10 Best Indie Vampire Movies You've Probably Never Seen

Vampires are one of the classic horror creatures, and few monsters are as well represented in popular cinema. From the countless depictions of Dracula to the arguably criminal Twilight series, you don't have to look too hard for a decent bloodsucker flick. But if you do dive a little deeper, you stand to be well rewarded.

Be it a bygone cult classics or a more recent, low-key indie film, vampire movies thrive on change and on upending your expectations. Not to mention often being too irresistibly cool to turn away from.

The films on this list include outright horror adventures, but also more restrained, contemplative reflections on humanity and pressing social problems.

Often it is a mixture of both, and for good reason. Part of the reason vampires have existed in popular imagination for so long is they have an uncanny ability to reflect dark secrets and painful truths back onto us humans. Not bad for creatures that famously cast no reflection of their own.

Here are ten of the most unique indie vampire adventures that you probably haven't seen. Even if you have seen them, there are plenty of reasons to let them back into your lives for one more night.

Can you have a vampire movie without a vampire? Common sense would say no, but Michael O'Shea's take on the legend proves that it isn't quite that simple.

The Transfiguration focuses on Milo, a troubled teenager who believes himself to be a vampire - so much so that he drinks human blood. After an encounter with a gang of bullies, he befriends the equally alienated Sophie, and the pair spend the rest of the film trying to avoid the myriad of threats that they both face.

The Transfiguration is an unforgiving, disturbing film. It is also a compelling and eerily fixating 'pseudo-vampire' story. Compared to some of the classic bloodsucking gore fests that vampires are known for, O'Shea is content with a much slower, deliberately paced story that rewards patience with startling new ideas. It is a bold confrontation of loss and belonging in a world seemingly hell-bent against you.

The Transfiguration consistently pulls new tricks and upends expectations in a genre saturated with classic tropes, even managing to include touches of humour (Sophie insisting that Twilight is better than Nosferatu, for instance).

It is a quietly extraordinary reinvention of a story that could have been loaded with cliches and predictability.