children of the night... what music they make
some of the worst vampire films with the best soundtracks
Ugly vampires get church organs and sour string arrangements. Hot vampires get “Supermassive Black Hole”.
Without actually committing to discuss the Twilight movies, at some point, society went from associating the undead with Tchaikovsky ballets and Wagner operas in those classic Lugosian depictions to expecting vampire film suites to be loaded with Paramore, Radiohead, Muse, the Killers and Death Cab for Cutie.
Maybe the connection was conceived in the pits of gothic rock as the Cramps’ guitar distortion courted spectral lyrical matter, or Anne Rice’s decision that vamps should wake from decades-long slumbers to front rock bands.
Regardless, there must be a line we can trace between Bram Stoker classics and the blond, anaemic Tom Cruise of the late 20th century. There must be a way to understand why as vampires got sexier, so did their soundtracks.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) // dir. Francis Ford Coppola
Before even watching the film, a vinyl of the Wojciech Kilar score had already haunted my turntable. If vampire movies be my choice escapist fiction, then let the dark lurching strings of “Dracula- the Beginning”, accompany each reading of the 1897 classic. It’s starts softly foreboding but crescendos into absolute vindication- Dracula plunges his blade into an ornate cross and renounces God: “If my beloved burns in Hell, then so shall I!”- peaking at the introduction of discordant, sliding brass.
Another undeniable highlight is “Mina/Dracula”, where strings descend in disapproving caution before reaching up at the last step to articulate Mina’s sinful yearning for the tragic immortal lover and Dracula’s obsessive passion for his reincarnated spouse. In fantastical gothic texture, woodwind fervently paints over the foreground as harps embellish the background. It isn’t too long before each hopeful progression in tainted with uncomfortable intervals- love strong but forbidden. Mina bears her neck, willingly, to all pretty evils.
The Lost Boys (1987) // dir. Joel Schumacher
In 1987, the new standard of vampire was established: Kiefer Sutherland, painfully bleached blonde mullet, trench coat, glowing yellow eyes, and incisors.
Echo & the Bunnymen’s cover of Doors classic “People are Strange” is the perfect jaunty forewarning to new residents of Santa Carla, a fictional beach town, murder capital, and home to rockers, punks, and vampires. The movie’s main theme “Cry Little Sister” transcends the atmosphere of the film, perfectly colouring a scene where the gang of vampires weave through mechanical horses and pick fights on a revolving carousel.
INXS, Jimmy Barnes, and Roger Daltrey all fill a soundtrack that is definitively of its time. And from ex-Foreigner front man Lou Gramm, “Lost in the Shadows” is a crash drum travesty that is so congruent with the idea of 80s vampires you just have to love it.
This movie has music, hair, costumes, and hair. So much hair. The best hair of any vampire movie I’ll wager.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) // dir. Fran Rubel Kuzui
“You ruined my new jacket… Kill him a lot!” cries a vampire right before one of his minions is staked through the heart with the neck of an acoustic guitar.
Before there were the epic seven-season runs of monster-of-the-week shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spinoff Angel, there was the Kristy Swanson incarnation of my beloved teen vampire slayer. The whole premise was built of Joss Whedon’s idea that the “shallow” blonde who loves shopping and classically dies first should really be the inheritor of supernatural responsibilities to “stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness”. And slaying in style always meant to good tracks.
Here: the Divinyls with an appropriately named “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore”, a Mary’s Danish cover of “I Fought the Law”, and even Susanna Hoffs. The school DJ spins “Party with the Animals” as vampires swarm girls in 80s prom dresses. It’s only a vampire DJ that could think Ozzy isn’t heavy enough- out of the school hall’s PA system comes Rob Halford’s “Light Comes Out Of Black” as the turntables are hijacked by the immortal.
Blade (1998) // dir. Stephen Norrington
This one’s a pretty decent flick if you can get past awful effects and the fact that our protagonist, a vengeful half-vamp Daywalker, kills a lot of his enemies by sending them into extreme anaphylactic shock… with garlic extract.
In true 90s form, our very stylish vampires attend secret raves out the back of human abattoirs. New Order’s “Confusion” gives the undead a reason to thrash before the beat drops to the showering of blood from overhead sprinklers. For something so unfeeling and cold as vampires, it only makes sense they’d be paired with the sterility of rave tunes. The rest of the soundtrack quite similarly favours techno Massive Attack and Mod Def on “I Against I”, Voodoo & Serano on “Blood Is Pumping” and Fluke on “Absurd”.
A slither of “Bad Moon Rising” plays in Whistler’s workshop and it’s a comfort to know that, even in apocalyptic NYC, there’ll always be an old guy playing Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Queen of the Damned (2002) // dir. Michael Rymer
An underwhelming and atonal successor to the 1994 “Interview with the Vampire”, this film sees musically virtuoso and delightfully recast Lestat de Lioncourt rise from a fifty-five year coma sleep to front a wildly successful nu-metal band, assuring his undead cohort’s constant nourishment via the blood of his emo groupie victims.
Lestat’s hedonism comes to a halt when his California Death Valley concert is gatecrashed by a homicidal Egyptian vampire goddess that he summoned by sheer hubris and scooped mids, but not before he shares a bathtub and some bodily fluids (blood) with her while “Change (In the House of Flies)” by Deftones plays. The whole movie is awful, but in terms of aesthetics… it knows what it wants to be and executes it accordingly.
The rest of the soundtrack is appropriately Godhead, Disturbed, Static-X and even a Tricky track featuring Alanis Morrisette. Jonathan Davis of Korn steps up to perform as the singing voice of Lestat in the movie originals “Slept So Long” and “Not Meant for Me”. This one scored a gracious 0.5 Letterboxd rating from me last year.
Oh, this one has vampire clubs too.
Every October I become unduly obsessed with vampire fiction.