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The vampire subgenre has been at the forefront of horror for over 100 years, and the myths of undead creatures living off of human blood go back countless years further. The best vampire movies ever made are, mostly, incredibly varied. There’s a whole lot of great “Dracula” movies out there, sure, but also art-house nightmares, mainstream action movies, silly comedies, Neo-westerns, heartwarming romances and more. And if you ask us, these are the very, very best.

(Film Arts Guild) “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” (1922)

F.W. Murnau’s eerie silent classic is 100 years old, and it still has the power to shock and horrify. Telling an extremely plagiarized version of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” – Stoker’s estate successfully sued, and nearly had every single copy of “Nosferatu” destroyed – the film stars Max Schreck as the verminous Count Orlok, who moves from his haunted castle to Germany, and brings a supernatural plague along with him.

Just in time for Halloween, the LA Opera has put together a spectacular treat for movie and music lovers: a screening of the rarely seen 1931 Spanish-language Dracula complete with a newly commissioned score by two-time Oscar-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla.

The music will be played live by the LA Opera Orchestra under the direction of resident conductor Lina González-Granados. The Argentine-born Santaolalla, 73, also will play electric guitar (but not his signature ronroco).

Suitably, the screenings on Oct. 25, 26 and 27 will take place at the gothic United Theater — a 1,600-seat palace that first opened in 1927 — in downtown Los Angeles. There will be English subtitles, and the audience is invited to come in costume.

Before the advent of sound in the movies, studios could just change the language of the intertitles to get their message across to overseas audiences. But when the talkies arrived, some elected to shoot new foreign-language versions.

For the Spanish-language Dracula,...

The classic Universal Monsters have returned to life and they’re looking better than Ever before in the freshly unleashed Universal Classic Monsters Limited Edition Collection, a brand new 4K Ultra HD + Digital set that is now available… for a limited time!

Only 5,500 of these limited edition Universal Monsters 4K Ultra HD sets have been produced, and you can grab yours over on Amazon right now for $129.99 while supplies last.

From the era of silent movies through present day, Universal Pictures has been regarded as the home of the monsters and this upcoming collection showcases 8 of the most iconic monsters in motion picture history including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Exclusive to Amazon, the limited set consists of book-style packaging with rare photos, bios, trivia, and original cover art by renowned artist Tristan Eaton.

One of this year’s home video highlights for the Halloween season was supposed to be a brand new Universal Monsters Limited Edition 4K set, originally set for release Today.

Bloody Disgusting has learned this afternoon, however, that the set will no longer be releasing in time for Halloween 2023. In fact, the 4K set has been bumped all the way to 2024.

Universal explains, “Due to an unexpected packaging issue, the originally planned October 3, 2023 release of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment’s upcoming 4K collectible box set of the “Universal Classic Monsters Limited Edition Collection” is moving to February 13, 2024. We appreciate your patience and are very sorry for the inconvenience.”

From the era of silent movies through present day, Universal Pictures has been regarded as the home of the monsters and this upcoming collection showcases 8 of the most iconic monsters in motion picture history including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man,...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Universal Classic Monsters 4K Uhd Collection from Universal

The Universal Classic Monsters Collection will be released on 4K Ultra HD (with Digital) in digibook packaging designed by Tristan Eaton on October 3. Limited to 5,500, the eight-disc set is up for pre-order for $129.99.

It includes 1931’s Dracula, 1931’s Frankenstein, 1932’s The Mummy, 1933’s The Invisible Man, 1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein, 1941’s The Wolf Man, 1943’s Phantom of the Opera, and 1954’s Creature from the Black Lagoon.

All eight films are presented in 4K with HDR10. George Melford’s Spanish version of Dracula is also included, along with a plethora of archival special features: film historian commentaries, featurettes, trailers, and more.

Jason Takes Manhattan Shirt from Sadist...

(Welcome to Year of the Vampire, a series examining the greatest, strangest, and sometimes overlooked vampire movies of all time in honor of "Nosferatu," which turns 100 this year.)

