Top 31 Vampire Comedy Movies (11-20)—including Love at First Bite and Day Shift
As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (At no additional charge to you.)
“Children of the night, shut up!”
Continuing our series exploring thirty-one comedies with vampires—some of which include even more monsters than just vampires. Each entry includes some behind-the-scenes details for the movie, plus several videos that offer even more info...
Read the other sections here:
Part 1: Top 31 Vampire Comedy Movies (21-31)—including Dracula: Dead and Loving It and The Munsters’ Revenge
Part 3: Top 31 Vampire Comedy Movies (1-10)—including What We Do in the Shadows and Fright Night
Monster Complex uses Amazon affiliate links.
20
#20 Vamp
A group of fraternity pledges head for the seedy side of the city in search of strippers and discover a sinister spot called The After Dark Club. But when the bar’s luscious dancers turn out to be bloodthirsty vampires, the evening takes on a freaky new twist. Can these guys survive a bizarre onslaught of vixens and vamps, or will the armies of the undead take the ultimate bite out of their night?
The 1986 horror comedy horror Vamp stars Grace Jones, as well as Chris Makepeace (Meatballs), Robert Rusler (Weird Science), Gedde Watanabe (Sixteen Candles) and Dedee Pfeiffer. The film is directed by Richard Wenk, co-written by Wenk and Donald P. Borchers, and features makeup effects by Oscar-winner Greg Cannom (Dracula, The Mask).
There are some similarities between Vamp and Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk till Dawn (1996)—including the setting of a strip club, and the dance performances from each film’s lead female characters.
The video playlist below includes the Vamp movie trailer, plus rehearsal performances, and an interview with Grace Jones.
Vamp (Vampire Comedies)
19
#19 Suck
Success eludes members of struggling rock band The Winners—until their bassist goes home with a pale-looking fan and comes back a vampire. She now has a charisma that drives audiences wild, and The Winners are topping the charts and blazing a bloody trail across North America. But a vampire hunter is coming after them…
The 2009 rock-and-roll vampire horror comedy movie Suck stars Rob Stefaniuk, who also wrote and directed it. The film also stars Jessica Paré, Malcolm McDowell, Dave Foley, and Star Trek: DS9 actress Nicole de Boer, plus music artists Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Moby, and Henry Rollins, as well as Alex Lifeson from the band Rush.
McDowell played vampire hunter Eddie Van Helsing. In one scene of Suck, Van Helsing thinks back to his younger days—and the film relied on footage from 1973 film O Lucky Man!, which starred McDowell, to work as his character’s memories.
The video playlist below includes the movie trailer for Suck, plus a clip that introduced a character, and a music video. Because, you know, it is a rock music movie.
Suck (Vampire Comedies)
18
#18 My Best Friend is a Vampire
When a teen delivery boy is bitten by a seductive vampire, he finds himself turning into a vampire. Now the high school student is struggling with his identity crisis—and his problems only get worse when a professor takes it upon himself to rid the world of vampires.
The 1987 horror comedy movie My Best Friend Is a Vampire—also known as I Was a Teenage Vampire—stars Robert Sean Leonard, LeeAnne Locken, René Auberjonois, Cheryl Pollak, Cecilia Peck, Fannie Flagg, and David Warner. Directed by Jimmy Huston and written by Tab Murphy, the story revolves around trying to live as a “good” vampire who won’t feed on humans.
“It should come as no surprise that Jeremy Capello’s unexpected brush with vampirism is a veiled metaphor for the suppression of human rights,” notes House of Self-Indulgence. “The eradication of prejudice is the film’s main objective, the silly vampire jokes and frequent car chases are just a diversionary tactic to keep the dunderheads in the audience blissfully unaware.”
Buy My Best Friend is a Vampire from Amazon
My Best Friend Is a Vampire / I Was a Teenage Vampire (1987) - Movie Trailer
17
#17 Vampire’s Kiss
Living in the big city is enough to drive anyone bats, and the pressure proves too much for a literary agent. His life is in turmoil until he meets the woman of his dreams. But during their first night together, she takes more than his heart—she takes his blood, too—and from that moment on, he now believes he is a vampire. Is she really a blood-lusting creature of the night—or just a product of his fevered imagination? Because if it turns out he really is a vampire—then there’s more than just his life at stake!
