The Best Vampire Romance Movies (2025)

Audiences tend to associate vampires with heart-pumping love stories. Sometimes lovers become vampires together and walk through eons of time with their partner. Other vampire romances are doomed to be star-crossed. Romantic vampire movies are more of a modern filmmaking sensibility--they used to be more horror-based than anything else.

The 1979 Dracula starring Frank Langella was one of the very first Dracula movies that was filmed to be highly romantic and less horrific. Vampire love stories and romantic suspense movies have only gained popularity since, and there are many more recent vampire movies that are just as romantic, if not more so.

Updated on June 21, 2024, by Arthur Goyaz: Most vampire stories share elements in common, from eternal life to the moral dilemma of feeding on humans. Romance is another recurring theme that surrounds these bloodthirsty creatures, resulting in great vampire love stories worth checking out. This article was updated to add more vampire romance movie recommendations and to reflect CBR's current formatting standards.

15 The Invitation is a True Vampire Gothic

• Trivia: One of the very first gothic novels is titled The Monk: A Romance, and it also has strong vampire and demonic imagery.

Unfortunately, The Invitation got panned critically, but audiences enjoyed it, so it has promising cult-classic potential. The bad critical reaction may come from the cross-genre potential. The movie was meant to be a thriller/horror, but audiences enjoyed the darkly romantic subtext and its Gothic horror undertone, leaving them wishing for more.

Enemies to lovers and morally challenging romances work really well for vampire films, making for a hypnotic setup. In addition, Walter DeWitt is as entrancing as he is dangerous. Gothic horror tends to focus on young women who go to a strange estate where they are menaced by a strange paranormal presence, and sometimes a Bluebeard-like love interest (or an unwanted husband). The Invitation may have a very traditional Gothic sensibility, but the romance is as compelling as the bloody conflict. However, due to the film's initial poor reception, it lands at the bottom of the list.

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The Invitation

PG-13

Horror

Thriller

A young woman is courted and swept off her feet, only to realize a gothic conspiracy is afoot.

Release Date

August 26, 2022

Director

Jessica M. Thompson

Cast

Nathalie Emmanuel, Alana Boden, Stephanie Corneliussen, Hugh Skinner, Thomas Doherty, Courtney Taylor, Sean Pertwee

Runtime

105 Minutes

Main Genre

Horror

Writers

Blair Butler

Website

https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/theinvitation

Cinematographer

Autumn Eakin

Producer

Jessica M. Thompson, Emile Gladstone, Michael P. Flannigan

Production Company

Screen Gems, Mid Atlantic Films

Sfx Supervisor

Paul Stephenson

• Trivia: Jim Carrey's first leading role in a Hollywood feature film.

Once Bitten follows Mark, who's dying to lose his virginity, and Robin, his girlfriend, who insists on waiting. Their love is put at stake when the Countess shows up, a 400-year-old vampire who must turn a virgin into a vampire before Halloween. She sets her eyes on Mark, who must run against time to preserve his mortality.

The whole teenager-turning-vampire confusion works as a great allegory to maturing and embracing sexuality. Once Bitten is a romantic vampire movie that successfully blends coming-of-age ideas into a hilarious horror premise, taking advantage of the rich vampire lore. Trying to escape from the Countess' sway, Mark sees the hot-blooded appeal of his relationship with Robin become, perhaps, way too literal. Once Bitten wasn't so well-received when it came out at the peak of the 80s, partly because the decade quickly drained the life out of the vampire subgenre, overdoing the dose of films of this type. It's still worth the watch, as it features a rare Jim Carrey performance in horror territory.

13 Thirst Shows the Dangers of a Vampire Falling in Love with a Human

• Trivia: The original Korean title directly translates to "Bat".

Park Chan-wook is one of the best Korean directors out there: known for modern classics like Oldboy and Handmaiden, Thirst is his seductive take on vampires. The film is centered around Sang-hyun, a respected priest who comes back from the dead as a vampire. Lost and afflicted by a threatening bloodlust, he eventually falls in love with Tae-ju, the wife of a childhood friend.

