The Best Horror Movies Streaming This Month Are Vampire Movies (April 2025)

This month, director Ryan Coogler gives the vampire genre some fresh blood with his absolutely fantastic action-horror-musical "Sinners." There have been several vampire movies released recently, and to be honest, the majority of them have been rather disappointing. Thankfully, "Sinners" changes all of that — it's one of the best movies of the year. In honor of "Sinners," this month's horror streaming column is rounding up some great vampire movies you can watch right now. So bust out your plastic fangs, tie on your cape, and get ready to suck some blood! 

Streaming on Tubi, Kanopy, Pluto TV, Prime Video.

"Blacula" is one of those movies everyone knows about even if they've never seen it. I mean, it's called "Blacula," and that's the type of title you pay attention to. This blaxploitation horror flick begins in the late 1700s and introduces us to African prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall). Looking for help stopping the Atlantic slave trade, Mamuwalde turns to wealthy nobleman Count Dracula (Charles Macaulay). Unfortunately, Mamuwalde hasn't read Bram Stoker's book, because he's unaware that Dracula is both evil and a vampire. Rather than help Mamuwalde out, Dracula turns the prince into a vampire and seals him up in a tomb. Cut to the 1970s, and Mamuwalde, now renamed Blacula, crawls out of his grave thirsty for blood. To be clear: there's an inherent silliness at play here, and a lot of the film's attempts at humor have aged rather poorly. However, "Blacula" remains a fascinating artifact from the blaxploitation era. The film's real secret to success is Marshall, a classically trained actor who plays the titular role completely straight, bringing a crazy amount of gravitas to the character.

Streaming on Pluto TV.

Following a string of high-profile flops, the 1990s saw Francis Ford Coppola in dire need of a hit. His solution: to helm a well-tested property, "Dracula." But rather than give us the same old story told in countless other films, Coppola decided to go absolutely bonkers and create the best "Dracula" movie ever made, a hyper-sexualized, blood-drenched magic show full of stunning in-camera special effects and a booming, instantly iconic score courtesy of Wojciech Kilar. James V. Hart's script sticks closer to Bram Stoker's source material in ways most other "Dracula" movies do not, but it also throws in a swooning gothic romance angle that was nowhere to be found in Stoker's book (despite what the movies tell us, Stoker's Drac is not romantic). Gary Oldman plays Dracula, who changes his shape and form throughout the course of the film and heads to England in the 1890s to sink his teeth into Mina (Winona Ryder), the reincarnation of his long-lost love. A triumph of production design (Eiko Ishioka's costumes are jaw-dropping), "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is unapologetically over the top and highly memorable, and my personal all-time-favorite vampire movie.

Streaming on Max, The Criterion Channel.

Guillermo del Toro's feature directorial debut is an unconventional, fascinating vampire movie that offers a twist on the standard formula. Elderly antique dealer Jesús Gris (Federico Luppi) finds a strange gold object (shaped like a scarab) that starts to reverse his aging — as long as he consumes some blood. Meanwhile, a dying millionaire (Claudio Brook) also wants to get his hands on that scarab, and enlists his brutish nephew (del Toro regular Ron Perlman) to help. Inventive and strange, and more than a little melancholy, "Cronos" almost instantly signaled del Toro as a filmmaker to pay attention to.

Streaming on Tubi, Prime Video.

The very stylish, very silly "Daybreakers" asks a fun question: what if vampires took over the world? In this entry from The Spierig Brothers, vampires are the dominant species on the planet, which means the world has adjusted to be extremely emo and highly night-focused. Of course, that presents its own problems: with the human population dwindling, blood — essential to any healthy vampire's diet — is in short supply. Also, everyone wears cool suits and looks moody. Ethan Hawke plays one of the vamps, leading a cast that includes heavy hitters like Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill.

Streaming on Shudder.

An absolute hoot, "Fright Night" is an '80s creature feature about a suburban teen named Charley (William Ragsdale) who discovers his handsome, charismatic new neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire. Don't you hate it when that happens? In his quest to best the forces of darkness, Charley turns to a washed-up TV horror host Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) for help. Part of what makes "Fright Night" so enjoyable is that it understands how to have fun with its premise.

Streaming on Pluto TV.

Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" feels heavily influenced by several other films, including the underrated "Tales From the Crypt" movie "Demon Knight" and, interestingly enough, the Coen Brothers flick "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Another movie that instantly comes to mind is "From Dusk Till Dawn," the mash-up that teamed up indie mavericks Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. "From Dusk Till Dawn" is a vampire movie in disguise — for its first half, it feels like a quirky crime flick about two bank robbing brothers, played by George Clooney and Tarantino. Then the film suddenly becomes something else when the brothers and the family they've taken hostage end up at a strip club that's overrun with bloodsuckers. Things get increasingly over-the-top from there, with gore-tastic results.

Streaming on Netflix.

Great actor and internet crank James Woods plays the wonderfully-named Jack Crow in "John Carpenter's Vampires." Jack leads a team of professional vampire hunters (!) who work for the Vatican (!!). But when Jack's team is almost completely wiped out by an ancient vamp named Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), he has to think fast and act faster. Carpenter would make two more movies after this — "Ghosts of Mars" and "The Ward" — but "Vampires" is probably his true swan song, a rock-n-roll freak show with charm.

Streaming on Peacock.

Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu" remake is a gothic delight, featuring a highly memorable turn from Bill Skarsgård (and his mustache) as the undead Count Orlok. Orlok sets his sights on Ellen (an extraordinary Lily-Rose Depp), a manic-depressive who keeps warning everyone that something very, very bad is coming their way. Eggers doesn't try to reinvent the wheel here: the plot is more or less the same as the original "Nosferatu," which of course, heavily borrowed from "Dracula." But the filmmaker, who specializes in nightmare-tinged stories set in the past, still manages to conjure up fresh ghoulish thrills and chills.

Streaming on Pluto TV.

Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston were both born to play vampires, so they're perfectly suited for Jim Jarmusch's vampire hangout flick "Only Lovers Left Alive." Sure, there's a semblance of plot here: Swinton and Hiddleston are a pair of vampire lovers who have to contend with the sudden arrival of Swinton's bratty, impulsive vampire sister (played by Mia Wasikowska), but really, the film is just an excuse to watch cool vampires lounge around playing guitars and talking about art and pop culture.

Streaming on Tubi, Pluto TV.

Nicolas Cage has delivered numerous memorable gonzo performances throughout his long career, but the most eye-popping might be his turn in the bats***-crazy horror-comedy "Vampire's Kiss." Cage, using a genuinely odd voice, plays a yuppie lit agent who slowly goes crazy after he gets bit a rabid bat. Or maybe he's been infected by a sexy vampire, played by Jennifer Beals. Whether or not Cage's character is really turning into a vampire isn't important, because he thinks he is, as evident by the scene where he runs down a city street shouting "I'M A VAMPIRE! I'M A VAMPIRE!" over and over again. That's cinema, baby.