The 1989 horror comedy film Vampire’s Kiss starred Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Beals, María Conchita Alonso, and Elizabeth Ashley. The movie was directed by Robert Bierman and written by Joseph Minion. It did poorly at the box office, but has since become a cult film.
Buy Vampire’s Kiss from Amazon
“Darkness is like my middle name,” Minion told The Ringer for a 2019 major article revisiting Vampire’s Kiss. “I have a very dark view. I don’t feel very optimistic about anything.”
The article says that Minion is vaguely aware that Vampire’s Kiss has found a new life on the internet…
“…that it has become the forefather of endless debates about whether Cage is a good actor; that it’s deeply beloved among the sort of weirdos who can recite the alphabet in the exact same cadence as Cage’s character; that scenes of Cage bugging his eyes out and terrorizing Alva have inspired endless memes and YouTube clips.”
However, Minion dismisses all the off-topic discussions and presentations. “It’s not Vampire’s Kiss,” Minion told The Ringer. “Vampire’s Kiss is a movie that starts frame 1 and ends frame 12,722 or whatever. I’m not responsible for this meme stuff. I love films.”
The video playlist below includes the movie trailer for Vampire’s Kiss, plus a dozen clips from the film.
Vampire’s Kiss (Vampire Comedies)
16
#16 Day Shift
A hardworking dad out to provide for his daughter uses a boring pool-cleaning job as a front for his real gig: hunting and killing vampires. The 2022 supernatural action comedy movie Day Shift stars Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Meagan Good, Karla Souza, Steve Howey, Scott Adkins, and Snoop Dogg. The film is the debut of director J. J. Perry, with a screenplay by Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten, based on a story by Tice.
The movie’s score is by Tyler Bates, who writes music for movies, TV, and video games. A lot of his music is for horror and action films, with movies on his resume like the John Wick series, two of the Halloween movies, and Dawn of the Dead.
In an interview with actors Jamie Foxx and Dave Franco, Collider’s Steve Weintraub pointed out the awesome opening fight scene…with the grandma.
Foxx said that’s what sold him on the film. “When JJ showed me the previz of that, I said, ‘Yo money, what is that? How is this lady, this old lady doing it?’ And he says, ‘The contortions and this.’ So when we started shooting that, that was the one thing that I couldn’t wait to get into because I wanted to see how I would look in that. And, it turned out amazing.”
Foxx then points out that the trailer for Day Shift “overperformed,” with 19 million views in less than 24 hours. “It’s because when they see that shotgun blast and blow that old granny into the kitchen—and people were like, ‘What is that?’ And so, that really piqued everybody’s interest. So, I can’t wait for people to tune in and check that out, because it goes hard.”
The video playlist below includes the trailer for Day Shift, plus interviews with Foxx and Franco, with producer Chad Stahelski, and with director Perry.
Day Shift (Vampire Comedies)
15
#15 Love at First Bite
When the government of Transylvania appropriates his castle, Count Dracula is obliged to relocate and decides to give New York City a try. He suffers all manner of adjustment problems, but finds solace in a new relationship. Unfortunately, her fiancé is a direct descendant of Dracula’s old nemesis, Van Helsing, and prepared to do whatever necessary to stop his undead rival.
The 1979 horror comedy Love at First Bite starred George Hamilton, Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin, and Arte Johnson. The film was directed by Stan Dragoti, and written by Robert Kaufman, using characters originally created by Bram Stoker.
The inspiration for the film came about when Hamilton and producer Harold Sonny Van Arnem met with screenwriter Kaufman and discussed poolside impressions of Bela Lugosi. Their thoughts turned to what would happen if Dracula lived in modern New York City.
Buy Love at First Bite from Amazon
Below, the video playlist includes the trailer for Love at First Bite, as well as a disco dancing scene.
