MOVIES - The vampires with real bite - Steve Niles, the '30 Days of Night' guy, names cinema's bloody best.
There's a sucker born every minute, but how many are really memorable? "30 Days of Night," the Sony film that hit theaters Friday, is just the latest vampire film that will aim to sate the thirst of horror purists.
We got Steve Niles, co-creator of the "30 Days of Night" graphic novels that inspired the film, to pry open the vault of vampire cinema and pick the best of the best, the blue bloods of bloodsuckers. There are some surprises: William Marshall from "Blacula" made the list, but no Kiefer Sutherland in "The Lost Boys"?
"Yeah, sorry," Niles said, "I draw the line at vampires with mullets. That's like a rule for me."
Max Schreck,
"Nosferatu" (1922)
Schreck is the German word for "terror" -- and completely fitting for the Berlin-born actor in F.W. Murnau's silent classic. "There is nothing like it, it's so scary and so powerful . . . A lot of people thought he really was a vampire." Bald and pale, spindly and hunched, the rat-like Count Orlok is no debonair aristocrat -- he's a purely malevolent predator.
Willem Dafoe, "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000)
Almost 80 years after "Nosferatu," Schreck was brought back to life on screen by Dafoe in this quirky film that posits the idea that Schreck was indeed a member of the undead. The dark comedy earned Dafoe an Academy Award nomination. Said Niles: "It's just a fabulous portrayal." Dafoe is going for more blood: He's joining Ethan Hawke in "Daybreakers," a vampire film due next year.
Bela Lugosi,
"Dracula" (1931)
"He has to be at the top of any list, of course," Nile said. "He brought Dracula to the whole world. And just the fact that when he died he was buried in his Dracula cape . . ." Lugosi's family name was Blasko -- he was called Lugosi in deference to his home village of Lugos, Hungary. He first donned the dark cape in a stage adaptation but, despite good reviews, fought hard to win the attention of Hollywood when the play led to a film script. The role made him a movie star, but typecasting haunted his career.
Klaus Kinski, "Nosferatu the Vampyre" (1979)
"Shot for shot, this is just the most beautiful vampire movie, and the tone of it just freaked people out. This is the third Nosferatu on my list, but you can't leave it out." The movie is a hybrid, paying homage to the Murnau film and bundling it with much of the familiar myth of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula." This was one of the famed collaborations between director Werner Herzog and his volatile on-screen muse Kinski.
