The opening sequence of a film can draw you in and keep you engaged for over 100 minutes of unadulterated cinematic suspense. When dealing with a vampire movie, be it a classic take on this most beloved horror sub-genre or a wildly experimental re-imagining of the form, the first scene needs to have real bite.
Some of the best scenes don’t even feature fangs or blood-sucking at all. They can incorporate tonal elements of the unfolding tale, like in Only Lovers Left Alive, or simply introduce the main characters in a deviously fun way, as evidenced in What We Do in the Shadows. Here is a dastardly cache of the best opening scenes in vampire movies, in all their gory glory.
11
‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ (2013)
Jim Jarmusch’s elegantly executed Only Lovers Left Alive begins with an opening credit sequence that is exceptionally relevant to the tone of the film, and beautifully shot to boot. It begins with a star-lit sky that melds into the spinning of a black vinyl disc on a record player. This represents the seemingly endless rotations of the earth — as one of the two main characters, Adam (a brooding Tom Hiddleston), feels doomed to a never-ending sentence of immortality. It’s not just ennui that is felt here, it’s a fully manifested hopelessness; creeping, chronic depression.
The fact that vinyl is depicted is telling as well, as the image of this preterite (yet still wildly popular) conveyance of music and information has an inherently vintage, somewhat melancholic feel to it. Ask any vinyl purist, and they will tell you that it’s the most authentic way to listen to any artist. As the Wanda Jackson song “Funnel of Love” blares, Adam holds his mandolin close to his chest, as his lover, Eve (the eerily resplendent Tilda Swinton) feels eons away from him.
10
‘What We Do in the Shadows’ (2014)
Not all vampire movies fit into the horror genre. Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s What We Do in the Shadows is a laugh-out-loud comedy (which obviously spawned one of the funniest series of all time…What We Do in the Shadows). When this flick begins, the audience is immediately cued into the fact that they will be watching a mockumentary, and a very witty one at that.
The opening shot is of an alarm clock, annoyingly beeping — it reads 6:00…but P.M., of course. Viago, played by Waititi, then rises with a smile for the cameras. As he then leads the camera crew through the morbidly decorated house that is his and the rest of his bloodsucking cohorts’ home, he casually explains the average daily events in the life of a modern vampire. It’s terribly mundane, hence, terribly funny.
9
‘Dracula’ (1931)
The brilliance of the original Dracula opening is how it plays out like a teaser. Images that were undoubtedly shocking at the time are seen in deliberately opaque succession: a coffin ekes open, an enchanted-looking, hypnotic woman stares ahead, and finally, the stoic Bela Lugosi as the titular Dracula stands tall, silent, and cloaked in his flowing cape.
Dracula, directed by Tod Browning, was unlike any movie ever seen at the time. It explores the darkest corners of the human mind — and the opening scene sumptuously showcases all of this. Set in a massive, cavernous castle, the location alone was enough to instill fear in the viewer. With dark, expressionistic shadows permeating every frame, when Jonathan Harker (David Manners) enters the Gothic mansion, the audience can only be sure of one thing: they are about to be scared out of their minds.
8
‘Interview with the Vampire’ (1994)
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A pre-drone, aerial shot of the city of San Francisco at night. A haunting song from another era, blending ethereal operatic and choral voices with sad strings. The ambient sounds of the bustling city after dark. All these elements coalescence into a chilling ballet of otherworldly tension — and that’s all before the main character is even glimpsed. This is the divinely shot opening of director Neil Jordan’s Interview with the Vampire (with the screenplay written by Anne Rice, adapted from her own novel of the same name).
The first real scene then comes, with Louis (a heartfelt, subtle Brad Pitt) with his back to the camera, looking out the window of an elegant Victorian. Cryptic, he inquires, “So you want me to tell you the story of my life?” It’s a nuanced, soft moment, but it speaks volumes. The audience is about to be taken on a pitch black journey through the mind of an immortal creature.
7
‘Near Dark’ (1987)
When the title of a film is Near Dark, what better way to begin it than…at dusk? This is exactly how Katherine Bigelow’s neo-western-vampire story starts, and it’s a highly stylized work of stark art. In fact, the very first image the audience is met with is a close-up shot of a mosquito greedily slurping blood out of someone’s skin. The skin belongs to Caleb, played with wonderful naivety by Adrian Pasdar. Within seconds, the viewer is keyed into several things: this movie is about unwanted parasites that descend on their victims, it’s going to be quite dark, and the lead character starts out relatively clueless.
Even the scoring here is perfect: an inky, 80s synth beat that evokes unfettered anxiety of the unknown. The whole movie is mysterious and dusty, with foreshadowing to spare. The next shot showcases an old pickup truck rolling across the gritty Oklahoma plains — right as the sun is setting — and the malicious mood is set. No fangs needed, no blood splatters required; just a simple sense of ominous despair.
