20 Essential Vampire Movies Of The 2020s To Watch Right Now

Do you think you could survive being locked in a mansion with a vampire? What if that vampire was a child? If you believe that increases your odds of survival, you need to watch Abigail. With a star-studded cast featuring Alisha Weir, Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, and Giancarlo Esposito among others, the film follows a group of criminals who kidnap the 12-year-old daughter (Weir) of a powerful underground figure and take her to a secluded manor. However, what they don't realize is Abigail has the upper hand as the pint-sized vampire begins picking them off one by one in a beautiful ballet dance of gore.

There was not much good in 2020 as a whole, but we did get Osmany Rodriguez's wildly brilliant Vampires vs. the Bronx. The comedy-horror-action hybrid follows childhood friends Miguel (Jaden Michael),  Bobby (Gerald W. Jones III), and Luis (Gregory Diaz IV) who endeavor to learn everything they can about vampire hunting to stop the undead threat terrorizing their neighborhood after witnessing a vampire kill a local resident. In the process, they discover a sinister plot intended to destroy the neighborhood they love so dearly.

Based on The Captain's Log chapter of the 1987 gothic novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Last Voyage of the Demeter was released in 2023 in the US, but didn't quite complete its voyage to the UK due to the closure of eOne, the film's distributor.

Directed by The Autopsy of Jane Doe legend André Øvredal, it follows the doomed crew of the merchant ship Demeter as they travel from Transylvania to London while unknowingly carrying deadly cargo in the form of Count Dracula. It featured a similarly starry cast to Abigail, including Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, and David Dastmalchian.

Focusing on another key part – or should we say, character – of Dracula is the 2023 horror hit Renfield, a modern-day retelling of the titular aide inspired by the original novel. Starring Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult, Chris McKay's film follows the servant Renfield (Hoult) as he is forced to do Dracula's (Cage) bidding, whether it be keeping his dilapidated home in order, or sourcing prey for him to feed.

While attending a self-help group to break free of his co-dependency, he becomes entangled with the Lobo crime family after tracking down a group member's abusive lover, whom he intended to feed to Dracula. Despite his life becoming more chaotic, Renfield discovers there is a life beyond being the downtrodden servant of the bloodsucking beast.

In his directorial debut, J. J. Perry released the hit horror comedy Day Shift in 2022 with an eclectic cast featuring Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, and Snoop Dogg. If that alone hasn't convinced you to give Day Shift a try, the film tells the story of Bud Jablonski (Foxx), your average blue-collar father working as a pool cleaner.

However, all is not what it seems, as Bud's mundane job is a front for his vampire hunting, with him being forced to return to the vampire hunting union after multiple violations. Desperate to rejoin in a bid to pay off his debts, he is given one final chance under strict working conditions, including being supervised by union rep Seth (Franco).

It seems 2023 was quite the year for standout vampire films as Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person burst onto the festival circuit and our cinema screens. The oddball French-language Canadian film focuses on Sasha (Sara Montpetit), a vampire who was traumatized as a child by her parents viciously feasting on a human.

As a result, she feels uncomfortable about drinking blood and has not yet sprouted her fangs as she refuses to kill for food. She befriends suicidal teenager Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), with the pair striking up a deal that Sasha will feed on him while ending his life in the process.

Before working on the hit drama series Slow Horses, Adam Randall released the bloody vampire flick Night Teeth in 2021 starring Sydney Sweeney, Megan Fox, Alfie Allen, Lucy Fry, and Debby Allen. Night Teeth is set in a world where humans and vampires have peacefully coexisted for years, as college student Benny (Jorge Lendeborg Jr) takes the place of his chauffeur brother Jay (Raul Castillo) to pick up Blaire (Ryan) and Zoe (Fry).

What Benny doesn't know is that the girls are both vampires and have been tasked to create chaos across the city to distract humans while a larger plan is set in motion.

Erik Bloomquist is arguably best known to genre fans as the director of Founders Day or She Came From The Woods, but before both of these films, he released vampire comedy horror Ten Minutes To Midnight. After being bitten by a rabid bat, beloved no-nonsense midnight radio host Amy Marlowe (Caroline Williams) finds herself spiraling out of control in more ways than one as she grapples with being shadowed by a new young intern, and otherworldly body changes that signal something ghoulish is at work.

At what point does an immortal being lose the will to live? That's something the 2023 Chilean black comedy El Conde explores in exquisitely hilarious detail as a warped retelling of real history. After living for 250 years, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell) has grown tired of life after living through various historical events and the woes that come with them.

At the same time, his butler, Fyodor (Alfredo Castro), goes on a killing spree while wearing Augusto's military uniform, bringing shame to the Pinochet family and prompting his loved ones to hire nun Carmen (Paula Luchsinger) to exorcise and kill Augusto.

Bleeding stunned audiences on the festival circuit this year, including Manchester's Grimmfest, with its unique take on vampiric lore and the horror of addiction. Andrew Bell's latest offering is set in a world where the existence of vampires is known to humans, and their blood is harvested and consumed like a drug, causing an epidemic in the small town in which it is set.

Bleeding follows cousins Sean (Jasper Jones) and Eric (John R. Howley) both battling drug addictions and tumultuous home lives. Sean takes it one step further as he turns to Blood, a drug made using vampire blood that can turn a user into a vampire if taken too much. After Sean's father discovers he has Blood in his home, he throws the duo out and destroys the stash of drugs, forcing them to go on the run from a dangerous drug dealer.

