10. Thirst (2009)
Sang-hyun, a priest working for a hospital, volunteers for a secret vaccine development project intended to destroy a deadly virus. However, the virus eventually takes over the priest. He nearly dies, but makes a miraculous recovery by an accidental transfusion of vampire blood.

9. Vampyr (1931)
Young traveler Allan Grey arrives in a remote castle and starts seeing weird and unexplained things. Things come to a head when one of the daughters of the lord of the castle succumbs to anemia – or is it something more wicked?

8. Cronos (1994)
An old antique dealer, Jesus Gris, discovers a beautiful mechanized scarab. When opened, it stabs whomever is holding it, but the wound brings youthful vigor and a vampire’s need for blood. The device is relentlessly pursued by a dying tycoon, Dieter de la Guardia, whose nephew Angel, reluctant to see his uncle live a moment longer, must still do the old man’s bidding. Meanwhile, Gris’s desires endanger his own granddaughter, Aurora.

7. Horror of Dracula (1958)
Jonathan thought he had destroyed Dracula, but it turns out Dracula is back and he still wants Mina.

6. Fright Night (1985)
About Charlie Brewster who thinks that his next door neighbor is a vampire. His belief is strengthened when mysterious deaths of girls are reported. Charlie concludes that the monster must be destroyed. But since nobody believes his story he gets the help of Peter Vincent, the vampire killer from his favorite horror TV show, who doesn’t even believe vampires are real.

5. Near Dark (1987)
A mid-western farm boy meets a new girl, who then bites and turns him into a vampire. He then joins her group of vagabond traveling vampires. But things get shakey when they threaten the life of his family.

4. Dracula (1931)
The classic vampire movie featuring the legendary Bela Lugosi in the very first film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The story of Dracula and his quest to make Jonathan Harker’s fiancé, Mina, his own.

3. Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979)
A remake of the horror classic, Nosferatu.

2. Let the Right One In (2008)
The twisted tale about the vengeful 12-year old boy Oskar and the peculiar girl he meet, Eli. Eli turns out to be a vampire and their story is one of love and darkness.

1. Nosferatu (1922)
The classic silent film that’s based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The movie stars the legendary Max Schreck, whose face is known by all thanks to his roll as the creepy Count Orlok.

That’s Rotten Tomatoes’s top 10 best rated vampire movies. Keep in mind that this is their list of best reviewed movies, based on their own system, it’s most likely not what a lot of us would consider the best vampire movies of all time.

- Moonlight

Related Reading:

Life (and death) is bloody tough for a new vampire.(Movies - Reviews)(Movie review): An article from: Winnipeg Free Press

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Temple UVUP Vampyr Spirituality Book 1

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Each clan has its own history; there are thousands of pages of literature on V:tM and there’s no way to tell its complete history in a paragraph. Clans conflict, and fight, they work together against common goals as a group however. The clans in the Camarilla for example, are the most benevolent, –which isn’t saying much. The Sabbat is considered rogue, killers with no regret or class, whose ultimate goal is to bring about their own version of the vampire apocalypse. The Independent clans work towards personal gain, but don’t mind occasionally provoking other clans to fight, if there’s something to be gained politically.

The Clans

Camarilla

• Brujah – The anarchists, zealots, and quick-tempered of the Camarilla; they like to fight, and will, both amongst themselves and other clan members.
• Ventrue – The snobs of the Camarilla; Ventrue are class driven, and obsessed with all things rare, original, and high-priced.
• Toreador – Toreador clan members are obsessed with all things beautiful; fine art, sculpture, music, or just something shiny, whatever it is, the Toreador clan loves its artwork, and can be found behind the high-class exhibits in major cities.
• Tremere – Fastidious and very organized; all new vampires are just an inch away from being Blood Bound to their sires. The Tremere focus on control and attention to detail.
• Malkavians – Insanity has never had so many faces; the Malkavians are out of their minds, and exist in various stages of insanity. They’re also malicious pranksters, and their pranks range from benign, to fatal.
• Nosferatu – The Nosferatu are hideous sewer dwelling creatures that avoid contact with humanity, unless to feed. Despite their vile appearance they are scholars, easy mannered, and relaxed.

Sabbat

• Lasombra – This clan of the Sabbat cast no reflection; one of their strengths is also their biggest weaknesses, because they are so vain and appearance-obsessed. Their love of darkness makes them extremely susceptble to the dangers of sunlight.
• Tzimisce – This clan is bound, like the Lasombra, to certain traditional vampire beliefs; they must sleep with earth from their mortal home, or a place that was especially important to them as humans, or risk losing strength, and eventual death.

Independent Clans

• Followers of Set – A clan of vampires that originated in Egypt, their descendency is traced back to the Egyptian god Set, this clan is suffers from daylight more than any other clan.
• Gangrel – All Gangrel vampires are especially close to their inner Beast; each time they frenzy, they acquire an animal feature, and for each five features, they lose social attributes. Gangrels are also the only vampires that are, supposedly, overlooked by werewolves.
• Giovanni – The Giovanni cannot create ghouls, or human slaves, as easily as other vampire clans, because their bite causes more damage. Humans bitten by Giovanni typically die soon after.
• Ravnos – This clan is infamous for its specialty in criminals; each member of the clan is a criminal with a particular habitual crime fetish. Whether it’s murder, or tearing the tags off mattresses.
• Assamites – Assamites specialize in sorcery, as well as diablerie, a form of legitimate betrayal in the vampire community; because of their blackened auras, they grow darker as they get older.

