Entertainment
10 Of The Strongest And Most Charismatic Vampires
It is kind of unfair how vampires have all these powers and still be immortal. They have super strength, maybe not Superman-like strength, but it’s well around that area. They can control minds, mental telepathy as Professor X exhibited, could be quite useful and game-changing when used at the right moments. They shapeshift, into bats or getaway smoke or mist, sometimes, even to mimic other people. To make things very unfair, they can fly. It’s like taking DNA from Clark Kent and Charles Xavier, taking all their best qualities, and putting it all in one being, that is what a vampire is.
There have been hundreds of portrayals of vampires on film and television, most of them are very good. What can we say, we are all, pardon the pun, suckers when it comes to vampire movies and TV shows. Looking back at all those popular vampires from Nosferatu to Edward Cullen, we cannot deny the evolution of the vampire. It is in their nature to evolve, as their audience does, too. Here is a list of 10 of the strongest vampires we know. Strong is not limited to the physical ability, but strong in every sense of it: character, determination, fortitude, and charisma.
10. Spike
Zombies have risen again and kind of dominated pop culture these days, we can think of at least 3 TV shows involving zombies, zombie apocalypse, and zombie-type viruses, and other plots and themes. But in the eighties and the nineties, vampires were all that anyone can see, both on film and TV. From brutal and unforgiving vampires, we’ve seen sophisticated, brooding, and sexy ones too. There are those who are mysterious, conflicted, and unsteady ones as well. From style to gore, vampires of this generation are like a melee of different characteristics and personalities. The culmination of all these vampires in this particular generation is embodied by Spike.
Spike is played by actor James Marsters, in the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He is the coolest vampire of his generation. His will is exceptional, his resolve, absolute. A proud vampire, but with a moral compass that’s flexible. Sometimes funny, but mostly sarcastic, he is the classic vampire that fell for a vampire slayer. Close range shotgun, no problem. Lost a limb, he gan grow it back. He is super-strong, too. He’s ultra cool because he was created by Avengers director and writer Joss Whedon. He helped the series gain 5 million fans since his entrance in Season 2.
9. Count Orlok
Orlok is the first vampire on film. He was the first Dracula to be portrayed on the silver screen, in a German film titled Nosferatu. The problem is that the people who made the first Dracula film did not have the rights to use Bram Stoker’s 1897 masterpiece of a novel titled Count Dracula. The screenwriters and producers did their best to mask it though, changing names, locations, and some plot points, but it was still so similar to the horror novel that they got sued for plagiarism. Nonetheless, Count Orlok still remains the first version of Dracula on film.
It was not until nine years later that Universal Pictures produced the first Dracula film, starring Bela Lugosi and directed by Tod Browning. But German director F.W. Murnau and actor Max Schreck have already made their permanent mark in the film industry as the first. Nosferatu and Count Orlok, to this day, are still used as a reference by filmmakers and critics alike to measure their own work, and others’ works. Count Orlok’s Dracula is a chilling, non-sophisticated image of what we’ve come to get used to from Bela Lugosi’s version. But it has its own quality, a disturbing type, and those eyes, they just send chills down anyone’s spine!
8. Severen
Every budding director has to try their hand on horror, that’s just how it is. What better way to do it than with a vampire-themed horror film. That is exactly what Kathryn Bigelow did. And from that came out an unforgettable character in Severen. Near Dark was the motion picture that Kathryn Bigelow solo-directed, it was technically her first film as a director. Her first was Willem Dafoe’s The Loveless which she co-directed with Monty Montgomery. Near Dark was the first film she directed alone, and what a wonderful job she did. This was 21 years before Hurt Locker, she was already showing signs of brilliance in her films. She did it in Near Dark (1987) with Bill Paxton’s portrayal of Severen, then again with Keanu Reeves in Point Break (1991).
Bill Paxton’s career was an awesome one. What actor can tell people that they’ve worked with James Cameron one too many times? He’s had most of his work under the direction of James Cameron, Titanic, True Lies, Aliens, he was in all those films. But in the vampire world, one of the best vampires to ever set foot on screen was portrayed by him and directed by James Cameron’s ex-wife. Just get a copy of the film and see how strong a vampire Bill Paxton’s Severen was.
7. Benjamin
A teen movie about vampires, what’s the problem with that? That’s the target demographic of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, both the film and TV series. Angel, too. No doubt, The Lost Boys also appealed to the younger audience. So what was wrong with the Twilight saga? Nothing is wrong with it. It just can’t be helped to be compared with the previous vampires of the film industry. We cannot blame vampire fans going crazy about twinkling vampires under the sun, their skin should burn, not twinkle like they’re crystal! We admit, it’s a refreshing change, maybe a little out there, but that’s what vampires are, they are unpredictable. And in that spirit, we go back and examine the Twilight saga vampires and their powers.
It wasn’t until Breaking Dawn did fans really get to see the other vampires and their strength and powers. It was a montage of different vampire powers, and slapped on beautiful faces, too. What a treat! From brute strength to the gift of foresight, from pathokinesis to tactile telepathy. The most powerful is still the ability to control the elements, that is Benjamin’s power. Notice the s after element? It’s not just one element, he can control all the elements: fire, water, earth, and air. If you think he’s not the strongest Twilight vampire, then you’re sparkling raving mad!
6. Selene
Night comes and the creatures of the underworld come out to play. That’s a nice prologue to the film series that launched Kate Beckinsale as a certified female action star. Kate Beckinsale, at the start of her career, was portraying roles of sweet, timid girls. Mostly she’d be in dramas, she’s kind of a serious actress. But the floodgates opened when she became Selene in Underworld. A vampire Lycan hunter, or a vampire hunting werewolves, Selene is a Death Dealer (what a very cool name!). Death Dealers are an elite killing force in the Vampire Coven. Selene is the ultimate woman in the new age. The strongest vampire in her world, an expert in what she does, and does not take any crap from anyone, human, Lycan or vampire.
