Favourite 80s Vampire movie

Maxil might like this.

I love Vampires, and the late 80s seemed to see a slight revival in Vampire movies.

Fright Night, The Lost Boys and Near Dark, all of which were a massive influence on Buffy and Angel.

Which do you think was the best however?

I'm going to say Fright Night. I love the way it takes a lot from the Hammer movies, whilst bringing a more suburban, contemporary edge to the Vampire story.

Also Roddy McDowell is excellent as Peter Vincent.

Fright Night Part II.

Definitely The Lost Boys for me. A visually striking film with a lot of memorable characters and great humour. I wish they had made a sequel back then instead of waiting twenty years to do a crummy direct to video flick with only one of the original actors starring in it.

The best part of The Lost Boys is the at end (after having spent the whole movie thinking the old man was clueless), he just goes to the fridge, grabs a beer and says, "One thing about living in Santa Clara I never could stomach, all the damn vampires," like he's known what's been going on all along, and thinks it's no big deal.

Lost Boys is great, but I've never heard of Fright Night or Near Dark, I'll have to check them out.

You've never heard of Fright Night?!!?!?!?!?
Good Lord. Seriously, right up your alley, the original and its 1988 sequel.

I loved Fright Night and it had a decent enough sequel (I've given the remake with David Tennant a miss I'm afraid but you won't be surprised by that!). There's actually quite a few decent vampire films during the 80s.

The Hunger is quite stylish if a little derivative of the previous decade but it benefits from the presence of Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie. Then there's Duncan Regehr as an enjoyable Dracula in the fun Monster Squad movie. Lifeforce seems to split opinion a bit but I quite liked its occasional Quatermass vibe plus who can forget the sight of Mathilda May as a delightfully naked alien space vampire devastating London? I'd also definitely recommend Near Dark, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, for its wonderfully moody depiction of a vampire gang.

My own personal vampy fave from this decade though has to be Ken Russell's highly entertaining Lair of the White Worm. Amanda Donohoe dominates this as a splendidly sexy snake lady and she proves sufficiently vampiric for her to qualify here, especially as this is a real rarity by being based on a non-Dracula Bram Stoker novel.

Lair also blends comedy and horror whilst mixing some nicely Avengers-esque flavours (and, just to be clear, I do mean the Emma Peel Avengers!)  with Russell's distinctive excesses to great effect. Peter Capaldi's in it too and I think he gets rather better material in this than he ever did in certain more recent stuff!

Life-force, Lair, and The Hunger for me, although my real favourites are not in this decade.