11 great, gory vampire kills from horror movies and TV
Long before vampires were sparkly lover boys a la Twilight, the blood-sucking undead were classic horror baddies—and do-gooders have been killing them on the big and small screen for decades.
The classic techniques apply in most cases, i.e., wooden stakes, sunlight and beheadings, though most of these vamp-slaying highlights play with the old tropes a bit.
So if you're ever attacked by a horde of vampires, think back and for the 16th installment of our 31 Days of Halloween series, remember a few of these 11 awesome vampire kills for inspiration.
Load up on garlic and sharpen your stakes—here we go!
Near Dark
This 1987 vamp flick is a classic, and one survivor decides to sacrifice his mode of transportation to take out the vamp tearing up the motor. It's hard to argue with the logic, because even a vampire would have trouble surviving an exploding diesel truck.
True Blood
Being a pay-cable series, HBO's True Blood has a level of freedom most shows would kill for. They use that license to full effect on their vampire kills, which trade out the usual wisp of ash for a gory pile of spewing blood and guts.
Interview With the Vampire
One of the sadder death scenes on the list, this one finds some main characters trapped in the sunlight and burned to ash. It's a classy, poignant death.
Fright Night
Arguably the coolest vampire death on this list, the infamous fire hug from the recent Fright Night reboot is a very interesting twist on the old fire method. All you need is a fireproof suit, a vampire in need of burning and a strong grip not to let him go.
Clip sadly not available for embed, click here to view.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Easily the most heartbreaking vampire death ever, the finale of season two found Buffy forced to take out the love of her young life with a sword to the chest, sending him through a portal to hell. Throughout its run, Buffy featured hundreds of vampire deaths, but this was arguably the best.
Blade
The Blade trilogy featured a ton of gory, cool vampire deaths. But the mid-budget first installment set the dark tone with one of the best comic-to-film adaptations, which opened with Blade busting in on a vamp party and kicking a heaping pile of ass.
Underworld
The final battle in this vampire vs. werewolves flick included one of the coolest death scenes ever, with a vampire sliced in half. Awesome.
Nosferatu
The horror classic shows off one of the original sun-caused deaths, as ol' Nosferatu tempts fate and finds himself on the business end of the daylight.
Angel
The sister series to the aforementioned Buffy, Angel also featured an extremely awesome vamp death. Angel's ex-lover Darla gets pregnant (as a vampire, it's a long story), and the human soul of the child inside her drives her to stake herself to save the child in an awesome, tear-jerker sacrifice.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
The latest vamp-killing period flick shows off the Abe Lincoln we never knew, who uses a big ol' ax to take out the fangy undead. It made for some pretty sweet kills.
Supernatural
This series is one of the best horror shows on the air, and it's featured some stellar vampire kills along the way. The best? When Sam uses some nearby barbed wire to slice off the head of a creepy vamp.
Clip sadly not available for embed, click here to view.
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