Love at First Bite (Vampire Comedies)
14
#14 Innocent Blood
A beautiful vampire only dines on bad guys as an undercover cop infiltrates a vicious mafia family. The 1992 horror comedy Innocent Blood stars Anne Parillaud as a beautiful French vampire who finds herself pitted against a gang of mobsters led by Salvatore Macelli (played by Robert Loggia)—who eventually becomes a vampire and schemes to build a criminal syndicate of vampires. Other actors in the film include Anthony LaPaglia, Angela Bassett, Chazz Palminteri, Don Rickles, Tony Sirico, and David Proval.
A mix of vampire, buddy cop, and gangster movies, Innocent Blood was directed by John Landis and written by Michael Wolk. Landis, of course, is known for making movies that combine elements from different kinds of stories—including The Blues Brothers (1980), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Trading Places (1983), Three Amigos (1986), and Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), as well as directing Michael Jackson’s music videos for “Thriller.”
In an interview with Filmmaker, Landis explained how with Innocent Blood he straddled between creating a vampire story and a crime movie. “No matter how outrageous, you have to try to make it as real as possible,” Landis said. “With Macelli, the film begins like a Marty Scorsese movie. You have to establish upfront just how frightening and deadly he is. The idea was that you already have this really malevolent force who is then given superpowers. I love his arc, from when he wakes up as a corpse and discovers that he’s been killed to him understanding and realizing his new powers. Because at first, he’s just terrified. Then, he’s sort of animalistic, just hungry for meat and blood.
“And then, I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s a thing in the movie that when the vampires are fed, they look good. They look healthy. But when they’re first undead, they don’t look so good until they get some new blood. When people asked me, ‘What are you doing?’ I would say, ‘Well, I’m making a Hammer film as if it was directed by Scorsese.’”
Buy Innocent Blood from Amazon
The video playlist below includes the movie trailer from Innocent Blood, plus an interview clip from Don Rickles, and a look at the film.
Innocent Blood (Vampire Comedies)
13
#13 Dark Shadows
After being turned into a vampire by a jilted lover, Barnabas is entombed for two centuries until he emerges into the very changed world of 1972. Directed by Tim Burton, the 2012 dark fantasy comedy film Dark Shadows was based on the dramatic 1966-1971 TV soap opera of the same name.
The film starred Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Bella Heathcote in a dual role. Horror film legend Christopher Lee also had a small role in the film, which was his 200th film appearance—as well as his fifth (and final) appearance in a Burton film. Jonathan Frid—who played the vampire Barnabas in the original Dark Shadows TV show—also made a cameo in the film.
Director Burton and actor Depp had worked together several times before—including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sleepy Hollow, and Edward Scissorhands. Actually, Burton worked on Dark Shadows with several regular collaborators, including composer Danny Elfman, production designer Rick Heinrichs, costume designer Colleen Atwood, and editor Chris Lebenzon.
Buy the Dark Shadows movie from Amazon
The video playlist below includes the movie trailer for the Dark Shadows movie, an interview with director Burton, plus a clip from the original series where Barnabas is being introduced. (Keep in mind, the original series wasn’t a comedy but a spooky drama.)
Dark Shadows (Vampire Comedies)
12
#12 Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire
Scooby-Doo takes on a musical! The Mystery Inc. gang attends a vampire festival in which a real vampire appears to disrupt the festivities. Things go from bad to worse when the vampire chooses Daphne for his bride. The 2012 direct-to-DVD animated musical comedy horror film Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire is the first of their films to be a musical.
Podcast The Unmasked History of Scooby Doo talked with Christian Campbell, who co-starred in Scooby Doo! Music of the Vampire as the voice of Bram, leader of the vampire performance troupe. “This is the Scooby Doo world I enjoyed when I was a kid,” he said, “except now there’s music and people are being fabulous. It was good. It was good, solid fun. And now I found, I’ve got nephews, I’ve got nieces, and they love the fact that they hear my voices in various cartoons.”
Buy Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire from Amazon
Below are two videos from the movie, including one that shares the first 10 minutes of Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire.
