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Okay, I admit it–I do tend to go overboard… Sixteen vampire posters was a wee bit excessive–in the future I’ll try to stick to between four and nine movies for these “theme” poster quizzes. (Plus, I realized that by doing them in clumps, I burn through a ton of potential future poster subjects–so don’t be surprised if some of these come back from the dead again someday, so to speak, as their own poster quiz.)

Only a handful of you took the time to guess at them all, and first up once again was long-time friend of redblog Fiirvoen, who you might recall also won the “dog” themed poster quiz a few weeks ago–the man loves a challenge! And dogs! And vampires! In second was Donna, getting back into her summer redblog quiz groove, and in third was Stacey, who I don’t think has played any quizzes before–welcome, Stacey! Also getting it correct were regular quiz masters Paul N. and Tammy Lochridge. Congrats to you all!

Here are the full posters for all the films. I have a few random comments on them below, but let us know in the comments what your favorite vampire films are (whether they’re pictured here or not).

That’s a whole heap o’ bloodsuckers! Some quick notes on a few of them:

First off, yes I know I left off the second-most famous Dracula: the magnificent Christopher Lee, but he made so many of those ’60s Hammer films as the Count (Horror of Dracula, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, and Scars of Dracula), I didn’t want confuse things by asking you to identify just one of them.

1. The Hunger: There are a handful of films I first saw (repeatedly) when I was in high school in the early ’80s and our small Iowa town first got cable TV and premium channels. And well, I was a teenage boy… I was a huge Bowie fan at the time, but I must say I was even more, um “entranced” watching vampire Catherine Deneuve seduce Susan Sarandon. So The Hunger (one of Tony Scott’s earliest films) got a lot of repeat play when it hit cable the summer of ’84.

3. Nosferatu: This is Werner Herzog’s 1979 version of the classic silent film, with Klaus Kinski as the bald-headed vamp. I mention it because I remember first hearing about it on the original PBS version of Sneak Previews with Roger and Gene. We get a lot of guff on this site about what good are critics, who cares what they think, etc, so on, blah blah. But that memory of Siskel and Ebert discussing and recommending an artsy German vampire film gets at an important part of film criticism: it can help guide readers toward discovering and opening themselves up to different types of film. At age 13 in 1979 I didn’t know who Werner Herzog or Klaus Kinski were, but watching Roger and Gene sowed those seeds, not only making me think more critically about film, but getting me aware and interested in stuff that probably wasn’t going to be discussed in the Eastern Iowa newspapers’ arts pages. (Today Herzog–who’s most recent film was Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans–available in the redboxes–is one of my favorite filmmakers.)

4: Dracula (1979): Yep, that’s a very young and sexy Frank Langella as the Count–it was his big break-out role as a hot up-and-coming sex symbol.

5: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The one that started it all–in fact, writer Joss Whedon was so annoyed by how he felt the big-screen treatment with Swanson, Perry, Sutherland, and Hauer failed his creation (I still love Paul Reuben’s death scene), he resurrected her a few years later on the WB. And the rest is pop-culture history. (You can read me yammering on at length about the history of Buffy and Whedon in this article from last year: Big Badness: Buffy Reboots Without Whedon?)

7: From Dusk Till Dawn: Think of it as the precursor to Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse. It was also Clooney’s first feature-film starring role as he began thinking about leaving E.R.–a leap from TV to the big screen that many felt was a foolhardy career move. (David Caruso had crashed and burned trying the same thing a few years earlier.) And it was character actor Michael Park’s first appearance as Texas Ranger Earl McGraw–a role he’d return to in Kill Bill and Grindhouse‘s Planet Terror and Death Proof. Oh, and there’s Selma… and her snake…

9: Near Dark: The Aliens reunion with Bill Paxton, Lance Henricksen, and Jenette Goldstein, directed by James Cameron’s soon-to-be-wife Kathryn Bigelow! It was the Oscar-winning Hurt Locker director’s second feature (the first was the cool-looking biker flick The Loveless with Willem Dafoe) and announced with authority her skills as an action-film stylist. Easily one of the best films in this whole bunch and a bloody must-see for any vamp fans.

12: The Lost Boys: Kiefer’s breakout role! The Coreys! Jamie Gertz! Jason Patric! The sunglasses! The cool soundtrack! Oh, Joel Schumacher, come back to us, you sexy beast! All is forgiven for Batman & Robin!

13: Fright Night: Another cable staple that I must have watched on HBO a dozen times the summer of ’86. Fun facts: As the main vamp, you can see Chris Sarandon (Susan’s ex-husband–thanks for for the correction, Stacey!) warming up here for his villainous role in The Princess Bride. And Stephen Geoffreys, who stole the show as giggling Evil Ed (“Oh Brewster, yer so cooooool!”) did, uh… gay porn for a few years in the ’90s. And yes, the remake is underway, but I’m not too worried about it, thanks to some fantastic casting: Anton Yelchin (Chekov in Star Trek) is playing Brewster, Toni Collette will probably play his mom, David Tennant–fresh off his fantastic Dr. Who gig–will play the Roddy McDowell role, Christopher Mintz-Plasse is Evil Ed, and Colin Farrell (one of my favorite actors) has been cast as the vampire. Sounds all good to me.

14: Twilight: No, I am certainly not above once again plugging my Twilight Theater piece from over a year ago: Saturday Night Drive-in: Twilight Theater, or its follow-up: Saturday Night Drive-In: New Moon Theater.