6 Vampire Movies Nobody Wants a Remake Of
Michael Block is a 14 time GLAM Award nominated writer, producer, and host of the podcast Block Talk. Throughout his time in the entertainment industry, he has worked on and off Broadway as a stage manager, written several produced plays, critiqued hundreds of theatrical performances, drag and cabaret shows, and has produced events randing from drag competitoons to variety concerts!
On Block Talk, he interviews nightlife personalities, covers the wide world of entertainment through features, ranking episodes, and recaps ALL of Drag Race, as well as Dragula and Survivor. He has interviewed hundreds of RuGirls that span the globe at DragCon NYC, DragCon LA, and DragCon UK.
In his free time, he makes one-of-a-kind jewelry and gift baskets with his mom. He is a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community.
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With spooky season upon us, it’s inevitable that our movie lineup is going to go all horror, with at least a vampire movie or two infused in it. Cinema has had a vast fascination with vampires since they were depicted on the page. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula to the brilliant creations of Anne Rice, many of the most infamous vampires have gone from page to screen and screen again.
While there have been countless remakes of vampire flicks, there are six that have yet to receive the same treatment, and we’re here to say suck someone else’s blood! From brilliant retro titles to movies that were just so bad they shouldn’t be touched again, no one wants to see remakes of these six vampire films.
1 'Black Sunday' (1960)
There are just some films that work because of how and when they were made. For Black Sunday, its simplicity and black-and-white look make the 1960 film irreplaceable. Directed by Mario Bava, the Italian Gothic horror set in 17th-century Moldova tells the tale of a malicious witch and princess named Asa Vajda (Barbara Steele) and her lover, Javutich (Arturo Dominici), who are condemned for witchcraft by her own brother, Prince Griabi (Ivo Garrani). Before an iron "mask of Satan" with internal spikes is hammered onto her face, Asa places a blood curse on her brother's entire family line. Two hundred years later, she and her undead servant are revived when blood is spilled on her crypt. She attempts to drain her life and take over the body of her innocent, beautiful descendant, Katia Vajda (Steele), while a local doctor tries to stop the evil plot.
Blending witchcraft and vampirism, Black Sunday adapts Nikolai Gogol's 1835 short story "Viy" to perfection. For a film that exudes existential dread and a gloomy atmosphere, Black Sunday cannot be replicated without straying from Bava’s intent. Bava designed the sets and lighting specifically for the black-and-white film. The effect was a dreamlike, eerie shadow-world that a color story could never achieve. Every scenic element, from the gothic crypts to the skeletal trees, achieves a haunting texture. From a historical context, Black Sunday launched Steele into stardom while establishing modern horror and the giallo genre. Remaking the movie would diminish these integral points.
2 'Blacula' (1972)
The truth for Blacula is it shouldn’t be remade because it would simply diminish the power and impact it had at the time. Directed by William Crain, the blaxploitation horror film centers on 18th-century African prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall) who visits Count Dracula (Charles Macaulay). He asks Count Dracula for help in stopping the slave trade. Dracula refuses and insults them, biting Mamuwalde and turning him into a vampire. He names him "Blacula" and seals him in a hidden coffin before awakening in the 1970s Los Angeles. Blacula, who falls for Tina (Vonetta McGee), a woman who resembles his dead wife, hunts for blood in the city as he is hunted by pathologist Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) and police lieutenant Jack Peters (Gordon Pinsent) following a string of murders.
From an outside perspective, there’s an inherent camp to blaxploitation films, and Blacula was no different. Yet, Marshall infused Prince Mamuwalde with gravitas and unparalleled dignity. Rather than being a gimmick, he was played as a tragic figure. He brought a booming baritone to the character that aided his regal presence. No one could replicate that. Marshall fought to change the original comedic script into a serious, resonant horror film. A remake would likely lose its emotional core, as it would be seen as too kitschy today. It was a lightning-in-a-bottle project that influenced a wave of other Black-inspired horror films as well as other Black protagonists in horror films. The original was a very slick film. Nothing new could compare.
3 'Near Dark' (1987)
Though there are discussions of a television adaptation, remaking Near Dark may flop, as nothing will match Kathryn Bigelow’s original creation. The dark neo-Western follows young Oklahoma farm boy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) who is bitten by a beautiful drifter named Mae (Jenny Wright). Caleb is abducted and forced to join the brutal, nomadic family of vampires led by Jesse Hooker (Lance Henriksen). Earning a cult following over the years, Near Dark, which ironically does not ever mention the word vampire, blends the dusty, sun-bleached aesthetic of an American Western with modern horror to make a classic representative of the era.
Near Dark served as Bigelow’s solo directorial debut. The product reflected a very specific style for the rising director that could not be replicated through a modern filmmaking perspective. While it didn’t use the standard vampire tropes, Bigelow infused the film with ideals to make Near Dark stand out. With a specific hypnotic, electronic soundtrack from Tangerine Dream and gritty, wincing practical gore and realistic makeup effects, Near Dark is an '80s classic. A remake would lose that allure and charm, likely replaced by generic digital noise and CGI. Whether it happens or not, any advancement of a new iteration must pay homage to the original.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring
Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.
😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)
🧸Chucky(Child's Play)
📞Scream(Ghostface)
🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)
01
Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.
02
You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.
03
Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.
04
Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.
05
How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.
06
Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.
07
Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.
08
Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.
The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…
Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.
Elm Street
Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.
- Freddy is horror's cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
- You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your own head is where this does its damage.
- These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
- You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.
Chucky
Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.
- Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
- You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You know that feeling from real life too.
- The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you have met those adults.
- By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.
Scream
Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.
- Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be somebody who was at the party.
- You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the same way you watch films.
- The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
- Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.
The Conjuring
Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.
- The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
- Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
- This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
- Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one standing in the hallway.
4 'Shadow of the Vampire' (2000)
Count Orlock remains one of the most iconic characters within the vampire genre. In 2000, director E. Elias Merhige and screenwriter Steven Katz explored the character through the behind-the-scenes story of the character's creation in W. Murnau's classic 1922 silent film Nosferatu. The fictionalized horror comedy follows W. Murnau (John Malkovich) as he strives to make the ultimate vampire movie. Upon being denied the rights to Dracula, Murnau decides to adapt the story anyway under a different name. To achieve total authenticity, he hires a mysterious, intense actor named Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe), who goes full method acting. Instead, the truth is that Murnau has made a Faustian bargain with him, promising fresh blood in exchange for completing the masterpiece, as Schreck is an actual vampire. A masterpiece in meta-storytelling, Shadow of a Vampire is perfect as is.
The major reason why the film found success lies in Dafoe’s Academy Award-nominated performance. Capturing the exact blend of uncanny creepiness and mortifying decay is nearly impossible to recreate. Paired perfectly with Malkovich as the chillingly obsessive director, they anchored the tragicomedy. Though our fascination with Nosferatu has rekindled, trying to relitigate the postmodern commentary on the 1922 classic would be lost, as that film’s remake has altered all perception. With a one-of-a-kind tone, a remake would likely attempt to polish the project into something pristine, losing the raw prestige the 2000 film captured.
5 'The Addiction' (1995)
With a brilliant lo-fi aesthetic and extraordinary ‘90s atmosphere, another hands-off film is The Addiction. Directed by Abel Ferrara, the story is about New York University philosophy doctoral student Kathleen Conklin (Lili Taylor), who is attacked and bitten by a stranger, Casanova (Annabella Sciorra). Instead of dying, Kathleen slowly transforms into a vampire. She meets Peina (Christopher Walken), who helps her understand her condition, embracing her new urges, moving from academic debates about morality to committing violent acts to feed her habit. Using the craving for blood as a metaphor for heroin addiction and dependency, The Addiction explores heavy theological and philosophical concepts, viewing human evil not as a series of bad choices, but as an innate condition that humans are weak against.
While the narrative surrounding addiction remains prevalent, the film also arrived at a very specific moment in time. Ferrera uses the vampire narrative to evoke real-world historical and social traumas, including the AIDS crisis. The Addiction captures a very specific, pre-gentrification New York City in gritty, high-contrast black-and-white. Though its imagery feels timeless, the locale has vastly evolved, creating a new narrative in a remake. At its core, the film is less about traditional vampire tropes and more about a deeply profound exploration of sin, free will, and human evil. Modern studios would cut that, likely in exchange for cheap jump scares. A remake would likely lose the raw, uncompromising edge. Though philosophical horror is all the rage, new stories would be greatly preferred.
6 'The Lost Boys' (1987)
Yes, there is a musical iteration, but the pipeline from screen to stage is common fare. Trying to redo The Lost Boys in another cinematic format that’s not a musical adaptation would be a lost cause. A pinnacle piece of ‘80s cinema, directed by Joel Schumacher, The Lost Boys tells the story of Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam Emerson (Corey Haim), who move to a California coastal town with their mother, Lucy (Dianne Wiest). The catch is that the town is secretly a haven for vampires. Michael falls for a young woman named Star (Jami Gertz), which draws him into a local gang of rebellious, motorcycle-riding teenage vampires led by the charismatic David (Kiefer Sutherland). When Michael drinks blood and transforms into a vampire, Sam teams up with local comic book store clerks and self-proclaimed vampire hunters Edgar and Alan Frog (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) to save Michael. An ‘80s cult classic, a remake of The Lost Boys would simply diminish its extraordinary history.
The Lost Boys was a product of the MTV era. It's a unique blend of 1980s counterculture, practical style, and high-energy, leather-clad, rock 'n' roll nightmare. With its profoundly decade-specific imagery and soundtrack, a modern adaptation wouldn’t work, and an ‘80s-set version would be incorrectly camp. The original film broke the mold, shifting vampires away from dusty, traditional Dracula tropes into dangerous, charismatic street punks. Much of the original film's allure comes from the dynamics among the young ensemble. Re-casting these iconic roles risks losing that innate chemistry. There might always be calls for remakes, but this is one classic that needs to stay as is.
The Lost Boys
- Release Date
- July 31, 1987
- Runtime
- 97 minutes
- Director
- Joel Schumacher
- Writers
- James Jeremias, Jeffrey Boam, Janice Fischer
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.