Vampires may be fundamentally incapable of self-reflection (seeing as how they don't show up in mirrors and all), but that doesn't mean we can't reflect on them. And so we have, all throughout 2022. The Year of the Vampire is almost over now, and these last 11 months have been an educational, blood-spattered ride through one of film history's oldest genres.

With the first 50 articles in this series, we spotlit individual vampire movies, beginning with F.W. Murnau's original "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror" and ending with Werner Herzog's 1979 remake "Nosferatu the Vampyre." However, if you've been following along at all, you might know we've jumped around in time since January and analyzed over two dozen 20th-century vampire films.

This list adds to that with 20 more titles,...

The year 1931 might have been the scariest in cinema. Universal caused audiences to shriek with their horror classics: James Whale’s “Frankenstein” starring Boris Karloff as the monster; Tod Browning’s “Dracula” with Bela Lugosi reprising his Broadway triumph as the count who never drinks wine, as well as a Spanish language version directed by George Melford and starring Carlos Villarias.

But Universal wasn’t that only studio scaring the living daylights out of moviegoers that year. Paramount also tapped into the horror craze with Rouben Mamoulian’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” a pre-Code adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s tale of the duality of man. “I’ll show you what horror means,” growls Mr. Hyde in one particularly brutal scene. Star Fredric March won his first Oscar at the fourth annual Academy Awards on Nov. 10, 1932. He tied for Best Actor with Wallace Berry as a washed-up boxer in...

Though their “’80s Horror” lineup would constitute enough of a Halloween push, the Criterion Channel enter October all guns blazing. The month’s lineup also includes a 19-movie vampire series running from 1931’s Dracula (English and Spanish both) to 2014’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the collection in-between including Herzog’s Nosferatu, Near Dark, and Let the Right One In. Last year’s “Universal Horror” collection returns, a 17-title Ishirō Honda retrospective has been set, and a few genre titles stand alone: Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The House of the Devil, and Island of Lost Souls.

Streaming premieres include restorations of Tsai Ming-liang’s Vive L’amour and Ed Lachman’s Lou Reed / John Cale concert film Songs for Drella; October’s Criterion editions are Samuel Fuller’s Forty Guns, Bill Duke’s Deep Cover, Haxan, and My Own Private Idaho. Meanwhile, Ari Aster has curated an “Adventures...

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Eugenio Derbez will explore a lesser-known aspect of Hollywood history with his latest TV project.

The actor and producer (Apple TV+’s Acapulco, How to Be a Latin Lover) will star in and executive produce a comedy with the working title They Came at Night, which is in development at TelevisaUnivision’s streaming platform Vix+. The project is a workplace show about the cast and crew who made a Spanish-language version of Dracula in 1930 — filming at night and using the same sets and costumes as Tod Browning’s English-language version.

“I have not worked in scripted Spanish language TV comedy for well over ten years and was looking for something really special to come back,” Derbez said in a statement. “This story really jumped out at me because it tells the story of Latinos always having to accomplish more with less resources and harder conditions.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Paramount has commemorated the 100th anniversary of the landmark Rudolph Valentino film, "The Sheik"", with a newly-restored special edition Blu-ray as part of the Paramount Presents line. In viewing the film today, I was impressed how well it has held up over time. The movie packs a great deal into its modest 66-minute running time. Set in contemporary times, Valentino plays the title character, Ahmed Ben Hassan, a French-educated, highly sophisticated young man who is the benevolent ruler over his nomadic tribe. Through a rather intriguing series of events, he meets Lady Diana Mayo (Agnes Ayres), an adventurous woman who is visiting the Sahara with her brother to see the wondrous sites. When she embarks on an ill-fated multi-day tour, she is captured by Ahmed, who is obsessed with having a European lover as a trophy. Although he allows her to live in the lap of luxury-...

