The underrated vampire movies from around the world

F.W. Murnau’s silent classic NosferatuSince the early 1900s, bloodsuckers have been an integral part of cinematic horror. Timelessly versatile in themes, style, and scares, vampire cinema has given film some of its most iconic villains, lushest productions, and entertaining thrills: Universal’s caped count, Blade’s badass daywalker, Twilight’s supernatural romance, and From Dusk to Dawn’s gonzo genre blending, among countless more. There are countless vampire stories that deserve to be read, but they remain unknown.

There are many lesser-known, hidden vampire gems that originate from countries outside of America. Fangs and red spouts are everywhere.

Blood Red Sky (2021)

Image: Netflix

What to Watch: Netflix

German Action-Horror Film Blood Red SkyThis film has a plot that would have made a SyFy classic look silly: The 30 Days of Night-esque primal bloodsucker predator goes Passenger 57 on hijackers. Yet director Peter Thorwarth elevates that “Vampire McClane’’ conceit with slick direction and a relentless spiral of fanged carnage. The execution is sometimes muddled by an excessive pace, and there are flashbacks that occasionally muddy the film. Blood Red SkyThe film’s cleverly violent power dynamics and claustrophobic stakes are constantly evolving to maximize the plane setting. Peri Baumeister’s sympathetic yet savage performance, which juggles both mother and beast with great skill, grounds these high-altitude adrenaline thrills.

Chimères (2013)

Chaoticlock Films

What to Watch: Tubi available on Amazon Vudu YouTube

The low-budget French and Swiss co-production, a romantic drama at its heart, follows the love story between Alex (Yannick Roset) with Livia (Jasna Koutova), whose relationship takes an unexpected turn when Alex gets hit by a vehicle and is given a fateful transfusion of blond hair. ChimèresThe slow-burn vampire is grounded in the natural chemistry and strong performances of Rosset & Kohoutova. Their love was tested as their unnatural desire for blood led to increasingly grim tests. An overuse of mirror-vision jump scares and a gradual realization of the vampire transformation threaten to diminish that effective core, yet director Olivier Beguin carries the film through dark turns that never betray the characters’ bond. The film’s first act is a simmering one that leads to an explosion of gory and impressive consequences, followed by an enjoyable final act. Chimères’ moody horror drama into an entirely different genre.

From the Darkness (2014)

Photo: Dark Sky Films

What to Watch: Rent Tubi and Peacock on Amazon, iTunes Vudu and YouTube

Conor McMahon’s low-budget Irish chiller thrives on simplicity. A couple, Sarah (Niamh Algar) and Mark (Stephen Cromwell), finds their playful banter cut short when they’re stranded on the roads around an isolated peat farm, only to soon become hunted by a creature of the night. What The DarkIts cat-and–mouse pace compensates for its lack of nuance or depth. As all illumination sources are used for the set-pieces of dimming light, the story is full of suspense. Matches to phone screens and fridge lights. McMahon uses his vampire’s NosferatuA pre-war silhouette with gnarled body design creates an unsettling effect.Censor Algar emerges as a tenacious and resourceful protagonist whose survival we can’t help but root for.

The Lake Vampire (2019)

Image: Uncork’d Entertainment

What to Watch: Tube; available for rental on Amazon, iTunes Vudu, YouTube

Carl Zitelmann’s deliberately paced and unnerving 2018 film is a decades-spanning Venezuelan mystery thriller in the vein of Zodiac, SevenIf you want to know more about. The Silence… only these investigators gradually realize their quarry might be an immortal bloodsucker. The Lake VampireA retired detective interviews an investigative novelist, and the story unfolds through nesting flashbacks. It is this episodic style that gives the film its structure. The occult and the human element fuel this grisly investigation procedural. This allows the relationship between the killer and the lawman to take a twist that goes beyond the traditional slayer versus evil dynamic. It’s a direction that wouldn’t work without the wonderfully sinister performance from Eduardo Gulino, whose portrayal of the film’s killer acts as an ode to cinematic vampires from Lugosi’s Gothic elegance to Lee’s verminous malice to the haggard immortals ofNear Dark. Despite an ending that may underwhelm with its abrupt choices, Zitelmann’s gruesomely unromanticized approach to vampire tropes and cliches lingers as a testament to this horror thriller’s disturbing edge.

Limbo (2014)

Image: Artsploitation Films

What to Watch: Rent Tubi on iTunes for free with Kanopy and a Kanopy library card

Also known as Children of the NightArgentinian horror tale Limbo blends NeverlandThere are many elements that make up You’ve Got the Right One in ThereImmerse us into the rituals of a young vampire colony, through the curious eyes of an investigative journalist. Director Iván Noel weaves a surreal, playful, and dense narrative whose slight means and run time ambitiously explore a network of vampire sanctuaries and its matriarch, immortality locked at a young age, a vampire hunter feud, and Bram Stoker’s legacy, among other threads. Limbo’s micro budget doesn’t prevent Noel from delivering intriguing and unnerving moments throughout: giggling children sucking sheep dry, a blood spigot, whimsical ambushes upon ruthless vampire hunters. The pulpy and campy tone is fully realised during Limbo’s ravenous bloodspattered finale; any movie with an intestine jump-rope clearly knows how to have fun with its premise.

Night of the Devils (1972)

Raro Video USA

What to Watch: Rent on Amazon for free with your library card

Mario Bava, the Italian horror legend of 1963, adapted the tale of the vampire wurdulak to his anthology. Black Sabbath. The influence of the little film “Nine Years” Night of the Living Dead separate Giorgio Ferroni’s version from Bava’s ’60s Gothic folktale version. Night of the DevilsThis is an unmistakably 1970s vampire horror tale. The surrealistic opening, with its splatter and bloody scenes, leads to a flashback in a mental hospital. This is already a sign that this film will be filled with nihilistic mania. A rural mystery slowly unfolds as a stranger from the city is forced to stay with a strange village family who insists he bolt all the windows, lock the doors, and stay in the house. A spooky atmosphere is created by the fear of their father becoming a cursed dead creature and returning to turn everyone. Finale of cackling Revenants, grim gore effects and grim late film twists. Night of the DevilsAs Italian horror, but for a gritty and visceral decade.

Thirst (2019).

Image: Uncork’d Entertainment/Everett Collection

What to Watch: Tube; available for rental on Amazon, iTunes Vudu, YouTube

While it may share a title with Park Chan-wook’s lush erotic vampire thriller, Gaukur Úlfarsson and Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson’s Thirst couldn’t be more tonally or stylistically different. For one, this Icelandic horror-comedy splatterfest might have set a record for most torn-off, uh, members flopping on screen; it’s that kind of romp, following the gory collision between a drug addict in a bind, a millennium-old gay vampire, and a DIY doomsday cult. This delightful adventure is awash with dry humor and practical gore, including limbs and heads being ripped off, as well as buckets of aerial aerosol spray.