Over the weekend, Ryan Coogler’s new vampire flick, Sinners, scored a major upset by opening at No. 1 against A Minecraft Movie.
Casting Michael B. Jordan as a pair of twins who take on the children of the night turned out to be a stroke of genius.
However, Sinners isn’t the first vampire flick to avoid rehashing Dracula or slipping into overly romantic territory.
If you like Sinners, then these are the three movies you should watch now.
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In the last few years, horror has had a resurgence at the box office and on streaming services. Movie fans still love to be scared, and modern horror has come a long way since the slasher flicks of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Thank You! You have successfully subscribed. Subscribe to newsletters Please enter a valid […]
‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ (1996)
Quentin Tarantino doesn’t get in front of the camera very often anymore, but there was a time when the auteur filmmaker had acting aspirations. From Dusk Till Dawn gave Tarantino one of his biggest on-screen roles as Richie Gecko opposite George Clooney as Seth Gecko.
Tarantino’s script was directed by Robert Rodriguez, and the first half of the film plays like an intense crime thriller. The Gecko brothers are bank robbers, and Richie is clearly mentally ill and more dangerous than his sibling. When the Geckos take Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel) and his children, Kate (Juliette Lewis) and Scott (Ernest Liu), as their hostages, it feels like a countdown to Richie’s latest meltdown.
Instead, the story takes a wild turn by introducing the unforgettable Santanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek) and her vampire brethren. That twist turned From Dusk Till Dawn into an all-time classic cult film that’s still watchable today
From Dusk Till Dawn is streaming on Pluto TV.
‘Near Dark’ (1987)
Over two decades before winning an Oscar for The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow made her solo directorial debut with Near Dark. This was a marked departure for vampire flicks at the time and it featured a decidedly savage take on the creatures.
Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) is unwillingly turned into a vampire by Mae (Jenny Wright), although there is also an odd romance between them. Regardless, Caleb is forced to join Mae in a group under the control of an elder vampire, Jesse Hooker (Lance Henriksen). Hooker’s followers, including Bill Paxton’s Severen, treat humans like cattle and they barely survive as nomads. Hooker also refuses to let Caleb go, even when his still-human family comes looking for him.
Over the last four decades, Near Dark has been recognized as one of the iconic vampire flicks of the ‘80s and it remains a cult favorite.
Near Dark is streaming on YouTube.
‘Black As Night’ (2021)
There are some interesting parallels between Black As Night and Sinners, although the former takes place in a more contemporary setting. Shawna (Asjha Cooper) is a Black teenager who was born in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The community is still suffering 15 years later when Shawna inadvertently stumbles upon the existence of vampires.
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An ancient vampire named Babineaux (Keith David) has realized that he and his group can prey on the marginalized people in New Orleans without drawing attention to themselves. No one with any power believes Shawna’s story about vampires, so she has to rely on her friends Pedro (Fabrizio Guido), Chris (Mason Beauchamp) and Granya (Abbie Gayle) to help her put a stake into these bloodsucking fiends.
Black As Night is streaming on Prime Video.
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