Best vampire movies

Gothic masterpiece from Hammer, where lovely and innocent Marianne (Yvonne Monlaur) ends as guest in the vampire´s castle and vampire hunter Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) must to save her and residents of local girlschool... The film looks magnificent: this is 19th century fairytale Transylvania of richly romantic colours, sets and costumes and dazzling cleanliness, perfect place for Gothic adventures. David Peel, despite some hilarious expressions, is classy vampire, Peter Cushing will always be the best Van Helsing, and Monlaur´s red-haired Marianne, dressed sensuously in finest pastel and crimson, is perfect Gothic heroine: epitome of angelic beauty and purity, her sympathy to supposedly mentally ill man has... consequences.

Mistitled but full of gorgeously fruitcake Gothic beauty, Bram Stoker´s Dracula kicks filth of exploitation and nuhorror back to the sewers where it belongs. Gary Oldman is good Dracula, and although the film is making mockery of Stoker´s vulnerable virgin Lucy, both
Winona Ryder and Sadie Frost are gorgeous and lushly vibrant as beautifully dressed English roses.
Sending Stoker to spin in his grave and making romantic hero of Vlad the Impaler (who´s next? Pol Pot?), the film is scoring 9/10 for it´s cinematic quality.

Hammer´s hugely enjoyable vampire Gothic in especially feminine mode. Countess Dracula is slightly static, opulently atmospheric and totally fictionalized story of Hungarian Countess and serial killer Erzsebet Bathory (1560-1614), now sanitized as old, blood-bathing woman inspired by vanity instead of (true-life) youthful sleaziness and sexual sadism. Vampire Lovers is based on Sheridan LeFanu´s 1872 Carmilla and has Ingrid Pitt again, now vamping her way through castles, graveyards and opulent bedrooms of 19th century Styria. This classy double-bill is great fun.