Four centuries later in 1862, Jonathan Harker (Reeves), a law firm clerk, travels to Transylvania to arrange the transfer of Carfax Abbey in London, Count Dracula’s (Gary Oldman) newest real estate acquisition. At the castle, full of bizarre, unnatural features and shadows that move by themselves, Harker meets Dracula, a wrinkled, pale old man in brilliant red robes. During the final signing of the real estate papers, the Count caresses a picture of Harker’s fiancée Wilhelmina “Mina” Murray (Ryder), the reincarnation of his long dead wife, Elisabeta. Dracula then sets sail on the ship Demeter to England, leaving Harker captive by Dracula’s insatiable and bloodthirsty Brides, who systematically drink his blood, leaving him weak and unable to escape.

Dracula arrives in London in a box of his native soil, which is transported to the Abbey, where Dracula emerges to ravish and drink the blood of Mina’s best friend, Lucy Westenra (Sadie Frost). Dracula, now a young and handsome prince, meets and gradually charms Mina, but refuses to bite her, instead offering her absinthe to aid her recollection of her past life. As the two fall deeper in love, Lucy’s deteriorating health and noticeable behavioral changes prompts suitors Quincey Morris (Bill Campbell), Dr. John Seward (Richard E. Grant) and Arthur Holmwood (Cary Elwes) to summon Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins), who during a blood transfusion recognizes Lucy as a vampire victim. In Transylvania, Harker escapes to a convent and writes to Mina, who despite misgivings does as Lucy suggests and goes off to marry him. On the ship she writes that she still feels the presence of her “strange friend and misses him. Dracula, grief-stricken and enraged, murders Lucy to transform her into one of his vampire brides.

After Lucy’s funeral, Van Helsing leads Arthur, Seward and Morris to the family crypt, where Lucy has risen as a vampire. Horrified, the group drives a metal stake through her heart and decapitates her. Newlyweds Harker and Mina return to London and join Van Helsing, Seward, Morris and Arthur in hunting Dracula. They arrive at Carfax Abbey and destroy his boxes of soil. The Count, who watches from the shadows, travels to Mina and confesses that he is dead, a hunted creature and the murderer of Lucy. Despite her rage, Mina still loves him and wants to be with him. As she begins drinking blood from Dracula’s chest, the Vampire Hunters burst into the bedroom, with Dracula claiming Mina as his bride before disappearing into the shadows. As Mina begins changing the same way Lucy had, Van Helsing hypnotizes her and learns via her connection with Dracula that he is sailing home. The Hunters depart for the port of Varna via train to intercept him, but discover that Dracula has read Mina’s mind and evades them. The Hunters split up, with Van Helsing and Mina traveling to the Borgo Pass and the Castle, while the others try to stop the Gypsies transporting Dracula.

At night, encamped at the castle, Mina begins changing as the Brides hover nearby. After attempting to seduce Van Helsing she bares fangs, but is rebuffed with Holy Eucharist. As she returns to her human form, Van Helsing surrounds them both with a ring of fire, warding off the Brides until morning, when he wearily infiltrates the castle and kills the Brides as they sleep. Hours later, as sunset approaches, Dracula’s carriage appears on the horizon, driven by Gypsies and pursued by the Hunters. Dracula, sensing Mina’s presence, telepathically commands her to summon a spell that casts harsh winds to impede the Hunters. The carriage finally arrives at Castle Dracula and a great fight that pits the Hunters vs the Gypsies. One Gypsy coats a knife with chloroform and stabs Morris, gravley injuring him. Just as the Hunters kill the last gypsy, the sun sets and Dracula bursts from his box. He fights with supernatural strength but cannot overpower Harker, who slits the Count’s throat with a kukri knife while Morris stabs him in the heart with a Bowie Knife. As the Count staggers, Mina rushes to his defense with a rifle. Arthur tries to attack but Van Helsing and Harker allow her to retreat with the Count, turning instead to Morris, who dies from his injury while surrounded by his friends.

In the castle, in the very chapel where he renounced God, Dracula lies dying. His appearance reflecting his ancient age, his face demonic, he rebuffs Mina’s attempts to pull the knife from his heart. They share an intimate kiss, as the candles adorning the chapel miraculously light, and the desecrations he committed on the altar are repaired. God forgives Dracula, whose youthful appearance and humanity returns. As he asks Mina to give him peace, she shoves the knife through his heart and decapitates him. Mina then looks hopefully up at the vast ceiling, where a painting of Vlad and Elisabeta is shown of them rising, together, up to heaven.

Caleb cannot bring himself to kill, even at the cost of his own survival, which alienates him from the gang of vampires. Unwilling to permit Caleb to be killed by her companions, Mae repeatedly kills for him, and allows him to drink from her wrist. Jesse and the gang are only temporarily mollified when Caleb puts himself at great risk to rescue them from a police raid on their motel during daylight hours.