The Underworld film was so successful that it spawned four more sequels, all of which Kate Beckinsale’s Selene was the central character of. Selene dons an all-black shiny leather bodysuit, a corset, and tough but fashionable boots for some effective Lycan kicking. Pair that with a nice cape-like trenchcoat and two handguns, then we’ve got ourselves the strongest female vampire ever! Skills, cool factor, and beauty, what more can anyone ask for, really. Selene redefined vampires and women in a way that Len Wiseman and Kate Beckinsale can only do.
5. Blade
Directly saving itself from the unsuccessful strings of African American vampires, Wesley Snipes saved the day and changed the norm by becoming Blade. Wesley Snipes was at the top of his game when he started playing the vampire killer Blade. Based on a Marvel comics character back in 1973, Blade is a dhampir, an offspring of a vampire and a human. This is what we see in the flashback of the film, Blade’s pregnant mother bitten by a vampire. And just because of that, Blade is born as one of the strongest vampire ever. He has all the strengths a vampire possesses, and none of the weaknesses.
But Blade still has that thirst for blood, and he does everything in his power not to give in. Other than that, he is a perennial vampire superhero. Killing vampires left to right, saving humans night in and night out. His best nickname is daywalker. To be a vampire and to be called daywalker, what a cool vampire nickname! Blade’s best nemesis in the successful New Line Cinema trilogy would still have to be Deacon Frost, played by Stephen Dorff. Unfortunately, every sequel is less and less good than the phenomenal original, but it does not take away the fact that Blade is one of the strongest vampires we’ve ever known.
4. Louis
Anne Rice still is the expert in creating cool and powerful vampires. Her vampires have depth, never sparkle, and possess that natural charisma. Take Louis, for example, we all loved him the moment we saw him as a man in the film Interview with The Vampire. We loved him, even more, when he turned to the dark side. Those ashen skin and blank eyes, they just work on Brad Pitt. The moral dilemma of a man who was just turned into a vampire, this was Louis’s plight at the beginning of the film. A vampire who would never drink blood from a human being, he still values human life. Later on, he will realize he had these powers that make him a terribly strong vampire, and one with a moral determination no vampire has seen.
Anne Rice absolutely loved Brad Pitt and his portrayal of Louis, she said he captured Louis’s guilt and shame, his eyes and soft voice mirror the pain and despair of a man who has fallen from grace and ashamed of himself. Louis the vampire is a young vampire, but a strong one. In his rage, he wiped out a catacomb full of stage-performing vampires without a single scratch on his face. He is a beautiful and strong vampire, that’s what he is.
3. Lestat
Reinforcing the position of Anne Rice as the best vampire storyteller of all time, We come down to another great vampire character, Lestat. A New Orleans resident but of French origins, Lestat de Lioncourt is one vampire with a wealth of personality. His demeanor early on in the film tells us that he is an old vampire, has been through history both good and worst, and came out alive, still. Tom Cruise, at this stage of his career, was still punching it out in Hollywood. He had some good hits, Top Gun, A Few Good Men, Rain Man, but he has not had that knock out film that downed the audience and the critics for the count. That’s what he had in Interview with The Vampire. It showed everyone his range, that he can play a sophisticated mythical being.
Lestat is the double-edged sword that Anne Rice gave to the people. By creating him, she sent forth word that vampires can be ridiculously good-looking and be monsters at the same time. That was the message the vampire world got from Lestat, Louis, Armand, and the Interview with The Vampire. That is how strong a vampire Lestat is, he is a pop-vamp-culture phenom if there ever was one.
2. Those Who Must Be Kept
Yes, there is a beginning. There were the first two. The first ever vampires in history. They are called Those Who Must Be Kept. Another masterful creation from the master weaver of vampire worlds, Anne Rice. They are called Those Who Must Be Kept simply because they should be, and very carefully because whatever happens to them, happens to every vampire in the whole of the Earth. Hurting them will hurt all other vampires they created, and the vampires that their creations created That means killing them wipes out the whole vampire population. They are Queen Akasha and King Enkil of Kemet. Akasha was the first vampire, the Queen of The Damned. Some call her The Great Mother.
Aaliyah’s portrayal of the most beautiful vampire fell short, quite short. It’s not her fault, a 6,000-year-old vampire to be portrayed by a 2-year old motion film actor, she really fell short. Apparently,Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, and Whoopi Goldberg were all booked at the time. For a great image of what kind of vampires Those Who Must Be Kept are, read The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. Here you will find what the original beautiful vampire is like, as only Anne Rice can bring to life.
1. Dracula
And then there was just one. The last slot in this article belongs to, none other than, Dracula. What more can we say about this guy? He is it. The man. Err, the vampire with a big V. The big kahuna, the bee’s knees, the alpha. He may be the most charismatic monster ever created in the history of creating monsters. A survey was taken on what kind of death would a person like to have in the hands of a monster, the runaway winner was: death by Dracula. No one wants to be mauled by a werewolf or eaten by zombies. Everybody wants to get bitten by the Count. He is so charismatic that there’s two more immortal vampires created in his honor: Count Chocula of Cereal Land and Count von Count of Sesame Street.
Countless portrayals have been done on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but the best one was that of Gary Oldman in Francis Ford Coppola’s film aptly titled Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He was so spot on, he manifested the charisma, the mysteriousness, the dark nature, and the cool factor of Dracula all in one great motion picture. This role is what would launch his career as a sought-after villain in Hollywood films for the next decade. See how strong Dracula is?