We’re at the tail end of the holiday season: a time to reflect on the year that was, catch up with loved ones, and, for many households, sneak away to the nearest multiplex. And what says “fun for the whole family” like going to see the R-rated remake of a 1922 silent film about a vampire? Directed by Robert Eggers—a man apparently incapable of making a movie set in the present-day—Nosferatu has become cinema’s proverbial lump of coal on Christmas Day: a horror film in which the menacing Court Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) wreaks havoc on a German town, bringing the plague along with him. For most folks, Nosferatu might be the last thing they’d want to experience during the holiday season; for myself and Megan Schuster, well, we look forward to seeing our fellow sickos at the movies.
Of course, we weren’t content just watching Nosferatu. Megan and I have spent years ranking things at The Ringer, and we’re ready to tackle one of our greatest challenges yet: What’s the greatest vampire in pop culture? Before we get to the ranking, let’s go over the criteria: We’ve capped the list at 30 for our own sanity, which unfortunately means a few vampires were left on the cutting room floor. (As well as Jason Segel’s puppet Dracula rock opera from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which I would absolutely pay to see.) We also chose to limit each franchise to a maximum of two entries—however, one entry may include a vampire couple—so that our ranking wouldn’t be dominated by, say, every character from What We Do in the Shadows. Lastly, if anyone has a problem with the ranking, just remember: List-making is arbitrary, and there are so many great vampires to choose from, and also Morbius.
Without further ado, let’s sink our teeth into these rankings. —Miles Surrey
More Pop Culture Rankings
30. Morbius, Morbius
Surrey: With Kraven the Hunter bombing at the box office, Sony is apparently ready to close up shop on its Spider-Man cinematic universe. Between Kraven and Madame Web coming out this year—both terrible, both borderline unwatchable—there are plenty of reasons these movies had to die. But let’s not forget that Morbius put a stake through Sony first. Starring America’s most annoying Method actor, Jared Leto, as the titular vampire, Morbius is the kind of movie they should play on a loop for prisoners at CIA blacksites to extract information from them. (Do you realize how hard it is to make a movie about a vampire antihero boring?) True story: When I interviewed someone a couple years ago for a piece, they mentioned they loved how I trashed Morbius in my review—and they worked for Marvel. That’s the level of disrespect Morbius gets, and it’s why he was a no-brainer to fall dead last on our ranking.
29. Vampire Bats
Megan Schuster: I must confess that my ranking here was heavily influenced by the fear I had of vampire bats as a kid. (Thank you, elementary school, for deciding it was necessary to teach children about a terrifyingly named species that is primarily only found in Central and South America and not, ya know, suburban Minnesota.) As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize that said fear is largely irrational—vampire bats aren’t swooping down from random eaves to attack unsuspecting humans. But bats can still carry rabies, and they are sneaky little fuckers who can find tiny passageways into your home and wake you up by flying overhead in the middle of the night (why yes, I do have personal experience with this). So I think their spot here is justified.
28. Edward Dalton, Daybreakers
Surrey: When you were a teenager, did you ever watch something and assume everyone was as obsessed with it as you were? That was the relationship I had with Daybreakers. I watched the Daybreakers trailer, which featured a cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” approximately 400 times. As the vampire Edward Dalton, a hematologist working on a blood substitute to combat the dwindling population of humans in this future dystopia, I believed this was Ethan Hawke’s breakout role. (Dead Poets Society? I don’t know her.) I was there to support Daybreakers on opening weekend, and was convinced I just experienced the pinnacle of cinema.
Anyway, I rewatched Daybreakers last year. It’s … fine.
27. Stefan and Damon Salvatore, The Vampire Diaries
Schuster: I’d like to give a shout-out to Miles and myself here for not letting pretty privilege influence these rankings. These two are so hot—like, very hot—and yet, in the world of fictional vampires, they offer very little below the surface. The Salvatore brothers were main characters in the CW drama The Vampire Diaries, a silly supernatural show that premiered in the wake of Twilight and captured the collective imaginations of a generation of teenage girls. Stefan was the sensitive vampire brother who wanted to be good and not kill people (swoon), and Damon was the bad boy who everyone thought they could change (double swoon). After a couple of seasons, though, that dynamic got really stale—so much so that the show switched things up and sent Stefan off a bloodlust deep end and forced Damon into the “good guy” role.
