Beyond Twilight: 5 Original And Underappreciated Vampire Movies

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The undying fascination with vampires has prompted countless modern horror movies and TV series, from the divisive Twilight saga to the neverending Vampire Diaries and its spin-off, and from modern classics like Interview with the Vampire and From Dusk till Dawn to the action-packed comic book adaptations likeBlade and Morbius. With so many big titles to choose from, some less-known but great movies can get easily overlooked.

Modern vampire cinema mostly diverged into two directions — the bloodsoaked and gory monster movies the likes of 30 Days of Night andI Am Legend and the romance-infused tales with brooding, tormented heartthrobs like Twilight and most versions of Dracula. It’s rare that a vampire film takes a different direction and offers a new take on the topic — these 5 underappreciated gems do just that and are worth the attention of any genre fan.

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Before Guillermo del Toro enchanted the cinematic world with his complex and visually-stunning fantasy films like Pan’s Labyrinth and Academy Award-winning The Shape of Water, he caught the audience’s attention with this debut gory and intelligent vampire flick. Cronos centers on an elderly and somewhat religious antique dealer, Jesús Gris (Federico Luppi), who comes across an ancient scarab-shaped mechanical device that infuses him with a mysterious serum. Jesús discovers that the solution granted him eternal life and the return of his youth but also cursed him with a thirst for blood and other vampiric attributes like the aversion to sunlight. With the help of his granddaughter, he must find a way to reverse the curse while keeping the scarab out of the hands of a wealthy, dying businessman and his thuggish nephew.

Del Toro’s clever