Just in time for Halloween, NBC is premiering Dracula, its new historical drama starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers of The Tudors as the vampire count who likes the taste of blood, long walks in the darkness and the ladies.
Between Twilight and True Blood some might say there has been vampire overload in popular culture this past decade. But since Dracula was first created by Irish novelist Bram Stoker more than 100 years ago, vampires have never gone out of style. No matter how many zombie hordes or shirtless werewolves top the TV ratings, the vampire remains Western culture's ultimate monster.
And surely no mummy or fairy has inspired as many musical tributes as the vampire. Metal, punk and goth have the led the way in terms of songs about vamps but every genre from country to disco has taken a stab (sorry!) at it.
Of the hundreds of vampire songs out there, the best have either been written for the movies, or made an appearance in them. Here then, in time for your Halloween party playlist, 15 memorable vampire songs from the movies. Some are frightful, some are frightfully bad, but all are bloody good fun.
Liisa Ladouceur is the author of How to Kill a Vampire: Fangs in Folklore, Film and Fiction. She previously penned (in bloody ink, no doubt) Encyclopedia Gothica. Click here to buy. Also available via Chapters and Amazon.