In that way, the show was an extremely CW production—in the vein (pun intended) of One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl—and these brothers were the perfect CW eye candy.
Surrey: The Salvatore brothers look like what you’d get if you asked AI to come up with a composite of every CW heartthrob—not an insult, by the way. I appreciate beauty in all its forms.
26. Vampires From 30 Days of Night
Surrey: If we were ranking vamps on scariness alone, 30 Days of Night would be a serious heavyweight. Based on the comic book series of the same name, the film takes place in an Alaska town that, during a month-long polar night, is attacked by a vampire horde. Even by vampire standards, these creatures are absolutely savage: They have razor-sharp nails, super strength and speed, cold black eyes, banshee-like shrieks, and an animalistic language with click consonants. The vampires are led by the actor Danny Huston, who, and I mean this as a compliment, gives off sinister vibes. The way he taunted this poor woman begging to God has stayed with me all these years.
On a totally unrelated note, I’ll be sleeping with a sun lamp on for the rest of the month.
Schuster: As someone who is currently experiencing winter in the northern reaches of the United States: I stand with you and all sun lamp users.
25. Blacula, Blacula
Schuster: Released in 1972, Blacula was something of a curious success. It received mixed reviews—Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote, “Anybody who goes to a vampire movie expecting sense is in serious trouble, and Blacula offers less sense than most,” while famous movie reviewer Gene Siskel gave it three out of four stars. It eventually earned nearly $2 million at the box office—a solid chunk of change for movies in the early ’70s. And it helped spawn a subgenre of blaxploitation film known as blaxploitation horror, in which famous horror stories are recreated with primarily black casts.
Its premise … is about what you’d expect from a film titled Blacula: An African prince travels to Transylvania to meet with Dracula; the two get into a fight; the prince is bitten and becomes a vampire. But outside of the campiness, there is a larger message at play: The prince originally goes to Dracula to try and secure the vampire’s help to end the slave trade.
Blacula is never going to be the most well-regarded horror film of its age, but it has meant a good deal to audiences across the decades, and the film industry at large.
24. Hollywood Vampires
Schuster: Why yes, we are here to talk about the band—with members Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, and Joe Perry—named after a 1970s Hollywood drinking club: one that also featured Cooper, alongside Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, and others. Honestly, what happened to celebrity culture? Why do we no longer have drinking clubs famous enough that other celebrities want to name their bands after them? We used to be a country.
23. Count Duckula, Count Duckula
Schuster: Count Duckula was a British children’s show about, you guessed it, a race of vampire ducks. It deals with some … pretty adult themes for a kid’s show! Like how you have to stake said vampire ducks through the heart to get them to die (or expose them to sunlight). They can also be reincarnated using a bloody, seemingly satanic ritual. And, I repeat, this was a kid’s show! As ever, the Brits really know how to do TV.
Surrey: Very important follow-up … after staking these guys, could you use them for Peking duck?
22. Count Chocula
Surrey: A veteran of the breakfast game, Count Chocula was actually the first chocolate-based cereal on the market when General Mills released it as part of the company’s Monster Cereals line in 1971. Since then, the Count’s done a bit of everything: Monster-themed records were included for a limited time in Monster Cereal boxes, he had a DC Comics–inspired makeover, he’s got an action figure, he’s been parodied on Saturday Night Live. But just as cereal consumption is in decline across the country—not exactly a national emergency, but an interesting trend nonetheless—Count Chocula has seen better days. As of 2009, our guy is no longer available year-round; he’s a seasonal treat in the fall months. How the mighty cereals have fallen. Pour one out for the Count—by which I mean a glass of chocolate milk.
