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Top 10 Big Screen Bloodsuckers

Denizens of the dark. Creatures of the night. Pointy-toothed, garlic-shy, sun-dodgers. The vampire is never far from the movie theatre, and they come in many shapes and guises. We’re pretty sure we’ve let the right ones in, but prepare to be furious/ecstatic at our choices: here, in reverse order, are our Top 10 Big-Screen Bloodsuckers...

From ten to one...

Lestat de Lioncourt
(Tom Cruise) – Interview with the Vampire (1994)

To quote Justin Trousersnake, Tom’s bringing sexy back, you other vamps don’t know how to act. OK, to be fair, vampires have long been soaked in lusty desire, but the slicked-back widow’s peak hairdos of glowering, tuxedoed aristocrats don’t have quite the same impact as Tom – and, indeed, Brad – with their ruffley shirts, flowing locks and piercing, angsty gazes.

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Anton Gorodetsky
(Konstantin Khabenskiy) – Night Watch (2004)

The priciest Russian movie ever made (until the sequel) is a brilliant, eye-popping action noir from director Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted), bristling with invention and flourish and threat. More magician than vampire, Night Watch Agent Anton nevertheless gulps the corpuscles when hunting full-on Dark Others who threaten the fragile truce in modern day Moscow.

Rent

Count Dracula
(Christopher Lee) – Brides of Dracula (1960)

Bela Lugosi made the early running, but then Christopher Lee swooped in and, for many a moon, was the undead daddy. Sure, he got moody about being typecast and only cropped up in cameo outings later on, but the Hammer horror veteran is almost synonymous with Dracula, and always cuts an iconic figure as the Transylvanian Count with more comebacks than Jimmy Carr.

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David
(Kiefer Sutherland) – The Lost Boys (1987)

Before gaining true immortality as triple-hard CTU agent Jack Bauer, Kiefer Sutherland dabbled with some back-from-the-dead antics in The Lost Boys. Pack leader for a gang of MTV vampires, Kiefer’s David is all alpha-male cool, Gothic bad-boy leather and Billy Idol mullet. Not, frankly, an easy combo to pull off, but he brings real menace to this wonderfully 80s thriller.

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Blade
(Wesley Snipes) – Blade (1998)

Another ‘good’ guy. Sort of. Half-vampire, half-vigilante, all-miffed, Wesley Snipes spends his nights despatching clubloads of fanged fiends, and looking very cool in the process. Shotgun, check. Submachine gun, check. Really big sword, check. Nifty martial arts moves, check. Gadgets, check. If Bruce Wayne had been born in the Bronx, Batman would look a lot like Blade.

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Satanico Pandemonium
(Salma Hayek) – From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

In a male-dominated list, Salma’s sultry stripper is all femme and pretty bloody fatale too. Lead chanteuse in an isolated Mexican liquor bar, she’s Medusa personified; transfixing the audience with her curvy, snake-hipped seduction, then turning into a ravenous, blood-lusting banshee. And most men are dying to stake her, regardless of which side of the transformation she’s on.

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Count Dracula
(Gary Oldman) – Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

A controversial ranking perhaps, but Gary Oldman’s Dracula has depth. Opening a window into his past, he reveals the poisonous history powering the dark Count’s obsession with immortality, blood and revenge. He was also saddled with a talcum-powdered coiffure as Old Drac that makes Princess Leia’s Danish pastry hairdo look positively normal.

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Edward Cullen
(Robert Pattinson) – Twilight (2008)

Angel (Buffy) and Bill (True Blood) are ineligible for this top ten, otherwise they’d be going toe-to-toe with Edward. But Forks’ swoonsome vampire gets third place, spending his days mooning about over a high-school girl, competing with his dog-boy love rival, and having really great hair. And owing much to the high-cheekboned passion of author Anne Rice’s Lestat and Louis (see #10.)

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Max Schreck
(Willem Dafoe) – Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

Shadow of the Vampire is an atmospheric, chilling, and fictionalised account of the making of 1921 silent horror Nosferatu. Desperate for complete authenticity, barmy director John Malkovich spirits his cast & crew away to a remote Slovak castle, convincing them that the reason Max Schreck is so wizened and weird is because he’s great method actor. Except, of course, that that’s not the reason...

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Eli
(Lina Leandersson) – Let The Right One In (2008)

Top spot in our rundown of Big-Screen Bloodsuckers is the least obvious looking. Which is what makes her so disturbing. Hideous monsters, debonair devils, and 80s rockers we can handle. Fragile pre-teen girls with doleful eyes, we really can’t. Eli is a quiet and loyal friend to her young neighbour, Oskar, but you can’t help but think that his mum might actually have preferred Oskar to have an imaginary friend.

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Darren Bignell