If you assumed vampires were a spent force after the Twilight years, the last half-decade would like to argue. A surprising scatter of films — some clever, some batty, some both — have retooled the old myths in ways that feel fresh (or at least entertaining). Below are a few that stuck with me, for better or worse.
Blood Red Sky
Year: 2021 Director: Peter Thorwarth Rating: IMDb — 6.1 / Kinopoisk — 6.2 / Letterboxd — 2.6
A sick mother, a long-haul flight, and a hijacking; then vampirism barges into the cabin. The movie treats the condition like a medical problem—shots, management, relapse—rather than some gothic fate, which flips the usual "curse" angle into something grimly practical, i.e., survival as treatment. At times it feels gloriously ridiculous (plane + vampires = chaotic logbook entry), but beneath the set pieces there's a recognizable, if messy, emotional core: a parent trying not to lose herself while protecting a kid. Not flawless—some beats lean hard on stunt-driven spectacle—but it owns its premise and doesn’t apologize for being nuts.
The Vourdalak
Year: 2023 Director: Adrien Beau Rating: IMDb — 6.4 / Kinopoisk — 6.1 / Letterboxd — 3.7
Based on an old Alexey Tolstoy tale that predates Dracula, this debut leans theatrical instead of slick. A lost French aristocrat stumbles into a remote home; the patriarch returns from a hunt changed in ways that are quietly unbearable. The director refuses modern horror shorthand—no jump-scare scaffolding, no CGI gloss—choosing slow, almost stage-bound rhythms and even a vourdalak that’s puppetry and voice rather than full-on monster fx. It’s the sort of film that crawls under your skin rather than hits your chest; if you like mood over immediacy, it’ll linger.
Renfield
Year: 2023 Director: Chris McKay Rating: IMDb — 6.4 / Kinopoisk — 6.4 / Letterboxd — 2.9
The logline alone is a flex: Dracula’s man goes to group therapy. Nicolas Cage plays Dracula; need I say more? Director Chris McKay leans into the lunacy—this is a brawl of horror tropes and self-aware comedy, often loud and gleefully uneven. Nicholas Hoult turns Renfield into an oddly sympathetic mess, while Cage’s grotesque cameo moments are appointment viewing. Some plot threads (the cop subplot) don’t land, and the script stumbles, but as a refreshingly unserious take on vampire cinema it hits more than it misses. TBH, it’s the grown-up videogame boss fight you didn’t know you needed.
Abigail
Year: 2024 Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett Rating: IMDb — 6.5 / Kinopoisk — 6.3 / Letterboxd — 3.0
The Radio Silence crew (they did Ready or Not and the recent Scream entries) go full-on vampire slapstick and gore. A ragtag crew kidnaps a mobster’s 12-year-old daughter and locks her in a mansion overnight; surprise—she’s a vampire. What follows is relentless mayhem: practical gore, black comedy that sometimes hits, and a performance from Alisha Weir that mixes kidlike stillness with feral menace. The film is loud, messy, and somehow gleeful about its own excesses—if you’re in for chaotic set pieces and blood that doesn’t pretend to be subtle, this one delivers.