10 Worst Vampire Movies of All Time, Ranked

Vampire stories go back to cinema’s earliest days, drawing on an even older history in literature and folklore. The genre remains compelling today (even if it’s not at peak popularity), with Robert Eggers‘s Nosferatu generating substantial hype. However, the vampire genre‘s long life means that it’s cluttered with duds as well as classics. For every Near Dark, there’s a near miss.

With this in mind, this list looks at some of the very worst vampire films ever made. These movies may feature iconic creatures of the night, but they fail to create the same sense of menace and mystery that make the best vampire stories unforgettable. From low-budget flops to high-profile disappointments, these movies are all bloody awful.

10 ‘Sleepwalkers’ (1992)

Directed by Mick Garris

“How do you kill something that’s already dead?” Sleepwalkers follows a mysterious, vampiric mother-son duo who are on the run from the authorities. The movie’s depiction of vampires is pretty odd. They’re energy-draining shapeshifters who feed on virgins, can transform into werecats, and their greatest nemeses are house cats. Even stranger, this script was penned by none other than Stephen King, though it’s a far cry from Salem’s Lot.

While some fans do defend the film’s campiness, most reviewers panned Sleepwalkers. It’s easy to see why, given the clunkiness of the script, the underdeveloped plot, confusing story developments, and general weirdness. It’s all fairly flimsy, and, despite a few oddball elements, surprisingly generic. That said, some viewers find it to be ‘so bad it’s good’. Others will enjoy spotting the who’s-who of cameos, including King himself, along with John Landis, Clive Barker, Tobe Hooper, and Mark Hamill.

9 ‘Queen of the Damned’ (2002)

Directed by Michael Rymer

“Wake up! It’s time for a new beginning.” This one revolves around the powerful vampire queen Akasha (Aaliyah), who awakens from centuries of sleep and seeks to dominate the world by forming an army of bloodsuckers. It’s based on the third book in Anne Rice‘s Vampire Chronicles and was intended to capitalize on the success of Interview with the Vampire, but it diverges from the source material in disappointing ways.

Instead of the richness and atmosphere of the novel, Queen of the Damned takes a shallower, more commercial approach. The characters lack depth, with visual spectacle and action sequences taking precedence over the philosophical elements. The author herself was unhappy with these changes, accusing the filmmakers of having “mutilated” her work. While Aaliyah’s lead performance is good (this was her final role), the overall movie is a slog to sit through, loaded with bad accents and an ill-fitting soundtrack.

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8 ‘Dracula 2000’ (2000)

Directed by Patrick Lussier

“Fear the blood of the father, for it is the blood of death.” Dracula 2000 attempts to update the Dracula mythos for a modern audience, mixing supernatural horror with a high-tech thriller. The title is a reference to the Hammer Horror gem Dracula A.D. 1972, though it falls short of that movie by some measure. The film explores the idea that Dracula (Gerard Butler) is, in fact, Judas Iscariot, cursed for his betrayal of Christ. While this premise is intriguing in theory, the execution falls flat, with a series of nonsensical plot twists and one-dimensional characters.

The movie had the potential to be a bloody subversion of Gothic horror, yet ultimately director Patrick Lussier plays it safe, opting for a more conventional action-horror approach. It settles for a blend of kitschy dialogue, genre staples, and run-of-the-mill monster-busting antics, getting lost in a sea of similar films. It’s all pretty boring.

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7 ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ (2009)

Directed by Chris Weitz

“I’m just a little bit of a troublemaker.” The Twilight Saga was simultaneously the most commercially successful and most hated vampire franchise of the late 2000s and early 2010s. The worst of the movies is the second one, which focuses on Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) deepening emotional turmoil as Edward (Robert Pattinson) leaves, alongside her budding bond with Jacob (Taylor Lautner). Stewart spends most of the movie looking depressed, and the plot serves up every romance cliché under the (midnight) sun.

To make matters worse, the pacing is glacial, and, at 130 minutes, the movie is definitely overlong. The result is the kind of filler-packed affair that only hardcore fans of the series can really enjoy. Even the climax, which ought to have been tense and compelling, winds up being both melodramatic and underwhelming. Other than some decent CGI werewolves, there’s not much here.

6 ‘Vampire in Brooklyn’ (1995)

Directed by Wes Craven

“You can’t run from me, baby. I’m a vampire.” Eddie Murphy leads this comedy-horror as a vampire named Maximillian who arrives in Brooklyn to find a woman who is the key to his immortality. Along the way, he battles both human and supernatural enemies while struggling with his own identity. The movie tries to blend Wes Craven‘s signature style with Murphy’s comedic charm, but the result is an uneven, often cringeworthy film.