Related Reading:

Batman Nosferatu

*OP MET: Sabbat Guide (Mind's Eye Theatre)

Mne ne vse ravno (in Russian)

Dark Ages Gangrel (DACN 10) (Dark Ages, 10)

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The nosferatu, also known as nosferat, in one dirty lustful Romanian species of vampire that has long been associated with the sex lovin’ incubus and succubus. This vamp is believed to be the illegitimate child of an illegitimate child – keeping true with the old vampire creation myths having to do with morals. Shortly after burial this filthy leech wakes up, leaves its grave and goes on its destructive way. This vampire, like most, loves to drink blood, but that’s not all it loves. Oh no, the nosferatu also loves to engage in some wild orgies with the living. Wooo? The male nosferatu can get human women pregnant. Lame. The child the results out of this is born covered in hair and destined to either become a witch or a live vampire (the moroii).

When this naughty vamp isn’t busy sexin’ up the ladies it is busy making married women barren and married men impotent for it absolutely hates married couples. Now if you are a happily married couple and need to destroy a nosferatu the best way to do so is to either fire a shot into its grave or impale it on a stake. Simple enough.

So now you know where the name originally came from. If you were wondering why they used the name at all it’s because they couldn’t get the rights to use “Dracula” as their title (or character name, hence Count Orlok) so they went with another vampire name, nosferatu.

- Moonlight

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Vampire Lore: From Writings of Jan Louis Perkowski

Nosferatu: A Novel

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Nosferatu: This word doesn’t mean “not dead” like many believe; it actually means “plague-carrier.”

Blackthorn: Traditionally a powerful protection against vampires and vampiric attack. Among the Romanians the plant was considered so useful they sewed it into clothing.

Willem Dafoe: This brilliant actor has played in at least 4 vampire movies so far (Daybreakers, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, Shadow of the Vampire, The Hunger).

Alucard: Dracula’s name spelled backwards. This novelty was first used in the 1943 movie Son of Dracula, starring Lon Chaney Jr. This name was used so often that its very appearance in a film created either a campy atmosphere or unintentional humor.

Flies: In some places there is a belief about these insects, that vampires can transform themselves into flies, an idea stressing the evil nature of the vampire and its ties to Satan, or Beelzebub, lord of the flies. The Russians made sure that when cremating a vampire all insects that flew out of the fire were captured and burned, to avoid the start of a new vampire cycle.

Tar: Crosses painted with tar on the front door of homes was said to keep vampires out of your house.

Liver: An organ used back in the day to figure out if a person was a vampire or not. A vamp’s liver is said to be white in color, instead of the normal reddish brown. It is also said that witches’ livers have the same coloring, as do women whose husbands died suspiciously. The belief may have come from the custom of throwing bodies into rivers to see if they would float. Livers that are exposed to fresh water are said to turn white; examinations of such corpses would reveal whitened livers and thus provide a useful proof for vampire hunters.

That concludes today’s Leech Lover facts; stay tuned for more you vampire enthusiasts.

- Moonlight

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Vampire films were inspired almost as soon as the ability to actually make, record, and exhibit films had been created; one of the first of many films was titled simply “The Vampire,” in 1913, and followed by “A Fool There Was” in 1915. Both of these silent films were about “vamps” or, femme-fatales; the inspiration for both the films and the terms came from the 1897 poem The Vampire, by Rudyard Kipling. The poem by Rudyard Kipling, was inspired by the famous painting ‘The Vampire’ by Sir Philip Burne-Jones, featuring a female vampire straddling a wounded, or sleeping man. The first really supernatural vampire film to emerge was Nosferatu; it was so closely related to Bram Stoker’s novel, that his widow sued, won, and all copies were destroyed, except for five. It was finally restored in 1994 in Europe.

Bela Lugosi later starred in the 1931 classic Dracula, and then in two more vampire films following that; one of them Abbot And Costello Meet Frankenstein, in 1948 which was the last time he would play Dracula. Then another in which he played a vampire character that was everything Dracula was, except his name; the film was Return of the Vampire. Bela Lugosi was in a number of early horror films throughout the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. In 1957 the movie ‘El Vampiro’ was produced, and was one of the first vampire films in which the fangs of the vampire were actually revealed. In 1958, the renowned Hammer Horror series debuted with the film Dracula, starring Christopher Lee, who acted in five of the following seven sequels. Later, Francis Ford Coppola’s groundbreaking classic ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ emerged in 1992.

However, Dracula was not the only vampire novel to inspire directors and screenwriters. Although more distant from the novel by Bram Stoker, Carmilla, the short story by Sheridan Le Fanu inspired many classic vampires films. Carmilla put the sexual spin of lesbian vampirism on several popular vampire films in the 70’s, such as the Karnstein trilogy from Hammer Studios, as well as Blood and Roses, in 1960, Vampyres, in 1974, and The Vampire Lovers, in 1970, to name a few. The 1948 film with Abbot and Costello transformed many Dracula or vampire theme films into comedies. Sexuality has been drawn into the vampire genre of films from all orientations, and in both male and female roles. There are a few but still a strong flow of vampire films left that stick true to Max Shreck’s first portrayal of the disturbing, and monstrous Count Orlok in Nosferatu.

Related Reading:

Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires, Book 1)

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Nosferatu: A Novel

Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana

Dracula The Un-Dead

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