In most movies about vampires falling in love with humans, the twisted love story is often romanticized, but not in Thirst. The movie takes a shocking turn for the worse once Sang-hyun and Tae-ju's relationship causes the doom of everyone around them -- wherever they go, the two leave a bloody trail behind.

12 Dracula & Mirena Have Amazing Chemistry in Dracula Untold

• Trivia: The character named Mina is a reference to Wilhelmina Murray of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, who is sometimes framed as a thrall or reincarnated love interest in Dracula retellings.

The original vampire Dracula from the self-titled novel by Bram Stoker does not have a reincarnated lovers plot. However, many other Dracula-inspired works, like Dracula Untold, do. Dracula Untold hasn't gotten the flowers it deserves from critics, but fans of paranormal epics and romance will enjoy this film.

Actor Luke Evans who plays the vampire Vlad, has wonderful screen chemistry with his love interest, Mirena, played by Sarah Gadon. Their romance is as lovely as it is doomed--which makes sense for a historical vampire romance. Vlad Tepes may have been anything but a loving figure in real life, but Dracula Untold's Vlad is rather romantic and comparatively altruistic.

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Dracula Untold

PG-13

Action

Drama

Fantasy

Horror

As his kingdom is being threatened by the Turks, young prince Vlad Tepes must become a monster feared by his own people in order to obtain the power needed to protect his own family, and the families of his kingdom.

Release Date

October 10, 2014

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Director

Gary Shore

Cast

Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon, Art Parkinson

Runtime

92 minutes

Main Genre

Action

11 Vamps Explores the New York Night-Afterlife

• Trivia: Not all the vampires share the same set of fangs in the movie.

In Vamps, the vampire mythology is a pretext for best friends Stacy and Goody to remain charming and up-to-date with the trends of each passing era. Together they enjoy a seemingly endless nocturnal odyssey in New York until long-lost enemies and lovers from the past return to turn their lives upside down.

Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter are prime examples of beauty eternalized onscreen -- the perfect choices for a movie this charming and delightful. Vamps can get pretty absurd, relying on many campy tendencies, but at the same time, it treats the parallels between love and immortality with admirable maturity. Vamps spends its entire runtime exploring the ups and downs of being a vampire, paying homage to classic Dracula characters that have marked the genre since it came into existence, from Van Helsing to Renfield. This concept is both a gift and a curse in Vamps; the movie has so many ideas in motion that it can often feel all over the place. However, the romantic aspect of the vampire premise is precisely the film's biggest strength.

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Vamps

PG-13

Two female vampires in modern-day New York City are faced with daunting romantic possibilities.

Director

Amy Heckerling

Release Date

August 25, 2012

Studio

Anchor Bay Films

Cast

Krysten Ritter, Sigourney Weaver, Alicia Silverstone, Asim Ahmad, Richard Lewis, Kristen Johnston

Runtime

93 minutes

10 Crimson Peak Approaches Vampirism Differently From Classic Vampire Tales

• Trivia: Everything in Crimson Peak's house was made for the house. Nothing was reused from salvaged parts.

Crimson Peak isn't a vampire movie in its most traditional sense: the classic bloodsucker creatures are nowhere to be seen here, but their legacy of blood certaintly perfuses every aspect of the Gothic narrative. The film, set against the backdrop of the late 1800s and the early 1900s, follows Edith, an aspiring author who marries a mysterious man against her father's wishes. She is then welcomed into his remote mansion -- a place with a life of its own, forever haunted by ghosts of a terrifying tragedy.

Guillermo Del Toro traces a fascinating parallel between seduction and death in this vampiristic love story. The film breaths all the attributes of a great vampire story, flirting with the immortal curse of vampires with an endless cycle of bloodshed and a consuming evil: a house that, just like the vilest of the vampires, sucks the life out of its guests, welcoming them into a path of terror and decay. Crimson Peak is definitely worth checking out, landing a spot at number 10 simply because it isn't a straight-up vampire story.