Despite its star’s talents, Vampire in Brooklyn simply isn’t very funny; a lot of the jokes are just bad puns. “[Murphy] didn’t want to be funny. He wanted to be serious and he was very difficult,” Craven has said. On top of that, the genre mishmash is frequently awkward, leaving audiences unsure whether they’re supposed to laugh, be scared, or care about the romance. That said, Vampire in Brooklyn does have its defenders, and it has become something of a minor cult classic due to campiness.

5 ’30 Days of Night: Dark Days’ (2010)

Directed by Ben Ketai

“I’m not going to let them kill me like this.” While 30 Days of Night, set in Alaska during the darkest winter month, was a ton of fun, the same cannot be said for its tepid (and awfully titled) sequel. It follows a group of survivors as they attempt to take down a vampire army that has taken over an Alaskan town. It starts decently but quickly fizzles out, seeming to misunderstand what made the first one entertaining.

Unlike the original, which focused on the sheer terror of vampires attacking during a month-long night, Dark Days shifts to a more action-oriented approach, which is undermined by the bland plotting and cardboard cutout characters. It looks and feels like the direct-to-video cash grab that it is, attempting to survive on the fumes of the first film’s success. It all builds up to a decidedly lame battle aboard a cargo ship.

4 ‘Vampires Suck’ (2010)

Directed by Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer

“This is so unfair! I didn’t choose this life! I didn’t choose the vampire life. I just… I just like shiny things!” Vampires Suck is a parody movie that attempts to mock the Twilight saga, but it’s actually a lot worse than any film in that franchise. The dad joke of a title gives an indication of the humor: forced and low effort, relying on juvenile gags and shallow caricatures rather than genuine satire.

The movie was directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the team behind critically reviled blockbuster parody films like Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie. Some of their projects are enjoyable, but Vampires Suck is not one of them, ranking near the very bottom of their shaky filmography. Other than Jenn Proske‘s decent Kristen Stewart impression, there’s really nothing praiseworthy to be found here. The film’s 82 minutes feel interminable. Shallow, formulaic, witless, skippable.

3 ‘BloodRayne’ (2005)

Directed by Uwe Boll

“Who said I was a killer? I’m a survivor.” BloodRayne is a video game adaptation directed by the legendarily bad Uwe Boll (House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark). The main character is the half-vampire, half-human Rayne (Kristanna Loken), who hunts down the vampire overlords who killed her mother. As one would expect from Boll, the story is convoluted, with poorly written dialogue, stiff performances, and a lack of emotional depth.

The movie leans heavily on tired tropes, and the main storyline is hopelessly derivative of other ‘heroes on a quest’ films. Then there’s the action, which is shockingly choreographed, to the point that it seems like the performers did little to no preparation. To cover this, the movie heaps up on a ton of editing-room trickery, including frantic cuts and shaky camera work, but they only serve to make the sequences more nauseating. As a result, supporting Michael Madsen has describedBloodRayne as an “abomination.”

2 ‘Breaking Wind’ (2012)

Directed by Craig Moss

“You think you’re so special just because you sparkle in the sun.” Breaking Wind surpasses even Vampires Suck in terms of its awful parody (and terrible punny title). It attempts to make fun of the Twilight franchise by playing on its more absurd elements, but it fails to offer anything substantial or witty in return. The performances are gratingly over-the-top (including an awkward cameo by Danny Trejo), the jokes are unoriginal, and some of the characters are stereotypical almost to the point of being offensive.

Even worse is the film’s mean-spirited humor, which occasionally veers off into distasteful extremes. For example, at the end of the movies, there are clips making fun of actual Twilight fans, which is neither necessary nor entertaining. Like its characters, Breaking Wind is a movie that should never have seen the light of day.

1 ‘Immortally Yours’ (2009)

Directed by David DeCoteau

“Eternal life is only worth it if you can find someone worth living for.” Claiming the top spot on this list is Immortally Yours (aka Kiss the Vampire), the story of a young woman named Estelle Henderson (Katherine Hawkes) who falls in love with the vampire Alex Stone (Daniel Goddard). It’s essentially a Twilight ripoff weighed down by uninspired performances, weak dialogue, and a lack of chemistry between the lead actors. The main characters are mind-numbingly boring.

Some trashy vampire movies are ironically entertaining, but Immortally Yours is not one of them. Watching it feels less like a guilty pleasure and more like a test of endurance. The plot is incoherent, the lines are frequently wince-inducing, and there is less than zero atmosphere. For all these reasons and more, it represents the nadir of vampire cinema. Not for nothing, the film currently holds a 2.2 out of 10 on IMDb.

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