Favorite vampire books and movies?

[Kalinychta]

I watched Daybreakers the other day, which put me in a vampire-y mood. What are your favorite vampire books (fiction and non-fiction) and films?

 

[Major Tom]

All of the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice but especially The Vampire Lestat which is the the second book of the series.

 

[Misery]

Forever Knight was a good one. It's been a loooooong time since I've seen it. I seem to recall it was one of those shows with the concept of "unexpected hero solves crime because reasons". It could get pretty dark at times. I distinctly remember the ending being... depressing as heck. It was a good show but that was not a good conclusion.


Buffy, definitely. Loved that series. Easily one of my all time favorite series, period. I liked that it didnt take itself TOO seriously most of the time... good mix of dark stuff and comedy. Angel was much the same.

And I'd be remiss if I didnt mention my favorite moment from that:

My friend and I laughed so freaking hard at this the first time.

It was so freaking funny that "Numfar! Do the dance of joy!" became a running phrase for whenever something exciting was happening.

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

Seconding both the Vampire Chronicles (my fave was The Tale of the Body Snatcher), and Buffy. I also rather guiltily like Twilight

 

[AGXStarseed]

Any love for Lost Boys?

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

Any love for Lost Boys?

Yes, brilliant film! I'd forgotten all about it. Also "Cry Little Sister" is one of my favourite songs.
Edit: Googling for an online copy has informed me that there are two sequels I didn't know about

 

[AGXStarseed]

Yes, brilliant film! I'd forgotten all about it. Also "Cry Little Sister" is one of my favourite songs.
Edit: Googling for an online copy has informed me that there are two sequels I didn't know about

Yeah, although the sequels were both poorly received. Also, there's apparently a TV series that will be made in the future, although considering it's been made by the CW I've not got the highest hopes for it so I'll stick to the original film.

On a related note, there was an April Fools joke for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen involving an American version of the league and set in 1988.
In the spoof, it's stated that that Tony Montana (Scarface) has been resurrected as a vampire and with his occult gang (The Lost Boys), he and his followers began a bloody crusade to kill all those who oppose them in their goal to gain total domination of America.

With the death of Mr Miyagi (The Karate Kid) at the hands of Tony and the gang, the American League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is initiated.
It's stated that the league was last formed in 1971 by Oscar Goldman (The Six Million Dollar Man) and the team included Oscar's OSI secret agent Steve Austin, ex-NYPD detective Frank Serpico (Serpico), bootlegger Bo "the Bandit" Darville (Smokey and the Bandit), private investigator Jill Munroe (Charlie's Angels), private detective John Shaft (Shaft) and champion boxer Rocky Balboa (Rocky).

This time, it falls to scientist and time traveler Emmet "Doc" Brown (Back to the Future) to put together a brand new team to combat this threat to the United States. His team consists of transportation specialist Jack Burton (Big Trouble in Little China), secret agent Angus MacGyver (MacGyver), ex-commando B.A Baracus (The A-Team) and Lisa - a powerful magic user created on and materialized from a computer (Weird Science).

(While this whole story was indeed only a spoof created for April Fools, I'd love to see an animated adaptation of it as I think it'd be a blast).

 

[Mia]

Vampire movies used to terrify me when I was child. If my parents went out, we used to watch the old fims. Nosferatu, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Nosferatu in Venice, Dracula with Bela Lugosi, and Son of Dracula with Lon Chaney. Also liked Peter Cushing as Dracula and Christoper Lee as well.

Nosferatu the Vampyre, with Klaus Kinski and Isabelle Adjani was a favourite. So frightening that some of my younger siblings would remove the crosses from above the doorways in the home and sleep with them on their chests.

I did at one point read Bram Stoker's "Dracula", Steven King's "Salem's Lot", Ann Rice's "Interview with the Vampire." But it was so long ago, than I can barely remember any of them, except for Salem's Lot. There was a book in my home covered in brown paper called: "La Morte Amoureuse", which I looked through, which seemed to be about a woman who drank blood. Although when I read it I was likely too young to understand it and have a vague impression of the story being odd.

 

[Judge]

I watched Daybreakers the other day, which put me in a vampire-y mood.

Oh yeah. I love any "spin" on vampires that go far beyond anything Bram Stoker wrote, including Ann Rice and Stephenie Meyer.

To date, my favorite story is the Spierig Brothers' film "Daybreakers". Where vampires dominate the earth, and the blood supply of humans is predictably exhausted. Prompting vampire science to develop synthetic blood as a replacement. Meanwhile, the remaining cells of human resistance manage to develop a "cure" of their own.