9 Barnabas Collins Pines for His Long-Lost Love in Dark Shadows

• Trivia: The scene where Barnabas tests the paved road with his foot is an ode to the Disney Halloween classic, Hocus Pocus.

Dark Shadows is a vampire love story that was once a pulpy TV show in the late '60s. It's centered around a strange family and its vampire patriarch, Barnabas Collins. Director Tim Burton breathed new life into the old show with a film remake of the same name starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas. The movie takes place in the '70s when the ancient vampire is finally released from his tomb and finds his descendants.

Barnabas Collins has a sad backstory, blighted by a jealous witch. The witch wanted his love and when he spurned her, she turned him into a vampire and snuffed out the life of the woman he loved, Josette. When Barnabas returns to his old estate, he meets the family's nanny, Victoria Winters...who looks oddly like his long-lost love.

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Dark Shadows

PG-13

Comedy

Fantasy

Horror

Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), a wealthy playboy from Maine in 1752, faces a cruel curse inflicted by a vengeful witch (Eva Green). Transformed into a vampire and buried alive for centuries, Barnabas is accidentally released in 1972 to find his once-grandiose estate in ruins and his family in decline. He navigates the modern world while wrestling with his dark nature and seeking revenge on the witch who stole his life and love. As he interacts with his descendants and the changing world around him, Barnabas must embrace his past and reclaim his humanity before succumbing to the darkness within.

Release Date

May 9, 2012

Director

Tim Burton

Cast

Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloe Grace Moretz, Bella Heathcote

Runtime

113 minutes

Main Genre

Fantasy

Writers

Seth Grahame-Smith, John August, Dan Curtis

Studio

Warner Bros. Pictures

8 Van Helsing's Vampire Villain Steals the Show

• Trivia: Kate Beckinsale was nearly passed over for the film because the director worried the role would be too close to her role in Underworld.

Van Helsing follows a vampire hunter protagonist of the same name, played by Hugh Jackman. While Gabriel Van Helsing is the main love interest for Anna Valerious, played by Kate Beckinsale, there's another character who's the unexpected star of the show. Dracula is an aristocratic and powerful vampire with a bevy of beautiful and fierce wives.

Dracula also tries to seduce Valerious, and though she says that he makes her skin crawl, Dracula puts on quite a convincing and romantic display for her. Dracula waltzes her around his mirrored ballroom as she wears a gorgeous crimson gown. The feared vampire master may not be the endgame love interest, but he makes a valiant and characteristically sensual effort to the point where he tends to be the most memorable character.

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Van Helsing

PG-13

Action

Adventure

Fantasy

The famed monster hunter is sent to Transylvania to stop Count Dracula, who is using Dr. Frankenstein's research and a werewolf for nefarious purposes.

Release Date

May 7, 2004

Director

Stephen Sommers

Cast

Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale, Richard Roxburgh, Shuler Hensley

Runtime

131 minutes

Main Genre

Action

Writers

Stephen Sommers

7 The Hunger is an Erotic Horror Classic

• Trivia: David Bowie worried that critics would find the film too "perversely bloody."

It's hard to get better than an erotic vampire horror starring David Bowie in the early '80s. The Hunger follows a vampiric love triangle between a vampire, played by Catherina Deneuve, her cellist thrall, played by David Bowie, and a researcher, played by Susan Sarandon. The vampire Miriam's love comes with a cost--she must feed on their blood, and she casts them away to the whims of time and fate when she's bored with them.

While The Hunger isn't a perfect vampire romance, it has enough key elements that make it a paranormal classic. It's shot beautifully, and the casting is perfect, with a mix of eccentric artists, femme fatales, and ingénue archetypes. Dracula-inpired characters tend to have many wives and Miriam is a gender-bent version who collects many lovers over the ages.

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The Hunger

R

Drama

Horror

A love triangle develops between a beautiful yet dangerous vampire (Catherine Deneuve), her cellist companion (David Bowie), and a gerontologist (Susan Sarandon).