21. Eric Northman, True Blood
Schuster: We need more Scandinavian actors to play vampires. Or maybe we just need Alexander Skarsgard to do it again. Rather than reveal too much about my inner psyche and how large Skarsgard looms in it, I’ll just leave you with this True Blood fan edit of Eric Northman, set to Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy.”
Surrey: We just need the Skarsgards.
20. Eve, Only Lovers Left Alive
Surrey: I’m not convinced that Tilda Swinton is of this earth, something that journalists have been questioning since the ’80s. But whether she’s a human with an otherworldly aura, or an alien who, upon being sent to this planet to observe us, decided to become one of our greatest living actors, Swinton has this uncanny ability to shapeshift into anything: an insidious corporate lawyer, a coven leader, whatever the hell you want to call her characters in Bong Joon-ho’s films. All of which is to say, of course Swinton’s played a centuries-old vampire, and of course she nailed the assignment.
19. Barnabas Collins, Dark Shadows
Schuster: Raise your hand if you first heard about Barnabas Collins from the episode of Gilmore Girls where a heavily pregnant Sookie stalks the Dragonfly Inn after hours to watch Dark Shadows reruns in peace. Just me?
Dark Shadows was a soap opera that aired on ABC from the late 1960s to the early ’70s, and the introduction of Barnabas is largely credited with saving the show from dismal ratings. The vampire was an instant hit—both with audiences and with the various ladies of the series. He had at least six love interests over the show’s run (including a doctor and his original fiancée from the 1700s), and his arc went long beyond the 13 weeks he was originally slated to be cast.
Honestly, the idea of a vampire in a soap opera feels incredibly ahead of its time and I’m surprised there hasn’t been a central one on, like, General Hospital or Days of Our Lives.
18. Eli, Let the Right One In
Surrey: Vampires don’t age, which is creepy enough as it is, but it’s even more unsettling when one gets turned when they’re a child. In the Swedish horror film Let the Right One In—as well as its American remake, Let Me In—a young boy befriends the new girl next door, Eli (Lina Leandersson), who’s more than meets the eye. On the one hand, a vampire that presents as a child befriending an actual child is … high-key predatory. On the other hand, Eli offers elite protection from sadistic bullies. That’s a solid trade-off.
Schuster: Not to give too much away about a character that’s higher up on this list, but this has big Renesmee energy and I hate it.
17. “Vampire,” Olivia Rodrigo
Schuster: “Vampire” did a lot of things for Olivia Rodrigo. As the lead single on her second album Guts, it proved that she was more than a one-album wonder; the melody and lyrics solidified her as the punkiest of the present-day pop princesses; and the refrain, which features lines like “bloodsucker, fame fucker / bleeding me dry like a goddamn vampire” showed she could still pack one hell of a punch when she wanted to. Rodrigo also used her “Vampire” music video to draw parallels between the ex the song is about and the draining nature of the entertainment industry, which she was thrust into originally as a young Disney Channel star, and then again with even more force at 18 when her first album Sour was released.
Sidenote: If you’ve ever doubted Rodrigo’s musical chops, watch her epic Track Star performance—one of the all-time greats!
16. David, The Lost Boys
Surrey: Just as Edward Cullen was the vampire heartthrob of the aughts, David (Kiefer Sutherland) from The Lost Boys set the bad boy benchmark in the ’80s. Styled after Billy Idol, David compels teenager Michael (Jason Patric) to join his biker brood with a mix of fraternal (homoerotic?) love and punkish menace. Few vampires are so synonymous with the culture of the time, and David would become a major influence on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (more on that later). In the meantime, let’s just admire the fact that a mullet has never looked cooler:
15. Kurt Barlow, Salem’s Lot
Schuster: Kurt Barlow is a terrifying character who comes to America with one mission: to form a vampire colony. He decides to do so in a town in Maine, and, well, let’s just say he’s pretty successful.
