10 Best Vampire Horror Movies You've Never Heard Of
Underrated bloodsuckers of the big screen.
Vampire movies have been around for as long as cinema itself, with many of the subgenre's most iconic flicks - from Nosferatu (1922) to Vampyr (1931) - remaining vital landmarks in the birth of modern moviemaking as we know it today.
But since vampire movies are so prevalent, and have been for over a century now, it's easy to accept that many great ones have passed us by, particularly in the 1960s and seventies when it seemed every studio wanted to stake (sorry) their claim to the genre, but also in the nineties, following the release of Bram Stoker's Dracula, which starred Gary Oldman as the eponymous Count.
With that in mind, from arthouse masterpieces to forgotten thrillers and erotic fantasies that dig into the very complexities of the human condition with blood and dreamscapes to spare, here are 10 great vampire movies you may have never heard of, but should definitely seek out for your next movie night.
10. Jonathan (1970)
Jonathan is one of the strangest vampire movies on this list, but it's also one of the most visually evocative and thematically dense, a stunningly unique German fantasy crafted with gloomy Gothic worldbuilding.
Based on the work of Bram Stoker, the film follows the eponymous rebel Jonathan (Jürgen Jung) as he leads an uprising against the vampires who have taken over the world, thanks in large part to their vast wealth and immunity to sunlight.
Offering a brilliant twist on a tried-and-tested story, Jonathan is a compelling tale of heroism, but most importantly a beautifully macabre exercise in tone and production, being shot by frequent Wim Wenders collaborator Robby Müller.
Dark and unsettling, Jonathan is doom-laden and subversive at every turn, turning its drama into a powerful allegory for anti-fascism whilst still being brutally scary.