Related link: Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire is also part of our list 27 Monster Musicals (Pt 3): From Young Frankenstein and Monster High to Xena: Warrior Princess and more
11
#11 Therapy for a Vampire
In 1930s Vienna, Dr. Sigmund Freud helps a depressed vampire whose 500-year marriage is on the rocks. Count von Kozsnom has lost his thirst for life, and his marriage cooled centuries ago. The good doctor suggests the Count appease his vain wife by commissioning a portrait of her by his assistant, Viktor. But it’s Viktor’s headstrong girlfriend who most intrigues the Count, convinced she’s the reincarnation of his one true love. Soon, the whole crowd is a hilarious mess of mistaken identities and misplaced affections in this send-up of the vampire genre, proving that 500 years of marriage is enough.
“A seductive and hilarious take on vampire lore with a script and cast that nails the coffin tight,” says Patrick Cooper of Bloody Disgusting. “Very clever and crackling with intelligent humor and subtlety.”
“Very funny tale of undead love,” says Adam Ruhl of Pop Culture Beast. “Director David Ruehm crafts this beautiful world with a master hand.”
The 2014 Austrian horror comedy Therapy for a Vampire stars Tobias Moretti, Jeanette Hain, Cornelia Ivancan, Dominic Oley, David Bennent, and Karl Fischer. The film was written and directed by David Ruehm. Therapy for a Vampire won the Audience Award for Best Foreign Feature at the 2015 Fantasia International Film Festival.
Therapy for a Vampire Official Trailer - Tobias Moretti, Jeanette Hain
Click through to continue the series with these other sections:
Want more articles about vampire fiction?
Click on our VAMPIRES category for articles about blood-sucking books, movies, TV shows, comic books, and more!
Subscribe to the Monster Complex newsletter and get the free booklet DRACULA VS. to discover that time he bumped into that SUPERHERO, was pestered by that FUNNY ANIMAL, was humiliated by those CIVIL SERVANTS, and more! Includes links to video clips! CLICK HERE FOR YOUR COPY!
More from Monster Complex
Nicolas Cage is Dracula—but RENFIELD is “Really Nicholas Hoult’s movie”
Dracula Comedy Roundup: Game, Movies, TV, Books, Comics, Videos
Monster Mash parody: Frankenstein's Monster vs Psychotic Killers
‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Fans—16 Vampire Books You Should Check Out
Kendare Blake Q&A: ‘In Every Generation’ Revisits Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Quiz: Was That Monster On An Episode Of X-Files Or Buffy The Vampire Slayer?
Monster Mash: 13 Movies Where Frankenstein Meets Dracula Meets The Wolf Man
60+ Special Vampire Book Series—from Anne Rice, L.A. Banks, Charlaine Harris, more
![[Flashback] Dracula by Bram Stoker—“the events really took place…”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e613d28fefad366b93ece35/1672758367957-L2T5WIIZLPIF6YE0P4GS/Stoker-Dracula-books-editions.jpg)
![[Flashback] ‘The Vampyre’ by John Polidori—revising vampire folklore into the monster seen in vampire stories today.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e613d28fefad366b93ece35/1680208747809-VFCKO15P6Q229GGB4IB9/Polidori-Vampyre-promo.jpg)
Related articles online:
Five vampire comedy movies to quench your (blood)thirst (The Face)
20 Vampire Comedies (List Challenges)
10 Sweet Vampire Comedies To Watch If You Liked Netflix’s Vampires Vs. The Bronx (Screen Rant)
What We Do In The Shadows: 10 Best Vampire Comedy Movies And Shows Ranked via IMDB (Screen Rant)
5 Irreverent Vampire Comedies With Bite (Game Rant)
Seven Great Vampire Comedies to Sink Your Teeth Into (Wicked Horror)
The cold, hard stats of vampire comedies (The Dissolve)
The Funniest Vampire Parody Movies (Ranker)
15 Funny (?) Vampire Films (Bullz-Eye)
Day Shift and other vampire comedies to enjoy in streaming (Voonze)
Top 15 Vampire Comedy Movies of All Time – Explored (Marvelous Videos)
Is Richard Matheson's novel I AM LEGEND about vampires or is it about zombies? Well, yes to both. We talk about the impact the book has had on storytellers ranging from George A. Romero and Rod Serling to Stephen King and Anne Rice... and so many more.