The Vampire-film genre is on a revival! After a large row of silent movies in the 1920s/1930s (with the outstanding NOSFERATU by F.W. Murnau/1922), the first real climax has been the tremendous output of British HAMMER-Studios during the 1950' and 1970'. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing have been the main actors during that time, doing a great work in a variety of films with an intense "atmosphere". After this first peak, a slow decline was set in motion during the 70s. The amount of trashy low-budget productions let the viewers turn themselves away from their former "heroes". Luckily for us "afficionados", the tide has turned again at the end of the eighties. Well-done outputs like Katt Ruben's DANCE OF THE DAMNED or Kathryn Bigelow's NEAR DARK helped relaunch the genre. At the edge of the millenium there has been a plethora of high-quality outputs, such as the great INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE or BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA by Francis Ford Coppola (1993).
The variety ranges widely from the old black-and-white movies (like VAMPYR by Carl Theodor Dryer) over the classics (1931s DRACULA from Tod Browning) to the ultra-gory flicks like DARKNESS by Leif Jonker. Somewhere in between are comedys (DRACULA - DEAD AND LOVING IT), erotic films like HOT VAMPIRE NIGHTS (which have a really low connection to the genre) or the action-packed BLADE with Wesley Snipes. Even movies for kids do exist (DER KLEINE VAMPIR, MOONRISE aka MY GRANDPA IS A VAMPIRE), and time by time they even made TV-Series (BUFFY). There are movies with some great "atmosphere" like THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS and there are the underground productions like the german NACHTSCHATTEN.
As there's a whole bunch of movies announced or already done (like SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE with John Malkovich, BLADE 2, VAMPIRES: LOS MUERTOS…) we don't have to worry that we'll run out of stuff to nurture our thirst for blood. So keep 'em coming and sharpen your teeth!

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