Release Date

April 29, 1983

Director

Tony Scott

Cast

Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon

Runtime

1 HOUR 37 MINUTES

Writers

Michael Thomas

Production Company

PEERFORD

6 Let the Right One In Follows Two Strangers Finding Comfort in Each Other

• Trivia: The title Let the Right One In refers to the fact that, according to myth, vampires must be invited in before they can enter someone's home.

Another vampire romance movie worth watching is Let the Right One In, a film that deals with the secular yearning for someone to rely on. The story unfolds from the perspective of Oskar, a lonely boy bullied at school. One day he meets Eli, who has looked like a 12-year-old teenager for the past 200 years.

Set in snow-covered suburban Stockholm, Let the Right One In is a bleak, yet sophisticated look into the loneliness of the vampire condition. Eli is a fascinating character whose suffering finally comes to an end in the face of love, while Oskar finally finds a chance to feel understood. The movie has its share of violent moments, but at the end of the day, it's the subtle moments of tenderness between the two leads that stick out.

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Let the Right One In

Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.

Director

Tomas Alfredson

Release Date

October 24, 2008

Cast

Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar

Runtime

114 minutes

5 Lestat Gets an Oddly Optimistic Love Story in Queen of the Damned

• Trivia: The film Queen of the Damned is an attempt at combining the second and third full-length novels of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series: The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned.

Most vampire fans know of Lestat from the '90s vampire classic, Interview with the Vampire, but the loose sequel to the film, Queen of the Damned, picks up the story and gives Lestat even more love affairs. Lestat's original relationship with Louis is very tragic and toxic, and Queen of the Damned explores more of Lestat's origin story, as well as an update on his life in the modern world as a rock star. Lestat is precocious to a fault, though most of the time he can handle the consequences he courts.

Lestat is a bit over his head, though, when he courts the queen of vampires, Akasha, in an iconic paranormal movie romance. Akasha is played by the iconic Aaliyah, and in many ways, she could be the perfect (albeit evil) match for the Brat Prince vampire. Akasha isn't Lestat's only love interest in Queen of the Damned, though. The film diverges from the book source material in several ways, especially with the film's happily ever after, romantic ending. And though die-hard Anne Rice fans often object to the ending, there's a strong cult following for Lestat's film endgame relationship, earning Van Helsing a spot at number 5.

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Queen of the Damned

R

In this loose sequel to Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), the vampire Lestat becomes a rock star whose music wakes up the equally beautiful and monstrous queen of all vampires.

Release Date

February 22, 2002

Director

Michael Rymer

Cast

Aaliyah, Stuart Townsend, Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Perez, Paul McGann, Lena Olin

Runtime

1 hour 41 minutes

Main Genre

Horror

4 A Lonely Vampire Meets an Unlikely Companion in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

• Trivia: The word "vampire" is never spoken in the film.

A woman vampire walks moonlit streets in an Iranian ghost city in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. To sustain her thirst, she feasts on evil-doers--mostly men who abuse and take advantage of women. She tends to listen to music by herself, living a lonely existence until she runs into Arash.

Arash is having a bad night when the vampire finds him, but she's moved by him because he seems different. He has a capacity for kindness. Rather than hurting him, she helps him. And though she's tempted by his blood, she refuses to bite him. They pass time listening to music together. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night perfectly catches a gloomy vampire tone with its black and white cinematography, and it tells a story of comfort and acceptance.

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A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

Horror

Romance

Thriller

In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.

Release Date

January 19, 2014

Director

Ana Lily Amirpour

Cast

Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Mozhan Marnò, Dominic Rains, Rome Shadanloo

Rating

Not Rated

Runtime

107 minutes

Main Genre

Horror

3 Adam & Eve Love Each Other Through Eons of Time in Only Lovers Left Alive

• Trivia: The vampire-style action scenes were cut from the film to make it more character-driven.

