//

15 Famous Movie Vampire Hunters

From Blade to Buffy, we’ve always needed fearless soldiers to battle creatures of the night.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Photo: 20th Century Fox

For high-concept, lowbrow thrills, your hot ticket this weekend is surely Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Timor Bekmambetov’s visualization of Seth Grahame-Smith’s why-the-hell-not novel, which reimagines that most benevolent president as a part-time vamp vanquisher. The revisionist actioner may not be bound for the bloodsucker canon, but its lead character proudly continues a surprisingly prevalent filmic trend: that of the hero whose key duty is to pound a proverbial stake through the heart of evil. From Blade to Buffy, we’ve always needed fearless soldiers to battle creatures of the night, and to make sure that the only thing Dracula and company are biting is the dust.


Blade

Wesley Snipes in Blade (1998)

Just before he fell into obscurity, Wesley Snipes gave us one last kick-ass character, a half-vampire “Day Walker” named Blade, who fights to keep a growing army of sharp-toothed fiends at bay. Armed with a silver sword that only answers to him, and boasting a sidekick played by iron-spined Kris Kristofferson, Blade wages war against Stephen Dorff’s head honcho, who has an in with a special someone called the “Blood God.” Blade craves blood, too, but he’s got the whole thing down to a safe and respectable science: needles.


Blacula

Gordon Pinsent and Thalmus Rasulala in Blacula (1972)

In this blaxploitation cult favorite, William Marshall plays an 18th century African prince who, after being made a vampire by Count Dracula, awakes two centuries later to feed on unsuspecting L.A. residents. Gordon Pinsent and Thalmus Rasulala are Thomas and Peters, the detectives investigating a trail of fishy murders, which, it is deduced, could only have been the work of a bloodsucker. The cop duo tracks the titular baddie to his lair, but they’re not the ones to carry out the inevitable offing. Scarred by a lost love, Blacula opts for a suicide, letting sunlight sear and disintegrate his centuries-old skin.

The Last Man on Earth

Vincent Price in The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Not to be confused with I Am Legend, a newer adaptation of the Richard Matheson novel (and one that prompted some to employ unforgettable hyperbole), the Rome-set horror flick The Last Man on Earth places Vincent Price in the Will Smith role, and sees the icon lead a Groundhog Day existence as a lone plague survivor. Price’s Dr. Robert Morgan spends his hours hunting sunlight- and garlic-fearing vampires, who were once human before the plague turned them over to the will of Satan. Proving there are upsides to ailments caught abroad, Morgan is immune, thanks to a vampire-bat bite in Panama years ago.


Nosferatu

John Gottowt in Nosferatu (1922)

F.W. Murnau’s seminal German Expressionist marvel introduced the world to Max Schreck’s goosebump-inducing Count Orlok, whose eyes and claws would endure in moviegoers’ nightmares. It also offered one of the earliest screen incarnations of Abraham Van Helsing, Bram Stoker’s legendary Dutch doctor, and sworn enemy of the dreaded Count Dracula. In Nosferatu, Van Helsing is played by John Gottowt, whose character in the tweaked adaptation goes by the name of Professor Bulwer. Temptation and sunlight ultimately do Orlok in, but in Bulwer, Van Helsing is established as a vital vampire opponent.

Advertisement


Van Helsing

Hugh Jackman in Van Helsing (2004)

If not for earlier incarnations, there never would have been room for Hugh Jackman’s embodiment of Van Helsing, whom The Mummy director Stephen Sommers granted with his own superhero-style tale. Bogged down by cheesy effects and even cheesier dialogue, Van Helsing is bottom-of-the-barrel fare, but Jackman is predictably fierce as the classic vampire hunter, and he pulls a foe-fighting trifecta, facing down Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolfman too. Good thing he’s got a tightly-corseted Kate Beckinsale to lend a sword-wielding hand.


The Lost Boys

Corey Haim and Corey Feldman in The Lost Boys (1987)

When Sam (Corey Haim) and his brother Mike (Jason Patric) move to the fictional California town of Santa Carla, weird stuff starts going down almost immediately, including an unnatural glut of missing-persons reports. Sam’s suspicions are supported by the dark theories of Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman), who, along with his brother, tracks the activities of the area’s vampire underground. Incidentally bound by their characters’ supernatural extracurriculars, the Coreys would go on to be perpetually associated right up until the arrival of a joint reality show and Haim’s untimely death.


Vampyr

Albert Bras in Vampyr (1932)

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s stark masterpiece took bits and pieces of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s story collection In a Glass Darkly and twisted them into a nightmare populated primarily by nonprofessionals, including Julian West and Rena Mandel. Also among the cast was Albert Bras, who was previously seen in Abel Gance’s Napoleon, and here assumed the role of an old servant who aids lead character Allan Gray (Nicolas de Gunzburg) in ending the fearsome Vampyr’s reign of terror. It’s the servant who drives a stake through the heart of vampire Marguerite Chopin (Henriette Gérard), and drowns her cohort in flour. Two points for the help!