Honestly though, even with his evil intentions and his successful corruption of almost an entire town, the most terrifying part of Barlow is his appearance. Blue skin; glowing yellow eyes; ultra-long, scraggly fangs. I won’t ruin your sleep by putting his image in here directly, but feel free to click on this link for a jump scare.
Surrey: Petyr, is that you?!
14. Santanico Pandemonium, From Dusk Till Dawn
Surrey: When bank-robbing brothers Seth and Richie Gecko (George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino, somehow related) arrive at the Titty Twister strip club in From Dusk Till Dawn, they are captivated by the sight of a dancer with a python around her body. But while the incredibly named Santanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek) is holding a snake, this vampire reminds me of another predator from the animal kingdom: a cuttlefish. Bear with me: cuttlefish actually hypnotize their prey by changing colors. (If Megan and I ever do a fish ranking, I’m going to bat for cuttlefish, the underrated badasses of our majestic oceans.) Anyway, Santanico’s strip tease lulls the Titty Twister’s patrons before the start of a vampire feeding frenzy. As it turns out, looks can kill.
Schuster: … How have we not already done a fish ranking? Ringer editors: Please consider this our formal pitch.
13. Jerry Dandridge, Fright Night (1985)
Surrey: Sticking with the art of seduction, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a vampire lure their prey as persuasively as Fright Night’s Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon). After teenager Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) suspects that his new neighbor is a vampire and brings unnecessary attention his way, Jerry goes after Charley and his girlfriend, Amy Peterson (Amanda Bearse). After tracking the teens down to a local disco, Jerry sets his seductive gaze on Amy, who immediately falls under his spell. Before Charley can even turn around, Amy is busting out moves on the dance floor with Jerry—the signature moment coming when Amy looks into a mirror and only sees herself moving through the sea of dancers. There’s no two ways about it: Jerry’s got sauce.
Megan, I can’t fault Amy for this one. I was ready to offer Jerry my body and soul from the living room couch.
Schuster: Maybe this was what the people in that Footloose town were worried about!
12. Edward Cullen, Twilight
Schuster: Hold on tight, spider monkeys: This is a big one.
Twilight was a sensation when it came out in 2005, drawing in generations of PG-romantasy lovers and kicking off hordes of movies, other vampire romance novels, and even a separate billion-dollar franchise in the fanfic series Fifty Shades of Grey. And at the Twilight saga’s center was Edward, the “vegetarian” vampire who so loved a human that he reluctantly brought her into his world, impregnated her with a human-vampire hybrid child, and then eventually turned her into a vampire, even though his consistent refrain in the first three books was that he would never do that.
Now, here is where I admit that I tore through the Twilight books as a tween and was 100 percent Team Edward in the Edward vs. Jacob wars. But I hated the movies, and as great of an actor as Robert Pattinson is, he almost ruined the character for me. I mean, what is this shit:
11. Selene, the Underworld Franchise
Surrey: What is The Matrix’s defining legacy in pop culture? If you ask me, it’s inspiring an aughts franchise of vampires that look really fucking cool in leather jumpsuits. In Underworld, our protagonist Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is a Death Dealer, which is a fancy way of saying she’s a vampire assassin who hunts down Lycans, which is a fancy way of saying werewolves. (Selene also falls in love with a human, which I choose to believe gave Stephenie Meyer some ideas for Twilight.) The Underworld series is so fun and schlocky that I’m shocked my beloved B-movie auteur Paul W.S. Anderson never directed one of them. As for Selene, well, she can [5,000 words of surprisingly detailed Underworld erotica has been redacted by HR]. And I would thank her for it.
10. Colin Robinson, What We Do in the Shadows
Schuster: Colin Robinson made the top 10 of this list largely due to his originality. He’s not a vampire in the classic, blood-drinking sense, rather he’s an energy vampire—someone capable of being so awful and boring that he sucks all the joie de vivre out of a person. He does this in a variety of ways: by inflicting never-ending small talk on his coworkers, attending city council meetings, and even weaponizing the always-terrible “updog” joke. But my personal favorite is when he decides to use the internet to ruin people’s lives.
