This Is The Best Vampire Movie Of All Time, According To Reddit Horror Fans
When it comes to horror cinema, there are literally more subgenres than you could shake a bloodied machete at these days, with slasher flicks, possession horror, creature features, and sci-fi creepers barely scratching the surface of the gruesome cinematic genre. Still, if you want to see horror at its coolest, creepiest, and sexiest, you can do a lot worse than some good old-fashioned bloodsucking shenanigans. And perhaps more than any other horror subgenre, vampire fiction has proven durable in terms of delivering big-screen thrills and chills throughout the decades, with the form essentially dating back to when pictures started moving.
So mighty is the realm of vampire fiction, it even managed to survive that unfortunate sparkly-skinned sidestep that befell the genre a few years back. Of course, true-blue vampire fans didn't really give the teeny-bopping Twilight franchise the time of day, opting instead to stick with the genre's more savage delights, of which there are literally hundreds to choose from. There are so many offerings, in fact, that when a wily band of Reddit users tasked the Dreaditors of the world with voting on the 20 best vampire movies of all-time, even they mightn't have fully grasped just how wide a net would be cast.
Once the polls were closed, they indeed found themselves with a vast array of films dating as far back as 1922 (F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu), and as recent as the past decade (Ana Lily Amanpour's 2014 flick A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night). And in the end, a most unexpected entry earned the top spot, with Joel Schumacher's 1987 flick The Lost Boys surprisingly claiming all-time best status.
The Lost Boys is a vampire classic full of '80s swagger
A victory for The Lost Boys really is a shocker. And that's no disrespect to the movie itself, which is a vampire classic full of all the sexy, stylish, unabashedly savage energy one should expect from such fare. It also boasts a handful of hilarious gags to go along with its more viscerally hair-raising moments. But when one considers the astounding legacy of vampire fiction in cinema, The Lost Boys — steeped as it is in '80s ethos and teenage eros — is not entirely in step with the genre's tried-and-true gothic staples.
Still, it's hard not to admire The Lost Boys for its indulgences, particularly as the film (about a single mom moving her kids to the Pacific Northwest where they unexpectedly get involved with a pack of crazed vampire bikers) cleverly satirizes and subverts the trappings of one of history's most hedonistic decades. The Lost Boys' cast also happens to feature brilliant turns from era stars like Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Dianne Wiest, Corey Haim, and that totally shredded dude playing the sax during the film's carnival scene.
And in spite of its unabashedly '80s-forever aesthetic — via clothes, cars, hair, music, et. al.— The Lost Boys somehow manages to not feel entirely dated, with Joel Schumacher imbuing the film with style, energy, and themes that transcend the times. Does that mean The Lost Boys really is the best vampire movie ever made? No. Nor is it especially important in terms of its artistic impact on cinema. But it's a hell of a lot of fun, delivering a singular sense of cinematic cool and continuing to grow in popularity decades after its release. All of this is apparently enough for it to claim the No. 1 spot.
There are vampire treats aplenty on that Reddit "best of" list
Once you get over the surprise of Reddit ranking The Lost Boys as the best vampire movie of all time, take heart in knowing the rest of the list is chock-full of stone-cold bloodsucking classics from every era — and pretty much any of them could have landed in that top spot. That's especially true of the No. 2 film on the list, Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement's gut-bustingly funny (and often genuinely unsettling) 2014 flick What We Do in the Shadows, which follows a group of New Zealand vamps who agree to take part in a documentary about their bloodletting nocturnal lives.
For those who aren't looking for laughs with their arterial spray, the No. 3 film (Tomas Alfredson's masterful 2008 creeper Let the Right One In) is certainly more your speed, telling the grueling story of a bullied Swedish preteen who falls for his new neighbor: a forever 12-year-old vampire girl in dire need of companionship. Rounding out the top five are a pair of must-see vampire treats cut from decidedly grindhouse cloth, with Tom Holland's camp-tinged classic Fright Night and Robert Rodriguez's hyper-violent, Quentin Tarantino-penned sleaze fest From Dusk Til Dawn slotting in at four and five respectively.
From there, you'll find vamping delights aplenty, with Bram Stoker's Dracula, Interview With the Vampire, and Near Dark serving as genre touchstones worthy of seeking out. Ditto for F.W. Murnau's immortal 1922 flick Nosferatu, as it essentially birthed the genre, and Werner Herzog's relentlessly gothic 1979 retelling Nosferatu the Vampyre, which features a towering performance from legendary cinematic madman Klaus Kinski. As for the rest of the pack, there really isn't a stinker in the bunch, so feel free to queue them up with confidence that your insatiable bloodlust will be fed.