October’s here and it’s time to get spooked. After last year’s superb “’70s Horror” lineup, the Criterion Channel commemorates October with a couple series: “Universal Horror,” which does what it says on the tin (with special notice to the Spanish-language Dracula), and “Home Invasion,” which runs the gamut from Romero to Oshima with Polanski and Haneke in the mix. Lest we disregard the programming of Cindy Sherman’s one feature, Office Killer, and Jennifer’s Body, whose lifespan has gone from gimmick to forgotten to Criterion Channel. And if you want to stretch ideas of genre just a hair, their “True Crime” selection gets at darker shades of human nature.

It’s not all chills and thrills, mind. October also boasts a Kirk Douglas repertoire, movies by Doris Wishman and Wayne Wang, plus Manoel de Oliveira’s rarely screened Porto of My Childhood. And Edgar Wright gets the “Adventures in Moviegoing” treatment,...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

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Originally released in 1921 at the height of the nation’s appetite for motion pictures, the epic romantic drama The Sheik became a massive sensation, breaking box office records and earning over $1 million during its first year of release. 100 years later, Paramount Pictures celebrates this towering classic of the silent film era with a brand-new Blu-ray release, arriving as part of the Paramount Presents line on October 19, 2021.

Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, The Sheik was directed by George Melford and stars the legendary Rudolph Valentino as the title character. The role helped propel Valentino into stardom and sealed his status as a Hollywood heartthrob—and the original “Latin Lover”—at the age of 26.

The Sheik restoration employed modern technology so viewers can experience the original beauty of this monumental silent film. Since...

Ninety years ago, two groundbreaking horror movies were made: Lugosi’s official chiller and a covert version – which might just be its superior

They came under the shadow of darkness – quite literally. Just as Dracula star Bela Lugosi was no doubt being tucked up for the night, director George Melford, cast and crew made their way on to the Universal studio lot in 1931 to shoot a Spanish-language version of the Bram Stoker 1897 horror novel, filmed using the same sets and costumes as the much more familiar Tod Browning masterwork.

Melford’s production of Dracula was what is known as a multiple-language version – Aka Mlv – which was one method by which the recently developed sound “talkie” aimed to reach non-English speaking audiences. Initiated by the 1927 release of The Jazz Singer – which featured 15-minutes of synchronised singing and talking – producers created prints in which dialogue was replaced with music and foreign inter-titles...

Since 1989, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has been accomplishing the important task of preserving films that “represent important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking.” From films way back in 1897 all the way up to 2004, they’ve now reached 675 films that celebrate our heritage and encapsulate our film history.

Today they’ve unveiled their 2015 list, which includes classics such as Douglas Sirk‘s melodrama Imitation of Life, Hal Ashby‘s Being There, and John Frankenheimer‘s Seconds. Perhaps the most popular picks, The Shawshank Redemption, Ghostbusters, Top Gun, and L.A. Confidential were also added. Check out the full list below.

Being There (1979)

Chance, a simple-minded gardener (Peter Sellers) whose only contact with the outside world is through television, becomes the toast of the town following a series of misunderstandings. Forced outside his protected environment by the death of his wealthy boss, Chance subsumes his late employer’s persona,...

Susan Hayward. Susan Hayward movies: TCM Star of the Month Fiery redhead Susan Hayward it Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in Sept. 2015. The five-time Best Actress Oscar nominee – like Ida Lupino, a would-be Bette Davis that only sporadically landed roles to match the verve of her thespian prowess – was initially a minor Warner Bros. contract player who went on to become a Paramount second lead in the early '40s, a Universal leading lady in the late '40s, and a 20th Century Fox star in the early '50s. TCM will be presenting only three Susan Hayward premieres, all from her Fox era. Unfortunately, her Paramount and Universal work – e.g., Among the Living, Sis Hopkins, And Now Tomorrow, The Saxon Charm – which remains mostly unavailable (in quality prints), will remain unavailable this month. Highlights of the evening include: Adam Had Four Sons (1941), a sentimental but surprisingly...

