Vampire Cinema

A century of classic vampire cinema―in posters, stills and artwork―from Murnau to True Blood and beyond. This visual feast celebrates classic vampire cinema―mainstream and niche―through the many colorful ways in which the key films have been marketed and consumed. The bloodline has spread from Nosferatu (1922) to Hollywood’s Dracula and progeny (1931–48); from Hammer’s Dracula/Horror of Dracula and sequels (1958–74) to versions of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla; from the bestselling novels Salem’s Lot and Interview with the Vampire to the present day (1975–2022). This book is dripping with stills, posters, artworks, press books―many of which have not seen the light of day for a very long time―and is authored by cultural historian and connoisseur of the Gothic Christopher Frayling, who has been called “the Van Helsing de nos jours.”

Christopher Frayling (born 1946) is a recognized authority on Gothic fiction and horror movies. His study Vampyres (1978, 1990, 2016) and his classic four-part television series Nightmare: The Birth of Horror (1996) have helped to move Gothic horror from margin to mainstream. He is the author of Frankenstein and Once upon a Time in the West.