vampire Count Orlok. The crew learns that the lead is a student of the Stanislovsky method named Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe).
What would happen if the vampires took over the world and the humans were the minority? 
It's hard to rate vampire films, if you say one sucks or bites, that might be a compliment. After all the hardcore horror picks we decided to lighten the mood and go with two comedies to round out our list.
Another film with a real bite is Love at First Bite. This vampire spoof has Count Dracula (George Hamilton) moving to New York to find his bride, after being forced to move out of his Transylvania castle, but not without telling an angry mob that they should be grateful to him as he put them on the map.