Only Lovers Left Alive is a quiet and philosophical vampire tale about two immortal lovers--aptly named Adam and Eve. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton make an excellent, if unpredictable, romantic pairing. The film picks up when the lovers have already known each other and been devoted to each other for centuries.

Only Lovers Left Alive is unlike most vampire movies as it explores the idea of two characters who have lived an eternity together, meeting new people and watching epochs of time pass. Adam is a bedraggled musician with his grungy style, sardonic humor, and melancholia. Eve is a more sanguine character who greatly enjoys her immortal life. It's wonderful to see a loving couple that is well past the courting phase in a vampire movie.

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Only Lovers Left Alive

A depressed musician reunites with his lover. Though their romance, which has already endured several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister.

Release Date

May 25, 2013

Director

Jim Jarmusch

Cast

Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Jeffrey Wright

Runtime

123 minutes

2 Selene Must Choose Between Her Heart & Her Vampire Coven in Underworld

• Trivia: Selene is named after the Greek goddess of the moon, who had her own forbidden romance: with a human shepherd, Endymion.

Underworld gives Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" the paranormal treatment. In Selene's world, vampires and werewolves are mortal enemies. She believes that werewolves ravaged her parents and nearly killed her--only for her vampire saviors to take her in and raise her as their own. Selene is a rather powerful vampire, but she meets her match with the werewolf-vampire hybrid, Michael.

Selene and Michael become lovers in a sweet and nearly unspoken romance. Their love story is very tender, but it's enough to damn them to Selene's people. Selene then must choose between the vampires she knows and the person she loves.

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Underworld

R

Fantasy

Action

Thriller

Selene, a vampire warrior, is entrenched in a conflict between vampires and werewolves, while falling in love with Michael, a human who is sought by werewolves for unknown reasons.

Release Date

September 19, 2003

Director

Len Wiseman

Cast

Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly, Bill Nighy

Runtime

122 Minutes

Writers

Danny McBride

Production Company

Lakeshore Entertainment, Subterranean Productions LLC, Laurinfilm, Underworld Produktions GmbH, Subterranean Productions UK Ltd.

1 Bram Stoker's Dracula Has the Most Romantic Story of Reincarnated Lovers

• Trivia: Winona Ryder had some issues working with Gary Oldman because of a prank and his acting intensity.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is one of Francis Ford Coppola's most romantic movies. Gary Oldman agreed to play the lead (and antagonist), Dracula because the film has some of the most epic and romantic lines of dialogue he ever read. Specifically, Oldman couldn't wait to tell Mina Harker, "I've crossed oceans of time to find you."

Bram Stoker's Dracula diverges from the original novel source enough to paint Dracula in a more sensual light. More than being a hungering, craven villain, he once loved and lost tragically. Dracula turned from the light of his god and became a vampire when his wife died. When he finds his wife again, reincarnated as Mrs. Harker, centuries later, he's not ready to bow out gracefully and leave her to her human husband. Bram Stoker's Dracula reimagines all the elements that made Dracula's story so popular over the years, landing at the top of the list of greatest vampire romance movies.

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Bram Stoker's Dracula

R

Horror

Romance

The centuries old vampire Count Dracula comes to England to seduce his barrister Jonathan Harker's fiancée Mina Murray and inflict havoc in the foreign land.

Studio

Columbia Pictures

Release Date

November 13, 1992

Director

Francis Ford Coppola

Cast

Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Sadie Frost, Cary Elwes, Richard E. Grant, Billy Campbell, Tom Waits, Monica Bellucci, Florina Kendrick, Michaela Bercu, Jay Robinson, I.M. Hobson, Laurie Franks, Maud Winchester, Octavian Cadia, Robert Getz, Dagmar Stansova, Eniko Öss, Nancy Linehan Charles, Tatiana von Furstenberg, Jules Sylvester, Hubert Wells, Daniel Newman, Honey Lauren, Judi Diamond

Runtime

127 Minutes

Main Genre

Horror

Writers

Bram Stoker, James V. Hart