10 Vampire Movies of the 2000s Worth Revisiting
These 10 vampire movies of the 2000s are worth revisiting, from Shadow of the Vampire and Blade II to Let the Right One In and Thirst.
The 2000s were an odd, fascinating decade for vampires on screen. The leather-clad action era of Blade was still running, Buffy the Vampire Slayer had turned bloodsuckers into pop-culture shorthand for adolescence, and by the end of the decade Twilight had turned them into a romance phenomenon. In between, Sweden and South Korea quietly made two of the smartest vampire films ever. Here are ten worth another look - a mix of genuine classics, cult favorites and glorious excess, in order of release.
If you want to see how the genre got here, start with the vampire movies of the 70s and the must-see vampire movies of the 90s; for what came next, see the underrated vampire horrors of the 2010s.
Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Director E. Elias Merhige imagines the making of the silent classic Nosferatu with a twist: F.W. Murnau (John Malkovich) has hired a genuine vampire to play his vampire. Willem Dafoe's Max Schreck earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and the film is funny, eerie and strangely tender all at once.
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)
Yoshiaki Kawajiri's anime, based on Hideyuki Kikuchi's novels, follows a half-vampire bounty hunter in a far-future wasteland hired to rescue a girl from a vampire lord. It's lush, gothic and gorgeously animated, and a great pick if you've never tried anime vampires.
Blade II (2002)
Guillermo del Toro takes over the franchise and goes gleefully monstrous: Wesley Snipes' Blade is forced into an uneasy alliance with vampires to fight a new breed of super-predator, the Reapers. It's fast, inventive, and arguably the best-looking action-horror film of its era.
Queen of the Damned (2002)
Adapted from Anne Rice's novel, with Stuart Townsend as Lestat, who becomes a rock star and wakes an ancient vampire queen. It's messy, but it's also unmistakably a product of its moment, and it features the last completed film performance of Aaliyah as Akasha.
Underworld (2003)
Len Wiseman's stylish, blue-black war between vampires and werewolves made Kate Beckinsale's Selene a genre icon and spawned a whole franchise. Underworld isn't subtle, but few films of the decade committed so hard to its own mythology and look.
Van Helsing (2004)
Stephen Sommers' monster mash-up sends Hugh Jackman's monster hunter against Dracula, Frankenstein's creation and a werewolf, with Kate Beckinsale along for the ride. It's loud, over the top and endlessly quotable for all the wrong reasons - pure guilty pleasure.
30 Days of Night (2007)
In the Alaskan town of Barrow, the sun sets for a month - and a pack of ruthless vampires arrives. Director David Slade, working from Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith's comic, with Josh Hartnett and Danny Huston, delivers some of the most genuinely frightening vampires of the decade.
Let the Right One In (2008)
Tomas Alfredson's Swedish film, adapted from John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel, tells the story of a bullied boy and the young vampire who moves in next door. Cold, quiet and heartbreaking, it's the one on this list most often called a modern classic.
Twilight (2008)
Whatever you think of it, Catherine Hardwicke's adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's novel, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, changed what a vampire movie could be commercially. Revisit it with fresh eyes and it's a moody, sincere teen romance with a real sense of place.
Thirst (2009)
Park Chan-wook's dark, funny, twisted film follows a priest, played by Song Kang-ho, who becomes a vampire after a failed medical experiment and falls into a doomed affair. Loosely inspired by Zola's Thérèse Raquin, it won the Jury Prize at Cannes and is one of the boldest vampire films ever made.
Where to Start
For the best film of the group, watch Let the Right One In. For pure fun, Blade II. For the most underrated, Shadow of the Vampire. And if you want to watch a decade of vampires evolve in real time, go in order - you'll see the genre swing from action spectacle to arthouse to teen romance in nine years.
Keep Watching
- 10 Vampire Movies from the 70s So Bad, They're Actually Good - the camp-and-cape era that started the trend.
- 8 Vampire Movies from the 90s So Bad, They're Actually Good - the decade right before this one.
- The 10 Best Shows To Watch if You Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the TV side of the same vampire boom.
- 9 Underrated Vampire Horrors of the 2010s - what came next.