Adrien Beau's The Vourdalak is the second feature debut gracing this list, a 2023 drama-horror film based on Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's 1839 novella The Family of the Vourdalak. The devilishly funny film follows French Marquis Jacques Saturnin du Antoine (Kacey Mottet Klein) who travels to the house of a man named Gorcha (Adrien Beau) after being robbed.

He arrives at the home to find Gorcha not there, learning he has left to fight the Turks while instructing his family to not let him in should he return, for he would have become a vourdalak, a form of vampire rooted in Slavic mythology.

Ireland has released a growing number of stellar horror films, including Conor McMahon's 2021 horror comedy Let The Wrong One In. Supermarket worker Matt (Karl Rice) will do whatever it takes to keep the peace at home between his overbearing Ma (Hilda Fray), and his recovering addict brother Decco (Eoin Duffy).

After Decco returns home looking worse for wear and supporting some suspect bite marks, he begins to show all the signs of vampirism, leaving Matt to decide whether he can help his troubled sibling this time.

After releasing her feature debut The Light of the Moon, Jessica M. Thompson tried her hand at a vampire film and unleashed The Invitation upon the world in 2022. Inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula, it tells the story of Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) who takes a DNA test following her mother's death.

After discovering her distant cousin Oliver (Hugh Skinner) through the test, she travels to the English countryside to attend a wedding and get to know her new relatives who harbor twisted secrets behind closed doors.

Struggling to find a Christmas film with added bite? Look no further than Sean Nichols Lynch's 2021 hit Red Snow. Vampire romance novelist Olivia (Dennice Cisneros) spends her Christmas alone at her deceased mother's cabin in Lake Tahoe when a bat slams against her window. She takes the injured animal in but is shocked to find the next morning the bat has transformed into a dashing vampire named Luke (Nico Bellamy).

Soon, she finds herself under siege from vampires hunting Luke down, as they believe he has strayed from his vicious nature.

Forget Snakes on a Plane – Peter Thorwarth's 2021 film Blood Red Sky has something far scarier to think about during your next flight. The film begins with Nadja (Peri Baumeister) and her son Elias (Carl Koch) boarding a plane to New York.

Once in the air, a group of men murder the sky marshals and take control of the aircraft. Nadja tries to escape, causing one of the men to shoot her dead, but there is more to her than first meets the eye as the incident unleashes her true vampiric form on the hijackers.

After remaking the Halloween films, horror maestro Rob Zombie tried his hand at revamping 1960s family comedy The Munsters in 2022. Starring Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Daniel Roebuck, and Cassandra Peterson among others, the film follows Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie) a lovelorn vampire who falls head-over-heels in love with bumbling seven-foot science experiment Herman (Phillips).

But the course of true love never did run smoothly as the couple must contend with Lily's father, The Count (Roebuck), who doesn't approve of Lily's new beau after Herman falls for one of Lily's brother Lester's (Tomas Boykin) evil schemes.

Based on the novel of the same name by Victor Pelevin, Empire V was released in 2023 and directed by Generation P's Victor Ginzburg. The elite across the world are often described as ‘bloodsuckers,' but Empire V takes this notion quite literally as it follows Roman (Pavel Tabakov), an aspiring journalist who receives an invitation to join Russia's ‘elite‘ society.

However, he soon discovers upon joining he has been transformed into a vampire and must undertake classes to learn how a secret society of vampires has ruled Russia for generations. But after befriending fellow vampire Hera (Taisiya Radchenko), he discovers his history lessons haven't been all that accurate.

First screening at Fantasia Festival in 2023, Transylvanie is perfect for fans of Let The Right One In looking for a bite-sized version of the iconic vampire film. Directed by Rodrigue Huart, Transylvanie follows 10-year-old Ewa (Katell Varvat) who is convinced she is a vampire. As she gets bullied by a group of teenagers who find out about her beliefs, she becomes determined to prove her identity in the bloodiest way possible.

In 2021, Andrew Baird made his feature debut with Guy Pearce-starring thriller Zone 414. Three years later, the director released his eagerly-anticipated vampire horror film Sunrise, with Pearce working alongside him again.

The film centers on Yan Loi (Crystal Yu) and her children Edward (William Gao) and Emily (Riley Chung). When an injured drifter named Fallon (Alex Pettyfer) arrives on their doorstep, Yan Loi decides to take him in and extend the hospitality her family has not received since moving to the US. But the family soon starts to suspect he might be a sacred forest demon known as a Red Coat.

What do vampires and drag queens have in common? They both slay – especially in this 2024 comedy horror film. Directed by Jem Garrard, Slay features some famous faces you may recognize from RuPaul's Drag Race including Trinity the Tuck, Heidi N Closet, Crystal Methyd, and Cara Melle fighting vampires instead of runway challenges.

Slay follows Mama Sue Flay (Tuck), the head of a small drag family that includes Robin Banks (Closet), Olive Wood (Melle), and Bella Da Boys (Methyd). As they travel across the country playing small-time shows, they stumble across a seedy dive bar where they take an impromptu show.

During the second number, a man enters the bar and takes a chunk out of a patron's neck, sparking a full-blown fight for survival as the drag queens must test their mettle against a bar full of vampires.