"Lord almighty, I feel my temperature rising. Higher higher it's burning through to my soul." - Elvis

 

[Tom]

I like Sci-fi/monsters alot but haven't really clicked with the Vampire genre. Perhaps because the vampires are often played in a way that reminds me too much of real life Narcissists and Sociopaths. But I have liked a few along the way. Some favorites have been:

The Night Stalker (1972). One of the first to try and work out how a vampire would try and survive in the 20th century. My brother scared the crap out of me the first time we watched it as a kid. I was sitting on the edge of me seat all engrossed and he snuck up and threw a pillowcase over my head. Darin Mcgavin is great in this.

The Last Man on Earth (1965). Strange how the book (Richard Matheson's 'I am Legend' - 1954) and first film version of it gave rise to the modern Zombie genre, but is actually about pandemic induced vampires. A definately non-campy Vincent Price film and still the closest to the book of many film adaptations. (Omega Man, I am Legend, I am Omega and even argueably Night of the Living Dead which Romero freely admitted he copied from Matheson's book)

Age of the Living Dead TV series (current). Which proves I am not immune to liking shows with Narcissist and Sociopathic vampires. Eve Mauro's wonderful characterizations are admittedly a big draw though.

 

[Raggamuffin]

Ed

 

[Kalinychta]

Oh yeah. I love any "spin" on vampires that go far beyond anything Bram Stoker wrote, including Ann Rice and Stephenie Meyer.

To date, my favorite story is the Spierig Brothers' film "Daybreakers". Where vampires dominate the earth, and the blood supply of humans is predictably exhausted. Prompting vampire science to develop synthetic blood as a replacement. Meanwhile, the remaining cells of human resistance manage to develop a "cure" of their own.

"Lord almighty, I feel my temperature rising. Higher higher it's burning through to my soul." - Elvis

I can’t believe I somehow missed Daybreakers all these years. I loved it. Very unique story and incredible cinematography. I love the vampires’ eyes. Both Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe are always such a pleasure to watch.

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1992 with Gary Oldman. His performance...well, no one has or ever will top his Dracula.

 

[AGXStarseed]

I quite like the film Blade as well.
Its first sequel was pretty good as well - the second sequel not so much.

 

[Judge]

I can’t believe I somehow missed Daybreakers all these years. I loved it. Very unique story and incredible cinematography. I love the vampires’ eyes. Both Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe are always such a pleasure to watch.

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1992 with Gary Oldman. His performance...well, no one has or ever will top his Dracula.

What vampire films are on DVD in my bookcase?

"Dracula" (Gary Oldman), "Dracula" (Frank Langella), "Daybreakers", the "Blade" trilogy, "Interview With A Vampire", all the "Twilight" films, and "Lifeforce".

Nope, you won't find any Bela Lugosi "Dracula" films in my collection...though he was ok as the Frankenstein monster in "Frankenstein vs the Wolfman". Some of the "Underworld" series films with Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen were good, though I don't have any of them on DVD. Enjoyed Christoper Lee in the Hammer films where he played Dracula several times as well. Though I thought Lee was a hoot in one episode of "The Avengers" .

Loved the short-lived tv series "Moonlight" with Alex O'Loughlin as a private eye who was also a vampire. Too bad he didn't meet up with Carlisle Cullen. Also enjoyed the short-lived series "Dracula" with Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

 

[Jumpback]

Yeah, although the sequels were both poorly received. Also, there's apparently a TV series that will be made in the future, although considering it's been made by the CW I've not got the highest hopes for it so I'll stick to the original film.

On a related note, there was an April Fools joke for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen involving an American version of the league and set in 1988.
In the spoof, it's stated that that Tony Montana (Scarface) has been resurrected as a vampire and with his occult gang (The Lost Boys), he and his followers began a bloody crusade to kill all those who oppose them in their goal to gain total domination of America.
With the death of Mr Miyagi (The Karate Kid) at the hands of Tony and the gang, the American League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - stated to have been last formed in 1971 by Oscar Goldman (The Six Million Dollar Man) - is initiated as scientist and time traveler Emmet "Doc" Brown (Back to the Future) puts together a brand new team to combat this threat to the United States.
His team consists of transportation specialist Jack Burton (Big Trouble in Little China), secret agent Angus MacGyver (MacGyver), ex-commando B.A Baracus (The A-Team) and Lisa - a powerful magic user created on and materialized from a computer (Weird Science).

