Last Updated on August 3, 2021
#1. VAN HELSING
Can’t say I’m a huge fan of the recent films he’s featured in, but as far as a bona fide vampire hunter is concerned, you’d be hard-pressed to refute Van Helsing’s top ranking status. Dude solely lives to quash any and all sallow and long-toothed blood-fiends. And for that, we’re grateful! The legendary Peter Cushing gave us the prototype in the 50s and 60s, a template that’s been rebranded for the 21st century by Hugh Jackman. With no trick left in the bag, Van Helsing employs every method of madness imaginable to get the job done. Dude’s the master!
#2. BLADE
What’s become of Wes Snipes in recent years is a shame, but nothing can take away from the 3-part run he had as Blade, the ultra-ass-kicking vampire half-breed. Hell, on hairdo and wardrobe alone, dude should get a medal. Seriously though, props to David Goyer for creating a character we hadn’t seen the likes of until 1998, not just aesthetically, but in terms of back story as well. With vampire blood coursing through his veins, yet conflicted by human emotion, Blade’s a conscionable hero like few we’ve encountered. Of course, in vintage Snipes fashion, he busts more ass than Manuel Ferrara.
#3. JACK CROW
James Woods is a fucking badass. Period. So when Carpenter gives him the authority to head a ragtag band of evil exterminators in VAMPIRES, dude never falls short. Equipped with as many quips and barbs as he is high-powered weaponry, the craggy wisdom and attitudinal disposition never gets old…it’s actually as entertaining as anyone else on our list. Extra props for appearing as just a normal guy, no superpowers, no antiquated period affectation, just a hardened exterior and unparalleled skill to spot and kill a blood-drinking perp. I love this character!
#4. JONATHAN HARKER
Many iterations of Jonathan Harker have been put to celluloid, usually playing second fiddle to his mentor Van Helsing, but that shouldn’t imply the character is any less capable of doing away with his primary nocturnal foe. First played by David Manning in the 1931 version of Bram Stoker’s DRACULA, Harker has appeared in some 30 variations of the story, even getting his own title, HARKER, set for 2014. For my money though, Bruno Ganz’s take in Herzog’s 1979 flick NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE that’s always made the most creepily enduring impression.
#5. SETH GECKO
Before he transmuted into Cary Grant of our generation, the Cloons as Seth Gecko, replete with awesome neck tat, awful bangs and seething temper, ranks 16 years after release among some of the most badass vamp destroyers we’ve seen. I mean, when you outlive Harvey Keitel and Tom Savini, you’re doing something right! Not for nothing, but aside from his guile, it’s the pretty sweet motorized stake-gun he fashions in the final reel of the film, as he mows down a legion of heinous bloodsuckers, that really puts dude over the top.
#6. FROG BROTHERS
“We’re fighters for truth, justice, and the American way!” Such are the immortal words of Corey Feldman as Edgar Frog, one half of the not to be trifled with Frog brothers in THE LOST BOYS franchise. I say franchise, but come on, there’s really only one flick…Schumacher’s 1987 original…that’s worth feting. Garlic rosaries, holy water squirt-guns, a whole harem of sharpened wooden stakes – for a couple kids – few have more creative anti-vampiric arsenals. “Try holy water death breath!” – few have better lines as well!
#7. PETER VINCENT
More of a de facto slayer than an out-and-out hunter, Peter Vincent’s expertise of vampire lore serves as valuable as anything else in Tom Holland’s FRIGHT NIGHT. We’ll forgive or at least overlook the hipster-magician version David Tenant gave us in the so-so remake, instead doff the cap to Roddy McDowell’s reluctant timidity that opposes the badass nature of the rest of our vampire killers. Dude favors a cerebral approach over a physically dominating one, so in the name of variety, he need be mentioned.
#8. PROFESSOR ABRONSIUS
Any chance you missed Polanski’s 1971 horror-comedy THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLER? If so, go find that shite stat! Why? It has one of the oddest and most memorable onscreen vampiric dispatchers in Professor Abronsius, played by the inimitable Jack MacGowran…as a wacky ass Einstein lookalike. The tone is rather playful, an early horror lampoon of sorts, but when it comes down to brooding atmosphere and Gothic ambience, Polanski, who plays the professor’s lowly lackey, is outmatched by very few.
#9. TADA CUDA
The curveball of the bunch must be thrown to Lincoln Maazel for his splendid work in George A. Romero’s MARTIN, which many argue is his finest film. Completely antithetical to the vampire mythology, the flick takes a much more intimate, more affecting approach. And since Cuda is in the position of identifying his own nephew as a strange breed of bloodsucker, his methods are equally opposed to what we’ve come to expect with the subgenre. He means business, to be sure, but he tows a delicate line between ridding evil and saving the soul of one of his own.
#10. BUFFY
As to avoid being deemed a misogynist, let’s mix in a little estrogen to the punch. I could have gone toward Kate Beckinsale in UNDERWORLD, or Jessica Biel in BLADE TRINITY, but in the end, few lady vampire slayers have had as big an impact as the one and only Buffy. Sure it’s light, sure it’s campy, but come on, when you fell a bohemian Pee Wee Herman, then the head vamp played by Rutger Hauer (love the name Lothos), you’re automatically one of the best in the biz.
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