10 Best Vampire Films Of All Time

This British indie film, starring Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan, tells the tale of mother and daughter vampires setting up a new life in a coastal town.

Vampires have always been a sought after topic for indie movies, as the subject can allow not only surface level scares, but deep introspection. Here, the film manages to be both harrowing and sweet as it shows the life of a vampire through a girl that hasn’t had a chance to live.

One of the most interesting things about this film is the method used to turn someone into a vampire. Commonly, a human is changed into the undead when they are bitten by a vampire – if you want to be slightly more inventive, other methods in cinema have included transferring the vampire’s blood to the human, or denouncing God in a church.

In Byzantium, a person must travel to a cave on a secluded island, and commit suicide. The striking and beautiful imagery of the island’s waterfalls turning to blood accompanies the human’s change into a creature of the night.

Another intriguing theme here is prejudice. Vampirism has been used to represent race in the past, and here we see the film including themes of sexism and classism – shown by the strictly high-born males in the vampire society recoiling in horror at the thought of a female prostitute joining their ranks.

Questioning the right a person has to immortality is the key idea in this film. It is what drives the drama.

But it’s not all emotional talky-feely moments either – there’s some great supernatural fight scenes, meaning Byzantium has something in it for everyone.