5 vampires that had the best bite

Since Bram Stoker unleashed "Dracula" in 1897, vampires have long been a part of the world's pop-culture scene. What once was the domain of Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee has opened to the likes of Tom Cruise ("Interview With the Vampire") and Robert Pattinson (the recent "Twilight" film)s.

"I love to watch each generation find vampires and redefine them," says Ian Holt, the vampire expert who co-wrote the new sequel to "Dracula: The Un-Dead," with Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew, Dacre Stoker.

A fan of horror films since the age of 5, when he first saw Lugosi's Count Dracula in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," Holt lists his five most influential vampire movies, in chronological order:

Nosferatu (1922)

A silent German expressionist film directed by F.W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck, Nosferatu was an unlicensed adaptation of Stoker's Dracula novel -- which did not please Stoker's widow, Florence, at the time the film was released. Even though there was a big controversy and copies of the movie were ordered destroyed, Holt says, "it was the first, and it was extremely successful and very well done."

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