19 MARTIN
JOHN AMPLAS
MARTIN (1977)
Far from Twilight‘s teen-dream variant, John Amplas plays an awkward, outsider ‘sucker in George A Romero's character study. Is angsty 17-year-old Martin a vampire, though, or just ‘mixed-up’, as Romero intimated on a DVD extra? Off-screen remarks aside, Romero works hard to keep the issue ambiguous and psychologically convincing on-screen, transfusing vampire myths with the raw reality of teen malaise and melancholy.
BITING POINT The quiet murder on a train exudes a matter-of-fact chill.
20 VIAGO
TAIKA WAITITI
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2014)
Viago first appeared in the short Interviews with Some Vampires in 2005, a precursor to the What We Do in the Shadows franchise that brought him worldwide acclaim. Viago is 379 years old and displays an awkward charm and an uptight desire to manage his housemates’ schedules. Although he seems like a foppish Anne Rice archetype, Waititi says he based the role on his mother.
BITING POINT Viago makes an embarrassing mess when he tucks into a student's neck and accidentally hits an artery.
21 ANNA
MEREDITH SNAIDER
HABIT (1995)
Alcoholic Sam (Larry Fessenden) meets Anna (Meredith Snaider) at a Halloween party, and they start a compulsively sexual relationship. ‘She's got a real ease about her, a timeless quality,’ he tells a friend, forgetting the bit about how she chomped his lip hard enough to draw blood. Or how she only appears at night. Or how his grogginess now goes beyond booze. Sexy, thrilling but a calming presence, Anna's as addictive as the title suggests.
BITING POINT Anna seduces Sam in Battery Park. There will be blood.
22 ELIZABETH BÁTHORY
DELPHINE SEYRIG
DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1971)
Let the other ‘70s lesbian vampires have their fun: Elizabeth Báthory is here for something else. Floating from the shadows of the sexploitation genre like a gothglam Marlene Dietrich, Delphine Seyrig () perfected the European art-house vamp. Possibly an inspiration for Bram Stoker, the real Báthory was a 16th-century serial killer, but here she lives on in a kaleidoscope of blood, sequins and creepy mother complexes.