(While this whole story was indeed only a spoof created for April Fools, I'd love to see an animated adaptation of it as I think it'd be a blast).

I kind of liked the League of a Extraordinary gentlemen movie even though it got bad reviews and this sounds interesting too. I think some of these things are more heterosexual guy oriented. I saw that women like vampire things more often than men.

Why women love vampires and men don't - CNN.com

I tend to like a slightly different take where people live for a very long time and they don’t know why. But these movies or tv shows are pretty rare and they tend to get cancelled

Forever (TV Series 2014–2015) - IMDb

 

[AGXStarseed]

I kind of liked the League of a Extraordinary gentlemen movie even though it got bad reviews and this sounds interesting too. I think some of these things are more heterosexual guy oriented. I saw that women like vampire things more often than men.

Why women love vampires and men don't - CNN.com

I think it's the same kind of thrill that attracts some women to 'bad boys'.
With vampires, they're close enough to "living" humans to be attractive (along with usually having great looks), they're super-powered, they pay little to no heed to authority as they tend to live in their own subculture (similar to bad boys that some girls get attracted to) and they have the power to potentially turn the humans they love into vampires as well - guaranteeing that while you'll have to make some sacrifices depending on the vampire rules, you'll also get superpowers, immortality and keep your good looks for a lot longer. This is at the risk of said vampire seeing you as a meal rather than a mate, with that element of risk providing a thrill.
There's probably more reasons but those are the ones I can think of right now.

As for another vampire movie, I find the 1990's Canadian film Blood and Donuts to be an interesting one. It's nothing spectacular and a bit slow in places, but I quite like the concept.

 

[SusanLR]

I liked the series Moonlight.

But, I admit, the Twilight movies are my all time favourites on vampires.
I love those reddish- brown eyes too.

 

[Jumpback]

I think it's the same kind of thrill that attracts some women to 'bad boys'.
With vampires, they're close enough to "living" humans to be attractive (along with usually having great looks), they're super-powered, they pay little to no heed to authority as they tend to live in their own subculture (similar to bad boys that some girls get attracted to) and they have the power to potentially turn the humans they love into vampires as well - guaranteeing that while you'll have to make some sacrifices depending on the vampire rules, you'll also get superpowers, immortality and keep your good looks for a lot longer. This is at the risk of said vampire seeing you as a meal rather than a mate, with that element of risk providing a thrill.
There's probably more reasons but those are the ones I can think of right now.

As for another vampire movie, I find the 1990's Canadian film Blood and Donuts to be an interesting one. It's nothing spectacular and a bit slow in places, but I quite like the concept.

I find this all a little disconcerting. I mean I don’t think of myself as a typical straight guy, but I kind of like movies with a bit of a “Hulk Smash” flavor. I just watched “Starship Troopers” which is smarter than it initially seems.

I don’t know, I like certain musicals, like “Singing in the Rain” or “My fair lady” or even “Gypsy” that might normally appeal more to women or gay men, I kind of like dancing and so on, more Gene Kelly than Fred Astaire.

But these sauve bad boy guys who dress in black is too far over the heterosexual male threshold for me. I’d be down with this genre more if it was more often attractive women vampires chasing after men.

 

[Trophonius]

Books:
Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) is the most obvious must-read vampire story.

The Vampyre by John Polidori (1819) — this is the very first story with the modern portrayal of vampires (fairly opposed to the hungarian folklore) that made of them a new literary genre.

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu (1872) is another early vampire book. It portrays a modern vampire but without the many cliches that are common nowadays.


Films:
I just started to get into movies, so I'm not familiar with them, but I quite enjoyed Nosferatu (1922). I think it's interesting that the main character has a very disturbing appearance, as opposed to modern vampires — he seems to me to be a middle point between the hungarian folklore and modern vammpires.

 

[AGXStarseed]

I find this all a little disconcerting. I mean I don’t think of myself as a typical straight guy, but I kind of like movies with a bit of a “Hulk Smash” flavor. I just watched “Starship Troopers” which is smarter than it initially seems.

I don’t know, I like certain musicals, like “Singing in the Rain” or “My fair lady” or even “Gypsy” that might normally appeal more to women or gay men, I kind of like dancing and so on, more Gene Kelly than Fred Astaire.

But these sauve bad boy guys who dress in black is too far over the heterosexual male threshold for me. I’d be down with this genre more if it was more often attractive women vampires chasing after men.

Just so you know, I said some women - not all. Sorry if it sounded like I was generalizing.

Speaking of female vampires, anyone remember Vampirella? (one of the few movies with alien vampires).