Best movie vampires

Vampires are taking over the universe, and nobody’s complaining. Few holiday movies boast the must-see factor of Twilight, which opens Nov. 21. And why not?

It’s based on a world-wide best-seller. Its soundtrack was No. 1 on Billboard charts at least two weeks prior to the movie’s release. And Fandango reports that teen girls can’t get advance tickets fast enough.

Sounds like a “chick flick” vampire movie that guys won’t mind seeing.

For the uninitiated, Twilight tells the tale of independent-minded high-school student Bella Swan (what a terrific name!) who doesn’t fit in with the cool kids. But romance comes in the form of handsome bloodsucker Edward who looks dashingly youthful but is centuries old. He’s actually a sensitive soul. Being vegetarian, at least by vampire standards, he doesn’t drink human blood, preferring mountain lions and grizzly bears.

Meanwhile, on home screens, HBO’s vampire saga True Blood is mesmerizing large groups of spellbound couch potatoes.

Other noteworthy movies of the undead:

Interview with the Vampire (1994). Until Twilight, this was the most hotly anticipated vampire flick. Vampire Chronicles author Anne Rice was mightily miffed when Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were cast, scoffing that they would seem like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. After viewing the film, she recanted, taking out ads in Hollywood trade papers apologizing for her judgment call. She also may have remembered that she had a share in the profits.

Queen of the Damned (2002) was another episode of the Anne Rice chronicles. Lestat is now a rock idol, played by Stuart Townsend rather than Cruise. R&B singer Aaliyah played Queen Akasha, christened “The Mother of All Vampires” in the ad campaign. A year before the film’s release, Aaliyah’s death in a plane crash at the age of 22 cast an eerie spell over the entire project.

Dracula, the most famous creature of the night, has had many cinematic reincarnations. Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) was faithful to the novel but met a mixed response. Gary Oldman, best-known to Harry Potter fans as Sirius Black, played Drac, while Anthony Hopkins, only a year after The Silence of the Lambs, appeared as his nemesis Van Helsing. In 1979’s Dracula, Frank Langella, soon to be seen as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, was the long-fanged title character, with no less than Laurence Olivier as Van Helsing. More successful was the same year’s surprise hit comedy Love at First Bite, which became George Hamilton’s lone box-office smash, helped by Richard Benjamin’s befuddled Van Helsing. Hamilton was so encouraged that he camped it up again two years later as Zorro, the Gay Blade. Moviegoers definitely preferred his Dracula.

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