Top 10 Suckers for Vampires

1.Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Buffy

The first sucker to fall for a vampire is avenger of the un-dead, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Joss Whedon’s ass-kicking sci-fi show saw everyone’s favourite heroine sucking face, with the tall, dark and brooding vampire Angel (David Boreanaz). Battling a variety of demons, including their own, Buffy and Angel provided audiences with pure angst-ridden TV gold week after week. However, Whedon eventually parted this doomed pair, sending Angel flying off to L.A. for his own TV series. But the romance didn’t end there - several cross-overs were put into play to keep fans entertained, before the Buffy and Angel angst factor died out and the slayer eventually started necking with bad-boy vamp Spike (James Marsters).

2. True Blood : Sookie

Bon Temps’ very own telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) becomes enamoured with local vampire Bill Compton (Steven Moyer) when she realises she isn’t plagued by his thoughts. In a community where vampires walk freely, the couple embark on a relationship and after declaring to vampires and the local town’s people that Sookie is “his”, the ditzy waitress falls head-over-heels for her blood-sucking boyfriend. Reported real life couple Paquin and Moyer sizzle on-screen with their un-conventional romance. This is Moyer’s second time channelling the un-dead on a television series. He previously sunk his teeth into the role of Jack Beresford in the UK TV series Ultraviolet.

3. Twilight: Bella

Star-crossed couple of the moment, vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart) have leapt off the page and onto the big screen. The first film in the franchise follows Bella and Edward as their all consuming love proceeds to take over their lives. As part of writer Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, the films still have some catching up to do – the plot is only as far as the second book, New Moon. So as the story continues, it looks like vampires are going to rule Hollywood for some time to come. When auditioning actors for the part of Bella and Edward director Catherine Hardwick revealed that she set up the “intimate bedroom scene” to ensure the chemistry between the leading characters was blood -boiling.

4. Let the Right One In: Oskar

Based on the novel by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let The Right One In tells the poetic tale of two children, Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) and Eli (Lina Leandersson), brought together under the most unusual of circumstances. Adopting a less traditional tone, director Tomas Alfredson introduces his leading blood sucker under the guise of 12-year-old Eli. Shared feelings of loneliness and existing as outsiders draw the pair together. Ironically, the innocence and purity of their twisted relationship is what makes Let the Right One In engrossing from start to finish. The title of the film is taken from the idea that a vampire cannot enter a home unless invited and also references Morrisey’s song ‘Let the Right One Slip In’.

5. Dracula: Mina Murray-Harker

Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a blend of blood, lust and carnage wrapped up neatly in one of the most powerful vampire mythologies of all time. Mina Murray-Harker (Winona Ryder) fast becomes the object of the Count’s (Gary Oldman) affection, after he recognizes she is the reincarnated soul of his former bride, Elisabeta. Realising she harbours feelings for Transylvania’s oldest tyrant, Mina eventually throws herself at him, insisting her fate as a damned creature of the night. During the final scenes of the film when Dracula is about to turn his bride, Ford-Coppola is said to have hurled abusive insults at Winona Ryder to illicit a passionate response from the actress.

6. Underworld: Michael Corvin

In a world where vampires and werewolves (also known as Lycans) are sworn enemies, the beautiful vampire warrior Selene (Kate Beckinsale) must fight to keep her kind in existence. However, when a handsome human, Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman) enters her life her loyalties are put to the test. Unbeknown to both Selene and Corvin, a group of Lycans plan to turn the human into a vampire/Lycan hybrid. Under Selene’s protection Corvin falls for the sexy vampiress’ charms, and soon Selene finds herself battling to protect someone who isn’t even one of her own. Originally pitched to studios as a "Romeo and Juliet for vampires and werewolves", Underworld boasts more bite and packs more passion than most sci-fi fantasy films to date.

7. Vampire in Brooklyn: Rita Veder

Eddie Murphy and horror extraordinaire Wes Craven hooked up in 1995 to add a dose of hilarity and horror to Vampire In Brooklyn. The film introduces audiences to the nightmares of dating, with suave vamp Maximillian (Murphy) at the helm. Brought in by Craven, to play the apple of Max’s eye, Rita Veder, is Angela Bassett. In an incestuous story of searching to keep the vampire lineage alive, Veder – who is a half-vampire daughter born into Maxamillian’s tribe – falls under the wily vamp’s thrall and, in short, is turned into a creature of the night, by her lover master. However, Veder serves as a slight exception to this list as the thrall eventually wears off and she winds up staking Max, in a bid to free herself of her demon half.

8. The Hunger: Sarah Roberts

Complete with saucy girl-on-girl, blood-sucking action, The Hunger is sordid horror at its best. Vampire Miriam (Catherine Deneuve) is hell bent on saving her vampire mate, John (David Bowie), after he acquires a rapid ageing disorder. Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon) unsuccessfully comes to John's aid, but manages to captivate Miriam's attention in the process and the two embark on a passionate affair. This was one of director Tony Scott’s (The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3) first films and saw a very young pop star, Bowie trading in his rock roots to play an un-savoury blood-sucker.

9. Innocent Blood: Joe Gennaro

There’s nothing innocent whatsoever about director John Landis’ 1992 comedy horror. This alluring tale of one vampire’s insatiable appetite for sex, blood-sucking and retribution makes for great entertainment. Packaged as a crime thriller, with a blood-thirsty twist, Innocent Blood follows vampire Marie (Anne Parillaud) as she battles the crime underworld of New York. Good-cop Joe Gennaro, played by Aussie actor Anthony LaPaglia, teams up with Marie to keep the streets clean, but instead winds up in bed with the vampiress. Landis channelled cultural references to vampires in the film - such as Dracula (1958) and Phantom of The Rue Morgue (1954) - to pay tribute to the classic tale of the un-dead.

10. Queen of the Damned: Jesse Reeves

Michael Rymer's version of Anne Rice’s novel The Queen Of The Damned - the third book from the The Vampire Chronicles series – sees Stuart Townsend bring vampire Lestat to life in this colourful fantasy horror. Jesse Reeves' (Marguerite Moreau) fixation on the centuries old Lestat makes her a more than worthy candidate for this list. A researcher of paranormal studies, Jesse follows through on her theory that Lestat is in fact a vampire, trailing him across Europe for proof. In the final moments of the film Lestat is forced to turn her and the pair walk "happily ever after" into the night. This isn't the first time one of Anne Rice's novels has been given the big screen treatment. Neil Jordan’s Interview With a Vampire, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt – also featuring the character Lestat – made its cinematic debut in 1994.

Jennifer Trevorrow

November 19, 2009
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