Cultish vampire films to watch if you can’t get enough of Nosferatu

The Hunger, 1983, Tony Scott

Loosely based on a novel of the same name by Whitley Strieber, the sensual and provocative vampire horror flick is Tony Scott’s directorial debut feature, starring David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon. Posing as a stylish and wealthy couple living in a beautiful New York townhouse, the film opens at a nightclub to a live performance from the gothic rock band Bauhaus, where Deneuve and Bowie are on a prowl for their next victims to satisfy an insatiable bloodlust. Draped from head to toe in clothes designed by Yves Saint Laurent, Deneuve’s character, vamp queen Miriam, is plagued with bouts of loneliness, as her human lovers turned immortals are guaranteed endless life, but, sadly, without eternal youth and vitality. Criticized at the time for its lack of depth and slow pacing, the film rose over time to goth cult status, thanks to its bold visual aesthetic, for which Irving Penn’s photography served Scott as a source of inspiration.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, 2014, Ana Lily Amirpour

Directed and written entirely in Farsi by Ana Lily Amirpour, this Iranian-American vampire Western hybrid film revolves around a lonely, young vigilante protagonist, named The Girl. Shot in black-and-white, the feature premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, reading somewhere in between an anti-hero journey, a gripping drama, a crime thriller, and a touching love story. Amirpour took on the vampire lore head-on for her directorial debut feature, never shying away from holding up a mirror to societal tragedies: drug addiction, prostitution, isolation, and a sense of loneliness and loss. Dark and mysterious, the film’s titular heroine drives her skateboard as she roams the night under a cloak of safety in order to hand out justice to corrupt, terrible men that commit evil deeds and prey on vulnerable women. Things take a turn when The Girl meets Arash, a hard-working young Iranian man struggling with his heroin-addicted father. A feministic spin on the popular vampire lore with an eclectic, killer soundtrack.

Nosferatu the Vampyre, 1979, Werner Herzog

Originally titled ‘Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht,’ the gothic horror film was written and directed by Werner Herzog as a remake and an homage to F. W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film Nosferatu. Produced simultaneously at the request of its distributor, 20th Century Fox, in its original German version and in an English-speaking one, in order to appeal to a broader audience. Brimming with beautiful pictorial shots and erotically charged undertones, the plot of the film unfolds at a slow pace with a languid form of storytelling, starring Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, and Bruno Ganz. Depicting Count Dracula as a wretched creature with a miserable existence devoid of love, unable to live or die. Utilized in the feature as an unconventional vessel for change, he brings misery to the inhabitants, forcing them to reevaluate their existence and their meaning of life. Despite its wide degree of commercial success, the film was not without controversies; Kinski was known to be notoriously difficult to work with, animal rights activists relentlessly criticized the treatment of rats on set, and the opening sequence featured actual mummified bodies, filmed by Herzog at the Mummies of Guanajuato Museum in Mexico.

The Addiction, 1995, Abel Ferrara

Directed by Abel Ferrara, the mold-breaking feature subverts the classical vampire film genre by gender-swapping vampire characters Peina and Casanova, played by Christopher Walken and Annabella Sciorra, at the suggestion of Walken, and depicting vampires as addicts instead of representations of sexual desire. Kathleen, a New York grad student of philosophy, played by Lili Taylor, gets turned into a vampire after being bitten by one. Struggling from thereon with an unquenchable need for blood, she grapples with the ensuing changes to her life, mind, body, and spirit. Descending more and more into darkness, Kathleen coldly remarks, “My indifference is not the concern here; it’s your astonishment that needs studying,” to a weeping victim of hers. Shot in black-and-white, Ferrara tackled themes of heroin addiction, struggles with self-identity, the AIDS crisis, historical horrors, and socio-economic angst, all while quoting philosophic and theological concepts to the viewer.

Only Lovers Left Alive, 2013, Jim Jarmusch

In typical Jim Jarmusch fashion, the plot of this feature unfolds at a leisurely pace and is brimming to the top with cultural and artistic references. A century-long married vampire couple, Eve and Adam, played by Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, living, now mostly apart, reunite to roam the nocturnal streets of Detroit and Tangier. Spending their time reconnecting and discussing their mutual interest in books, music, and science, this gothic romance horror keenly portrays the struggles of artists and couples, as well as a despondence with life and the pleasures it offers. Torn between wanting your artistry to be shown and enjoyed and wishing to keep it buried and hidden deep inside yourself, the film hones in on views and concepts many viewers will enjoy. Pay close attention to all the winks and nods made in the plot to some of the world’s greats.

Vampyr, 1932, Carl Theodor Dryer

An eerie, haunting, and intuitive feature that was co-written and directed by Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dryer and was based on aspects from Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 collection of supernatural stories, In a Glass Darkly. Shot in its entirety on location with the assistance of titled cards, in the same manner as a silent film, the sound effects and dialogue in German, English, and French were recorded in Berlin and later overlaid the images, creating the perfect atmosphere for the gothic horror film. Financed by Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg in exchange for the leading role, a gamble that worked out perfectly in the end as he managed to deliver a stellar performance. Conjuring a genuine sense of dread in the viewers, Dryer intentionally crafted a washed-out effect by placing a thin piece of gauze over the lens for the strange dreamlike sequences. A prime example of unsettling avant-garde filmmaking, worth watching alone for the astounding usage of special effects!

Let the Right One In, 2008, Tomas Alfredson

Directed by the Swedish filmmaker behind Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson, and adapted into a screenplay by John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of the titular novel the feature was based on, this dark and twisted horror tale is in equal parts a coming-of-age romance as it is an exploration of human suffering and depravity. Stripping off elements of classic vampire lore, Alfredson decided to focus and amplify the relationship between Eli, a young vampire, and Oskar, a lonely boy bullied at school. Tender and touching at times, the two young adolescents develop a meaningful friendship that begins to deepen into the first true love category. Set in a Swedish suburb near Stockholm in 1982, the film hauntingly depicts some of the worst aspects of society, musing on loneliness, isolation, and what it really means to be human along the way.