Gary Cooper movies on TCM: Cooper at his best and at his weakest Gary Cooper is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, Aug. 30, '15. Unfortunately, TCM isn't showing any Cooper movie premiere – despite the fact that most of his Paramount movies of the '20s and '30s remain unavailable. This evening's features are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Sergeant York (1941), and Love in the Afternoon (1957). Mr. Deeds Goes to Town solidified Gary Cooper's stardom and helped to make Jean Arthur Columbia's top female star. The film is a tad overlong and, like every Frank Capra movie, it's also highly sentimental. What saves it from the Hell of Good Intentions is the acting of the two leads – Cooper and Arthur are both excellent – and of several supporting players. Directed by Howard Hawks, the jingoistic, pro-war Sergeant York was a huge box office hit, eventually earning Academy Award nominations in several categories,...

Adolphe Menjou movies today (This article is currently being revised.) Despite countless stories to the contrary, numerous silent film performers managed to survive the coming of sound. Adolphe Menjou, however, is a special case in that he not only remained a leading man in the early sound era, but smoothly made the transition to top supporting player in mid-decade, a position he would continue to hold for the quarter of a century. Menjou is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Day today, Aug. 3, as part of TCM's "Summer Under the Stars" 2015 series. Right now, TCM is showing William A. Wellman's A Star Is Born, the "original" version of the story about a small-town girl (Janet Gaynor) who becomes a Hollywood star, while her husband (Fredric March) boozes his way into oblivion. In typical Hollywood originality (not that things are any different elsewhere), this 1937 version of the story – produced by...

Oldest person in movies? (Photo: Manoel de Oliveira) Following the recent passing of 1931 Dracula actress Carla Laemmle at age 104, there is one less movie centenarian still around. So, in mid-June 2014, who is the oldest person in movies? Manoel de Oliveira Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira will turn 106 next December 11; he’s surely the oldest person — at least the oldest well-known person — in movies today. De Oliveira’s film credits include the autobiographical docudrama Memories and Confessions / Visita ou Memórias e Confissões (1982), with de Oliveira as himself, and reportedly to be screened publicly only after his death; The Cannibals / Os Canibais (1988); The Convent / O Convento (1995); Porto of My Childhood / Porto da Minha Infância (2001); The Fifth Empire / O Quinto Império - Ontem Como Hoje (2004); and, currently in production, O Velho do Restelo ("The Old Man of Restelo"). Among the international stars who have been directed by de Oliveira are Catherine Deneuve, Pilar López de Ayala,...

We love our vampires. There is no denying that. And whether they be the frilly shirt wearing kind or the pointy toothed Alaskan invaders, whatever form they come in, we eat them right up (pun definitely intended). In celebration of the VOD and limited theatrical release of the Hong Kong vampire flick Rigor Mortis, we bring you the Top 5 Foreign Vampire Films.

A film by Juno Mak, Rigor Mortis promises to be one insane ride of vampirism. Heavily laden with F/X and action, the film is a sort of homage to the Chinese vampire movies of the '80s.

Definitely a unique experience, Rigor Mortis looks to make its mark as a memorable foreign vampire film itself.

But back to the topic at hand. We have a couple of honorable mentions to start off with, including (and we're speculating on this first one, but we know it's going to...

Taking on a classic is a gutsy move, even for an award-winning filmmaker. And when director Kimberly Peirce signed on to re-imagine Stephen King's horror classic "Carrie," about a teenage girl with telekinetic powers hellbent on revenge, she knew she had some sky-high expectations to meet.

"I'd make a joke and say, 'I didn't give a f*ck,' but of course I felt pressure!" she told us recently while doing press for "Carrie." "But I think pressure is good."

All that pressure had Peirce thinking long and hard about what it would mean to sign on to a project of this scale, with its history and existing fan base. Having made just one film, 2008's "Stop-Loss," since her 1999 directorial debut, "Boys Don't Cry," it's clear, as a filmmaker, she doesn't make decisions lightly.