“When they call you a dumbass, you know you’ve got them.”
9. Count von Count, Sesame Street
Schuster: The Count loves to count. Plain and simple. He announces that every time he shows up in Sesame Street (“Greetings! I am the Count. They call me the Count because I love to count things.”). He counts to the point of annoying other characters (he’s said to have arithmomania, which—for some reason—is a condition often associated with vampires). And he has a cloud that follows him around overhead and sends out thunder and lightning when he’s finished counting something.
The Count may not be one of the most beloved Sesame Street characters—he’s not cuddly like Elmo, or derpy like Bert and Ernie, or the king of the block like Big Bird—but he serves an essential purpose on the children’s show, and unlike various math classes I’ve been forced to take in my educational career, I never wanted to ask “when will we actually use this in real life” during one of his counting sessions.
8. Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Surrey: It was only a matter of time before we brought up Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a foundational series from my adolescence. And when mulling over which of the many vamps to highlight from the show, we had to go with the heartthrob who received his own spinoff. Introduced in the pilot, the mysterious Angel (David Boreanaz) emerges as a brooding love interest for our heroine, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Over time, we learn that Angel was a historically ruthless vampire until he was cursed and had his soul returned to his body, whereby he lived in guilt over the atrocities he committed. A wounded, reformed bad boy with model good looks? We can’t blame you for catching feelings, Buffy.
Alas, Buffy and Angel’s relationship was always destined to be tragic: On the night they have sex for the first time, Angel experiences true happiness, which then lifts his curse, removes his soul, and returns him to evil. (A nice guy turning into a monster after sex? Buffy truly spoke the language of teens.) Angel eventually redeemed himself—after spending time trapped in a hell dimension, long story—and started his own paranormal detective agency(!) in Los Angeles. All in all, Angel contained multitudes, but when it comes to vampiric sex appeal, our guy was a generational prospect.
7. Vampire Weekend
Schuster: We love a band that’s named after an unreleased indie film and makes numerous references to said unreleased indie film on their debut album. Vampire Weekend is that classic “we formed while we were in undergrad at Columbia” band, but unlike so many college bands who came before them, they’ve actually been incredibly successful. Their 2008 album Vampire Weekend was, for a time, listed at no. 24 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 best debut albums of all time. Their second album, Contra, debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard 200. And after the release of their album Only God Was Above Us earlier this year, they’ve been said by many to have passed the “five-albums test.” Not an easy thing to do!
Not to mention the virtuoso Ezra Koenig—who acts as lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter for Vampire Weekend—earned a writing credit on Beyoncé’s song “Hold Up” because of a tweet. Your fave singer could never.
Surrey: I gotta mention that there’s also a ridiculous amount of overlap between “Vampire Weekend fans” and “people I’ve dated.” My relationship to this band is so confusing. I almost abstained from ranking.
6. Nadja and Laszlo, What We Do in the Shadows
Surrey: The greatest vampire couple on television, What We Do in the Shadows duo of Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Laszlo (Matt Berry), have spent centuries together. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing—Nadja’s had affairs with a reincarnated knight who keeps getting decapitated; Laszlo once went 200 years without performing cunnilingus—but their love has endured through thick and thin. I’m not sure there are any lessons for us mortals to glean from Nadja and Laszlo's undying love for one another—all I know is that Laszlo has mastered the art of pronunciation.
They really are the most aspirational couple in Neeeeew Yawrk Citay.
Schuster: I would be remiss here if I didn’t shout out Jackie Daytona, Regular Human Bartender.
5. Count Orlok, Nosferatu
Schuster: I don’t want to give too much away here, because the character of Count Orlok stems from another famous vampire we’ve placed higher up on this list—even if Orlok did manage to beat out said character in the race to the big screen.