Fright Night

William Ragsdale and Roddy McDowall in Fright Night (1985)

Before Anton Yelchin and David Tennant stuck it to a bloodthirsty, smoldering Colin Farrell, the duty was handed to William Ragsdale and Roddy McDowall, who together fought to put William’s character’s vampire neighbor, Jerry (Chris Sarandon), to eternal rest. McDowall plays an actor who’s long portrayed a vampire killer on TV, and finally gets the chance to put his “professional” skills to use. He and Ragsdale’s faithful horror fan can’t change the fate of one Ed “Evil” Thompson (Stephen Geoffreys), but they do shower Jerry with fatal dose of Vitamin D.

Advertisement


Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

Christian Slater in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Okay, so Christina Slater’s journalist in Interview with the Vampire doesn’t hunt vampires, per se, but he certainly does pursue them, tracking down Brad Pitt’s 230-year-old Louis de Pointe du Lac and getting the scoop on what it means to drink blood and live forever. Consumed and intoxicated by Louis’s (largely homoerotic) story, Slater’s Daniel Molloy eventually begs to be turned himself, a request that’s vehemently rejected until the reporter runs into Tom Cruise’s legendary Lestat, who’s more than happy to oblige the wannabe immortal.


Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Anthony Hopkins in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Gary Oldman may have been the MVP of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, tearing into the title role and donning the Oscar-winning duds of late genius Eiko Ishioka, but it’s Anthony Hopkins who portrays good old Professor Van Helsing, who’s joined by Winona Ryder’s Mina Harker in hunting the Prince of Darkness, and ably beheads the bloodsucker’s brides en route to offing public enemy number one. Mina is the one to finally stab and decapitate Dracula, but not without Van Helsing’s guidance, which wrangles the forces of good to send the demon packing.


The Vampire Lovers

Douglas Wilmer in The Vampire Lovers (1970)

Peter Cushing of Star Wars fame led the cast of this inaugural installment of a lesbian vampire trilogy, which proved more than a little groundbreaking for its time. The film is bookended by vampiress encounters with one Baron Joachim von Hartog, who’s played by Douglas Wilmer, best known for his work as Sherlock Holmes. Baron Hartog is first seen burning a vampire’s boobs and cutting of her head, and later, having aged many years, he accompanies Cushing’s General von Spielsdorf in a climactic driving of stake through heart. Where Baron Hartog goes, vamps wind up dead—again.


From Dusk Till Dawn

George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, and Ernest Liu in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Forget Danny Ocean. George Clooney hit his ultra-cool peak in 1996 as Seth Gecko, a fugitive with black flame tattoos climbing out of his collar and licking his jawbone. Holing up in strip joint/saloon The Titty Twister with brother Richie (Quentin Tarantino), Seth finds that robbing banks is cake compared to facing a swarm of vampires, who reside in the roadside club and feed on truckers and tourists. When Richie croaks, Seth enlists the aid of Jacob (Harvey Keitel), Kate (Juliette Lewis), and Scott (Ernest Liu), an offbeat family of three he’s been holding captive. In this unique gorefest, the quartet literally hacks through beasties until the sun comes up.

Advertisement


Black Sunday

John Richardson and Antonio Pierfederici in Black Sunday (1960)

Also known as The Mask of Satan, Mario Bava’s Italian vampire thriller stirred controversy upon its release, enduring charges that its gore was far too intense for audiences to handle. A toned-down cut was released to U.S. masses, and as a result, both Bava and lead star Barbara Steele saw their careers kick off. Steele plays Asa Vajda, a vampire witch who’s murdered by her brother, but returns centuries later to prey on her modern kin. John Richardson and Antonio Pierfederici are the doctor and priest who hunt Asa down and, along with a mob of torch-toting villagers, light the ancient witch on fire and watch her turn to ash.


Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Kristy Swanson in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

Yes, it’s Sarah Michelle Gellar who made Buffy a name as iconic as Homer Simpson, but there’d be no Sunnydale without this playful film version, which puts the stakes in the manicured hands of the original Ms. Summers, played by Kristy Swanson. Penned, like the show, by geek god Joss Whedon, the movie sees Swanson mentored by Donald Sutherland’s wise old watcher, whose formalities sharply juxtapose Buffy’s Valley-girl sensibilities. Naturally, the cheerleader learns to follow her destiny and slaughter those pesky vamps, all the while making ’90s icon Luke Perry swoon.


Dracula

Edward Van Sloan in Dracula (1931)

Nosferatu may remain the ultimate vision of Bram Stoker’s signature story, but there’s arguably no better Van Helsing than the one portrayed by Edward Van Sloan, co-star of Tod Browning’s iconic spookfest, Dracula. Proving the perfect, studious foil to Bela Lugosi’s widow’s-peaked Count, Van Sloan’s professor gathers clues before finally squaring off against his archenemy, whom he fatally impales with that most classic of vampire-hunter tools: the one and only wooden stake.

R. Kurt Osenlund

R. Kurt Osenlund is a creative director and account supervisor at Mark Allen & Co. He is the former editor of Out magazine.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.