The Ten Best Vampire Movies of the Modern Era from Video Hounds

From Video Hound here are the top 5, I still need to see 'Near Dark' and it's sure amazing how 'Let the Right One in' has zoomed to the top of Vampire movie list.

With Underworld: Rise of the Lycans opening earlier this year, Let the Right One In winning awards right and left (but getting snubbed by the Oscars), and every casting rumor about the Twilight sequel, The Twilight Saga's New Moon, turning the internet into a message board-posting rampage, blood-sucking creatures of the night are the "in creature" for 2009. A few years ago it was all about zombies and maybe Benicio Del Toro can bring it back to werewolves with The Wolf Man, but we are undeniably in the year of the bat.

5. Cronos (Guillermo Del Toro, 1993)

If you're late to the Del Toro party, having learned about the great Mexican director from films like Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, do yourself a favor and go back and revisit arguably his two best movies - The Devil's Backbone and Cronos. The latter is his debut and co-stars the big red guy himself, Ron Perlman. The film is about an antique dealer who finds an ancient device that essentially turns him into a vampire. Moody, atmospheric, and very dark, Cronos clearly heralded the arrival of a talented new filmmaker when it premiered at Toronto in 1993. A decade-and-a-half later, Guillermo Del Toro has a loyal following and is prepping to do The Hobbit. Check out where it began with one of the best vampire movies ever made.

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4. Fright Night (Tom Holland, 1985)

If you had asked me to write this list when I was thirteen, Fright Night would have been at the top. Heck, if you had asked me to list the best movies ever made, Fright Night might have been at the top. I loved this '80s action/adventure/comedy flick, a perfect example of the kind of tongue-in-cheek horror they made more often in the era of Ghostbusters and Gremlins. Come to think of it, why DON'T they make as many mainstream horror comedies anymore? It's weird. Watching it now, what I love about Fright Night is its recognition of the fans. It's a film about a horror movie fan made by horror fans for horror movie fans. The adoration of the genre comes through in every frame. Director Tom Holland was chosen for Showtime's Masters of Horror primarily for Fright Night (secondarily for Child's Play and not at all for The Temp).

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3. Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992)

Yes, Keanu Reeves is goofy and no one likes to think anything positive about Winona Ryder any more, but before you knee-jerk response to this choice, check it out again. Coppola's Dracula is a grandiose spectacle of a film, which is exactly what this story demands. Over-the-top set pieces with ridiculous dialogue not only work for this kind of material, there's no other way to pull it off successfully. Gary Oldman gives one of the best performances of his career, and we'll take Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing over that Oscar host any day of the week. But the real key to the mesmerizing charm of Bram Stoker's Dracula is there in the design. The bloody, insane, gorgeous design.

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2. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)

I hate it when critics and viewers try to claim all of a certain kind of horror movie is the same. There is a wide variety within the subgenres of "zombie movie," "ghost story," "slasher flick," etc. and snobby people often lump things together. As if this list hasn't proven the unpredictability within the "vampire movie" already, take the case of Let the Right One In. Tomas Alfredson's riveting adolescent drama couldn't be much more dissimilar from the over-the-top style of #3 or the action extravaganza of #1. Where most movies about bloodsuckers are action or horror flicks, I would almost call Let the Right One In a vampire drama. It's a beautiful dissection of adolescence and longing for a true relationship, even if it's with a vampire.

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1. Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987)

It's been twenty years since Kathryn Bigelow rocked our worlds with Near Dark and yet it is still one of the very first movies I think of when I hear the word "vampire", modern era or otherwise. Near Dark is a masterful combination of varying themes and ideas from vampire mythology as a whole, playing off both the allure and danger of being a creature of the night. Who hasn't thought about being sucked into a more exciting world than their own? Face it. Being a vampire would be pretty cool. Hanging with Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen all night at biker bars? Sign me up. Near Dark is a Western/horror/biker movie hybrid that feels like nothing else in the subgenre of vampire flick. It stands alone. It is weird, unusual, riveting, action-packed, romantic, old-fashioned, gory, clever, and exceptional. Near Dark rules.