But Orlok is nearly as old as said other character (more on that later), having first appeared in a silent film in 1922. And he’s nearly as famous—having been played by the likes of Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire and Bill Skarsgard in the recently released Nosferatu, and featuring in a variety of other cultural entities such as a Doctor Who spinoff series, the video game Red Dead Redemption 2, and yes, even SpongeBob SquarePants. Once you’ve hit the Nickelodeon circuit of cultural relevance, you know you’ve really made it. Congrats to Count Orlok.
More on ‘Nosferatu’
4. Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Surrey: My personal number one pick, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Spike (James Marsters) took a circuitous route to becoming a fan favorite on the series. Made in the image of The Lost Boys’ David, Spike is introduced in Buffy’s second season as a Big Bad—alongside the vampire who sired him, Drusilla (Juliet Landau)—who’s already killed two Slayers and wanted to add Buffy to his tally. Initially, Spike seemed destined to be a one-season wonder, but then he just … stuck around. The show kept finding new ways to incorporate Spike, even if it meant his role continued to evolve. “I was the villain, and then I was the wacky neighbor, and then I was the wrong boyfriend, and then I was the fallen man trying to redeem himself,” Marsters said in an interview with Radio Times. All the while, Spike was an asshole, but he was our asshole.
Really, the greatest endorsement I can give to the character is that, no matter how many hats he wore on Buffy, the first thought that popped into my mind when starting a new episode was always, What’s Spike up to?
3. Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt, Interview With the Vampire
Surrey: Whether you’re thinking of Anne Rice’s novels, the ’90s movie adaptation, or the AMC series, Interview With the Vampire is some top-tier vampire content. And the relationship between the vampires Louis de Pointe du Lac (mopey) and Lestat de Lioncourt (pompous) evokes how love isn’t always sunshine and roses: It can be fiery, messy, and destructive. I wouldn’t say I’m rooting for these two, but I can’t stop watching them, either. Lestat as a rock star in the third season of Interview With the Vampire? He’s gonna slay, obviously.
2. Blade, Blade
Surrey: It’s Blade, need I say more?
OK, for the folks who have somehow deprived themselves of Wesley Snipes’s gift to cinema, a quick rundown: Blade is what’s known as a “daywalker,” a half-human, half-vampire who can survive in sunlight. The reason Blade became a daywalker is because his (human) mother was bitten by a vampire while she was pregnant, and now he hunts them down as retribution. He rocked a leather trenchcoat before The Matrix made it mainstream. He kills vamps with swords (sick) and a gun that shoots stakes (fuck yeah). Blade is the coolest person—or vampire—to ever grace this Earth. He’s someone who can say something as ridiculous as “some motherfuckers are always trying to ice-skate uphill” before killing Stephen Dorff and you just nod along thinking, So true, king.
Since Snipes reprised his role in Deadpool & Wolverine, he also holds the Guinness World Record for the longest career as a live-action Marvel character. It’s nothing less than this icon deserves. No wonder the Marvel Cinematic Universe is having so much trouble figuring out a new Blade movie; Mahershala Ali has big (impossible?) shoes to fill. Maybe some characters were never meant to be rebooted—and maybe some motherfuckers should never try to ice-skate uphill.
1. Dracula
Schuster: When you think “vampire,” you think Dracula. The words are basically synonymous. No other bloodsucker would be appropriate to have at no. 1—and because there have been so many portrayals of Dracula over the years, we’re celebrating them all on this list.
There’s Bram Stoker’s version from the 1800s (and Gary Oldman’s 1992 version of Bram Stoker’s version). There’s Bela Lugosi’s take from the early 1930s—a portrayal so famous and long-lasting that Lugosi was buried in a Dracula costume upon his death in 1956. There’s Christopher Lee, who brought eroticism and romanticism to the role; Frank Langella as a tortured, tender Dracula; Mel Brooks’s comedic take from the ’90s; the cartoon adaptation in 2012’s Hotel Transylvania; Grandpa Munster as a charming, at times harebrained edition; and truly so many more.
This list wouldn’t exist without Dracula, or the countless actors who’ve made the character matter for over a century. Congratulations to your favorite vampire’s favorite vampire!
