Today, I’m welcoming Margo Bond Collins onto the blog to talk about her top five favourite vampire films. Margo’s novel LEGALLY UNDEAD, book 1 of the Vampirarchy series came out with World Weaver Press on the 27th.
A reluctant vampire hunter, stalking New York City as only a scorned bride can. Elle Dupree has her life all figured out: first a wedding, then her Ph.D., then swank faculty parties where she’ll serve wine and cheese and introduce people to her husband the lawyer.
But those plans disintegrate when she walks in on a vampire sucking the blood from her fiancé, Greg. Horrified, she screams and runs—not away from the vampire, but toward it, brandishing a wooden letter opener.
As she slams the improvised stake into the vampire’s heart, a team of black-clad men bursts into the apartment. Turning to face them, Elle realizes Greg’s body is gone—and her perfect life falls apart.
Take it away, Margo!
As a general rule, I like my filmic vampires to be brutal and bloodthirsty—as much as I enjoy the recent trend toward sexy vampires (because YUM), I think there’s a reason that we, as a culture, keep coming back to the kinds of vampires who are absolute monsters. Both kinds of vampires—those we want to devour and those who want to devour us—are the expression of the human id, that part of us that is unsocialized, that wants what it wants without thought of consequence. The hot vampires of paranormal romance allow us to fantasize about one kind of unsocialized behavior. But the murderous vampires allow us to explore even darker fantasies. The vampires in my own new release, Legally Undead, don’t have a sparkle among them; they are definitely more beast than beauty—as are the vampires in almost all of the movies on my “Top Five” list below. So in no particular order, here are my top five favorite vampire films:
30 Days of Night: I love the fact that the vampires in this film are truly monstrous—they look like they’ve been transformed into rat-faced horrors with sharp teeth, and they are utterly vicious. I also like the nice shout-outs to Dracula: the vampires show up on a ship and come slinking into town without warning to take over.
From Dusk til Dawn: Again, these vampires are brutal. I love the fact that they have a vampire biker bar and that unsuspecting travelers are drawn in. There’s lots of blood and gore, but my favorite part is the implication of the last image of the film as the camera pulls away from the back of the bar and pans down: the vampires inside the bar were only the tip of the iceberg. They’ve been around for a long time, and the coming of dawn implies only a temporary reprieve.
The Lost Boys: Keifer Sutherland as the Peter Pan of vampires. What could be better? I love the setting of this film (sunny California is such a ridiculous place for vampires to live!), I love the odd familial element of the head vampire courting the divorced mother, and I love the Coreys Haim and Feldman as comic-book-trained vampire hunters.
Fright Night: I’m going to break with general critical trends here and say that I love the 2011 remake of Fright Night. I think that Colin Ferrell made a great vampiric neighbor, all creepy and stalkerish. And David Tennant as the freaked-out, washed-up, checked-out vampire hunter who gets back in the game absolutely rocked.
Blade: My favorite movie of the Blade series is the first one (though I also like Blade: Trinity, wherein Jessica Biel kicks much ass). I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a scene any creepier than the opening of Blade, where the sprinklers come on in the back-room nightclub and cover everyone in blood. The vampires dancing in blood while the humans scream is an amazing visual example of the sensuality connected to the horror of the vampire.
What about you? What are some of your favorite vampire movies? I’m always on the lookout for more, so I’d love to hear your suggestions!
Margo Bond Collins lives in Texas with her husband, their daughter, several spoiled cats, and a ridiculous turtle. She teaches college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and other monsters.
Visit Margo Bond Collins on these sites to follow her or list her as one of your favorite authors: Goodreads, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter @MargoBondCollin,Tumblr, www.MargoBondCollins.com.
Thanks, Margo! Folks, you can buy LEGALLY UNDEAD now:
Read the digital edition exclusively from these retailers:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
Read the trade paperback edition from these and other retailers:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million| Independent Bookstore
Alexandrina Brant 
I generally find all films are improved by the addition of vampires. However, if I had to pick a few:
The Hunger – so Goth.
The Addiction – Christopher Walken as a vampire.
Shadow of the Vampire – what if Nosferatu actually starred a real vampire?
Near Dark – evil vampires touring America in a Winnebago.
Dave: Ooh! Good choices! I completely forgot about Shadow of the Vampire when I was writing this list. And I LOVE Near Dark–I rank it up there with with The Lost Boys and From Dusk til Dawn . . . all of an era. 🙂 I don’t think I’ve seen The Addiction. More vampire movies to watch. Hooray! 🙂
~Margo
Hi, Margo!
I’ll admit that I myself don’t watch that many vampire films, partly because I don’t watch that many films in general. I’m reading a couple of books with vampiric elements at the moment (SOULLESS by Gail Carriger; REAL VAMPIRES DON’T SPARKLE by Amy Fecteau). Sadly, Twilight kinda crushed my expectations of vampires before they began!
Ha! My favorite review of LEGALLY UNDEAD starts off with the line “There’s not a sparkle among them!”
And I just released an edited collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century vampire tales entitled BEYOND THE COUNT–my interest in vampires started with the really old ones. 🙂
I haven’t read either of the books you mention; I’m adding them to my list!
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