Stories mutate over time, adapting to both storytellers and their audience in often unpredictable ways. This is precisely why folks will still flock to creature features about monsters they’ve seen a million times before, as it’s always fun to find out how filmmakers have managed to update the source material. And when it comes to […]
Stories mutate over time, adapting to both storytellers and their audience in often unpredictable ways. This is precisely why folks will still flock to creature features about monsters they’ve seen a million times before, as it’s always fun to find out how filmmakers have managed to update the source material. And when it comes to classic monsters that have gone through cinematic makeovers, it’s hard to compete with the good-old vampire.
From foreign sex symbols to zombie-like hordes and even mindless bat-monsters, vampires have proven to be an oddly versatile creature for filmmakers of every disposition. And in honor of Robert Eggers’ Nosferaturemake revamping one of the most iconic depictions of blood-sucking ghouls in cinema history, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the scariest vampire designs in horror!
As usual, this list is purely based on personal opinion, but be advised that we’ll be including vampires designs based solely on their individual scare-factor – not necessarily the quality of the movie they came from.
With that out of the way, don’t forget to comment below with your own vampiric favorites if you think we missed a particularly spooky design.
Guillermo del Toro has built a career out of reimagining classic monsters as both romantic and tragic icons, but it’s his second attempt at making vampires scary again that really stuck with me as a terrifying redesign. Depicted as vampire-hunting predators, the mutated Reapers look like the next step in Nosferatu evolution, with these artificial undead even being able to dislocate their jaws in order to better feed on their superhuman victims.
These innovative creatures clearly left a mark on Del Toro himself, with the filmmaker later repurposing many of the same ideas in The Strain, his multimedia collaboration with author Chuck Hogan. And while those vampires were also quite intimidating, I’ll always have a soft spot for the original Reapers.
5. Dwight Renfield – The Night Flier (1997)
I’m still not entirely sure if the made-for-TV Stephen King adaptation TheNight Flier is a good movie in the traditional sense, but I still love the hell out of this weird experiment in aviation-related horror. Of course, Michael H. Moss’ Dwight Renfield is the real star of the show here, with his vampiric true form being much more interesting than the movie surrounding it.
Looking more like a demonic bat than most of the other entries on this list, the inhuman version of the titular Night Flier was responsible for quite a few nightmares back in the late ’90s (especially among the younger crowd that managed to catch the flick on late-night TV). Sure, the oversized prosthetic head and Bela Lugosi cape make Dwight look a little silly in from some angles, but I still think his overall design is genuinely frightening.
4. Shark-Toothed Vampires – Fright Night (1985)
An over-the-top horror-comedy about a horror-loving teenager battling against his vampiric neighbor, you’d be forgiven for expecting Fright Night to feature run-of-the-mill “draculas.” And yet, this ’80s classic happens to feature some of the most disturbing vampiric makeup in the history of film, with makeup supervisor Steve Johnson wanting these vampires to look more like ravenous sharks than mere bats.
Not only do the predatory teeth look intimidating, but the ripped jawline and ravenous snarl make their bite look pained, which is why I can’t help but include this design on the list. And while I certainly enjoy the 2011 remake, its digital transformations can’t hold a candle to the original.
3. Javier Botet’s Dracula – The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)
I understand why this standalone horror yarn is almost always truncated or even omitted entirely from most Dracula adaptations, but I’ve always thought that the The Captain’s Log was hands-down the most terrifying portion of Bram Stoker’s horrific opus.
That’s why it’s not surprising that the only feature-length adaptation of this part of the novel features one of the scariest depictions of Dracula in decades, with the predatory Count looking and acting a lot more like a purely demonic force of evil than a seductive foreigner. Not only do I adore the were-bat approach to his biology, but I also appreciate how Javier Botet managed to incorporate a certain sense of dark humor into his underrated performance.
2. The Original Count Orlok – Nosferatu (1922)
Over a century of remakes, memes and even watered-down cartoon cameos can’t quite overshadow the genuine terror evoked by Albin Grau and F.W. Murnau’s reimagining of Dracula. While the bald-cap and rat-like teeth may seem a little silly by modern horror standards, the demon’s elongated fingers and inhuman demeanor soon make it clear why it was once rumored that actor Max Schreck was secretly a real vampire in disguise.
Naturally, the degraded film stock and expressionist lighting do a lot of the heavy lifting here, with the dark ambience adding to the feeling that you’re watching a legitimately cursed film, but I believe the original Count Orlok boasts the only vampiric design that looks genuinely demonic. Don’t believe me? Check out this candid behind-the-scenes photograph from 1922.
1. Marlow’s Tribe – 30 Days of Night (2007)
We’ve seen hordes of hungry vampires before in films like The Omega Man and even Stake Land, but sheer numbers aren’t enough to make a group of blood-suckers scary. Thankfully, David Slade and his production team had an ace up their sleeve as 30 Days of Night benefited from some visually gnarly source material that depicted the northern tribes of Nosferatu more like prehistoric fiends.
While the cinematic vampires aren’t quite as scary as their comic-book counterparts (I mean, how can you compete with Ben Templesmith’s eerie artwork?), their shark-like eyes and inhuman jaws make these some of my favorite vampires in film.
