10 Vampire Movies That Broke All The Rules
From Nicolas Cage to... sparkling vampires?
More so than any other genre, horror thrives on the sheer multitude of subgenres which exist within it, from slasher films to monster movies, haunted house flicks, found footage fare, and everything in-between.
One of the most prominent subgenres is, of course, the vampire movie, which was popularised by F. W. Murnau's 1922 classic Nosferatu. In the century since, it has offered up literally hundreds of efforts ranging from breathlessly unique to forgettably generic.
The core tenets of the vampire movie are so well-trodden by this point that it's a cause for celebration when any movie manages to carve out a unique niche for itself, either tearing down or re-configuring genre tropes in a creative or surprising way.
These 10 films, whether masterpieces of their genre or flawed curios, all at least dared to do something different with the vampire film, contorting it in some wholly different - and, in some cases, quite divisive - directions.
Whether comedic in nature or entirely self-serious, these films all made pains to deviate from the established formula and deliver a vampire movie like nothing else out there...
10. What We Do In The Shadows
By 2014, it's fair to say that the post-Twilight vampire movie resurgence felt thoroughly played out, so trust Taika Waititi of all people to breathe fresh new life into it by way of an hilariously off-the-wall vampire mockumentary.
What We Do in the Shadows follows a quartet of vampires (Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Jonathan Brugh, and Ben Fransham) living together in a flat in New Zealand, as they attempt to find contentment while also keeping themselves fed.
Waititi does a fantastic job mining huge laughs from the sheer culture clash of these crusty old vampires living out their long lives in modern day Wellington, while his impressive eye for technically complex sight gags ensure every penny of the film's $1.6 million budget ends up on the screen.
Brilliantly, the film not only passes wink-wink comment on the moldiness of the vampire genre, but also offers up one of the most subversive and expectation-defying mockumentaries of all time.
The FX spin-off series of the same name is also well worth your time, though we're sadly still waiting for the already-announced, brilliantly-titled movie sequel, We're Wolves.