6
‘Fright Night’ (1985)
With a super creepy POV shot (overlaid with a wolf howl and eerie old movie dialogue) that starts on a full moon and then slowly stalks through the night, Tom Holland‘s first feature, Fright Night, immediately sets the tone for the dread that’s in store for the whole film. The camera continues to slowly track across a suburban lawn and into the window of the inchoate protagonist, Charlie “You’re so cool!” Brewster (William Ragsdale) — who is watching a vampire movie himself. Well, he’s not really watching it; he’s trying his damnedest to make-out with his girlfriend, Amy Peterson (the slyly versatile Amanda Beard).
All of this creates a looming sense of unctuous unease, and sets up a film that is all about “neighbors” encroaching on your personal space. It also tells the audience that there will be some cleverly woven-in dark humor in this movie, a lot of it centered around the lengths a horny teen will go to try to get lucky.
5
‘Byzantium’ (2012)
A splendid work of celluloid all around, the modern Gothic horror Byzantium, directed by Neil Jordan, keeps the audience absolutely engrossed from start to finish. It’s equal parts pensive and blazingly feral, vacillating from poignant and thoughtful in one scene to animalistic and unhinged in the next. The opening sequence reflects this dichotomy rather phenomenally.
The first image is Eleanor Webb, played with innocence and elegance by Saoirse Ronan, writing a morose story on a scrap of paper. It floats out a window, to be collected by a genial old man. The two characters then have a brief, amiable chat — and then we are whipped into a pulsating strip club, where her strikingly seductive sister Clara, the fantastic Gemma Arterton, grinds on a lecherous businessman (and then bites a chunk of his nose off — hey, no hands). This scene not only illustrates the two polar opposite personalities of the main characters, it also shows the duality of vampires themselves: quietly slumbering during the day and then viciously exsanguinating humans in the evening.
4
‘Blade’ (1998)
One of the sleekest, slickest horror-action films of all time, Stephen Norrington’s Blade starts off with quite the bang. A red-haired Traci Lords, as Racquel, drives (well over the speed limit, presumably) with an unsuspecting snack down the road. They enter a meat-packing warehouse (how appropriate), that leads them into…a full-on…blood rave.
With late 90s techno blaring, Racquel brings the dude into a secret club where bodies writhe to an intense electronic beat. Lasers flash, the DJ bops, sexy young people bounce around, and a growing sense that something isn’t quite right takes over. Then…the sprinklers go off — only it’s not water that cascades down: it’s blood. Gallons and gallons of blood. The ravenous revelers lift their arms in the air and feast. Everyone is drenched in viscous red, and fangs galore are exposed. Just when it looks like the unsuspecting dude is toast, the most badass half vampire in existence emerges: Blade, a black-clad Wesley Snipes, ready to kick some pure-bred vampire butt. Pure cinematic, vampiric gold.
3
‘Queen of the Damned’ (2002)
Once again, the POV angle is employed with utter artistry. The beginning of director Michael Rymer’s Queen of the Damned has a slightly-accented narrator, through voice-over, telling the watcher his morbid tale of displeasure at having to live forever. The camera weaves through a gloomy graveyard, passing by mausoleums and ancient-looking gravestones.
As the narrator, Lestat (Stuart Townsend) muses about the general malaise of eternal life and the sheer loneliness of it all, the viewer begins to feel the same claustrophobic strangulation of time that he feels. When we finally enter his own dark crypt (complete with a skeletal statue adorning the top of his concrete coffin), all seems lost. And then…he — and, the audience — are transported to the modern day, where hard rock and roll is king. Lestat rises from his tomb, violin in hand, and seeks out the dulcet sounds of the night. He tastes his first meal in a hundred years, and is finally seen, in all his blue-tinted skin glory. This scene sucks you in so hard, it’s impossible to tear yourself away. Just wait til he meets the Queen (the stunning Aaliyah)…
2
‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ (1992)
“Love never dies,” proclaims the tagline to Bram Stoker’s Dracula (directed by the iconic Francis Ford Coppola). That may or may not be true, but the pulchritudinous, bold and bloody opening of this film will certainly live on forever. This epic is as much a romance as it is a horror, and the riveting initial sequence thoroughly exemplifies this.
This opening proves that there can be beauty in brutality. Rife with religious imagery, one of the first shots includes an ornately designed stone cross falling from a great height and exploding into chunky pieces. Mic drop. With Anthony Hopkins’ narration, dripping with gravitas, the story of the Romanian knight, Dracula (acted with unbridled ferocity by Gary Oldman), plays out in vivid colors (including his deep red armor). After some vigorous, blood-stained battling, Dracula returns to his castle to find out that the love of his life, Elizabeta (an astounding Winona Ryder) has perished; he then flies into unparalleled rage, bellowing in anguish. The passion and despair felt by Dracula is so visceral and intense, one immediately understands why he renounced God and how he became cursed to his fate as a creature of the night.
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