"I walked into this feeling a huge responsibility, much like I did with 'Boys Don't Cry...

Rex Harrison hat on TCM: ‘My Fair Lady,’ ‘Anna and the King of Siam’ Rex Harrison is Turner Classic Movies’ final "Summer Under the Stars" star today, August 31, 2013. TCM is currently showing George Cukor’s lavish My Fair Lady (1964), an Academy Award-winning musical that has (in my humble opinion) unfairly lost quite a bit of its prestige in the last several decades. Rex Harrison, invariably a major ham whether playing Saladin, the King of Siam, Julius Caesar, the ghost of a dead sea captain, or Richard Burton’s lover, is for once flawlessly cast as Professor Henry Higgins, who on stage transformed Julie Andrews from cockney duckling to diction-master swan and who in the movie version does the same for Audrey Hepburn. Harrison, by the way, was the year’s Best Actor Oscar winner. (See also: "Audrey Hepburn vs. Julie Andrews: Biggest Oscar Snubs.") Following My Fair Lady, Rex Harrison...

Lupita Tovar turns 103: Actress starred in Spanish-language ‘Dracula’ and in the first Mexican talkie, ‘Santa’ (photo: Lupita Tovar in ‘Santa’) Mexican actress Lupita Tovar, best remembered for the Spanish-language version of Dracula and for starring in the first Mexican talkie, Santa, turned 103 years old on Sunday, July 27, 2013. Tovar was born in 1910 in the city of Oaxaca, the capital of the Mexican state of the same name. In an interview with author Michael G. Ankerich (Mae Murray: The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips) published on Ankerich’s site Close-ups and Long Shots, Tovar recalled her brief foray as a silent film actress at Fox (several years before it became 20th Century Fox): "Silent films were wonderful because you didn’t have to worry about your dialogue. You could say whatever you felt. We had music on the set all the time. It was absolutely wonderful." Unfortunately for Tovar, whose English was quite poor,...

Gabriel Garko (photo) will play Rudolph Valentino (aka Rodolfo Valentino in places like Italy and Brazil) in a two-part Italian TV movie. To be directed by Alessio Inturri for Mediaset, the Valentino project is reportedly to be filmed this year in both Italy and the United States. Gabriel Garko, who’ll turn 38 next July 12, has worked steadily on Italian television. His feature-film appearances, however, have been sporadic. Most notable among those were supporting roles in Ferzan Ozpetek’s gay/bisexual drama Le fate ignoranti / The Ignorant Fairies (2001) and Franco Zeffirelli’s Callas Forever (2002). In terms of movie fandom, the Italian-born Rudolph Valentino was the George Clooney / Robert Pattinson / Johnny Depp / Zac Efron of the early-to-mid-’20s. One of Hollywood’s earliest superstars, Valentino’s movie career skyrocketed in 1921, after he was featured in Rex Ingram’s blockbuster The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and in George Melford’s The Sheik.

Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres in George Melford's The Sheik Long before they became Hollywood's favorite terrorists, Arabs were generally portrayed as lusty, uncouth, infantile beings in myriad Hollywood movies. Turner Classic Movies returns this month with their annual "Race & Hollywood" film series. The "race" this time around: Arabs. Frank Lloyd's long but generally entertaining 1924 epic The Sea Hawk is almost over. TCM has shown this one before a few times; long-thought lost, The Sea Hawk was restored about a decade ago. Popular leading man Milton Sills stars. Next are two silents starring movie idols of the 1920s: The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and The Sheik (1921). One of Douglas Fairbanks' biggest hits, The Thief of Bagdad was directed by Raoul Walsh; this Arabian Nights romp is probably Fairbanks' most enjoyable vehicle of that era. Quite possibly, it's Fairbanks best movie, period. Starring Rudolph Valentino, who set as many hearts aflutter as Justin Bieber,...