Anguished at his son’s disappearance, Caleb’s father searches for the group of drifters he believes has kidnapped his son. With Caleb’s little sister Sarah in tow, he canvasses the surrounding towns for news of his son while the police conduct their own investigation. When the young vampire Homer sees Sarah at a roadside motel, a standoff develops. Homer wishes to transform the girl into a companion for himself, but Caleb demands that she be allowed to leave unharmed. While the gang argues over what to do, Caleb’s father arrives, demanding at gunpoint that Sarah be released. Jesse challenges him, and when Caleb’s father fires the gun, Jesse responds by regurgitating the bullet and wrenching the gun from his hand. In the confusion of the moment Sarah opens the door and flees, forcing the vampires to hide from the sunlight streaming into the motel room. Caleb chooses to return to his family, and jumps into his father’s truck, his skin burning and smoking in the sunlight. He suggests a transfusion to his distraught father.

In the darkness of the barn Caleb’s father transfuses his blood into Caleb’s veins, weeping in fear that his son is lost. The transfusion reverses Caleb’s transformation, and he is again human. His father’s previously gruff manner is now tempered by evident relief at Caleb’s return. That night, Mae and the rest of the vampires come looking for Caleb, knowing he can identify them and the threat they represent. Homer remains fixed on the idea of turning Sarah into his mate. While Mae distracts Caleb with conversation outside the house, the others slip inside and kidnap Sarah. When Mae ascertains that Caleb cannot be convinced to return to her, she runs away, leaving Caleb to discover the kidnapping.

Realizing that Sarah is gone, Caleb goes after her. The gang has taken the precaution of slashing the tires, so Caleb must ride one of the family’s horses into town. On the town’s main street, Caleb encounters Severen, who attacks him while decrying his lack of loyalty. When a tractor-trailer approaches, Caleb commandeers the fuel laden vehicle to run down Severen. Severen is only injured and, enraged, he begins to climbs the front of the cab toward the driver’s seat. Caleb forces the truck to jackknife before jumping clear, killing Severen in the ensuing explosion. Homer remains less than interested in Caleb and holds onto the kidnapped Sarah. Jesse and Diamondback are now intent on torturing and killing Caleb. They begin to chase him, but as dawn breaks, they return to the car and flee toward the receding dark. Mae is not only reluctant to see Caleb hurt but realizes that she cannot permit Sarah to become another child-like monster. While the vampires drive away from Caleb in the first rays of morning, Mae breaks out the back of their station wagon, pulling Sarah with her. Mae is badly burned by the sun as she runs with Sarah into Caleb’s arms, and Caleb covers her smoldering body with his coat. Homer, desperate to keep Sarah for himself, leaps out of the car to follow her and is destroyed in a fiery explosion as the sun takes its toll. With no shelter from the sun nearby, Jesse and Diamondback and beginning to blacken and burn. In a final effort they turn the car around and attempt to rundown Caleb and Sarah, but the car veers off the road and explodes as they become completely engulfed in flames.

In the final scene, Caleb open the door to the Colton family barn where Mae lies hooked up to transfusion equipment, her burns fully healed. As morning sunlight spills into the barn, Mae’s initial reaction is fear, but she has ceased to be a creature of the night and Caleb comforts her with the reassurance that she need no longer fear the sun.

The woman begs Jonathan to help the next evening and clutches at him. She leans against him as if crying but then tries to bite him. Dracula arrives and yanks her off and fights with her. Jonathan tries to protect her but is overpowered by Dracula and bitten. The pair depart and Jonathan is worried he might become a vampire. Jonathan descends to the coffin room, where he finds Dracula and the woman in their coffins for sunrise. Armed with a stake, he impales the woman first. When Jonathan turns to Dracula’s coffin, it is empty — and Dracula is waiting by the door for him.

Dr. Van Helsing then arrives looking for Jonathan. He is horrified when he discovers Jonathan lying in a coffin as a vampire. Staking his friend, he leaves to deliver the grim news in person to Jonathan’s fiancée Lucy, her brother Arthur Holmwood and his wife Mina.

Arthur is quick to dismiss Van Helsing, but soon seeks his aid when Lucy falls ill. Van Helsing suggests that Dracula wishes to replace the woman Jonathan took from him with Lucy. Lucy becomes a vampire and tries to lure a young niece to her but the girl is saved by Van Helsing and Arthur. Van Helsing suggests using Lucy as a means to find Dracula but Arthur refuses and so Van Helsing stakes Lucy in her coffin.

Van Helsing and Arthur try to track down the destination of Dracula’s coffin (which had left the castle just as Van Helsing was arriving there), resorting to bribery. Meanwhile, Mina is called away from home by a message telling her to meet Arthur at a certain address. The next morning, they find Mina in a strange state. Determined to find the coffin they plan to leave again but not before Arthur begs Mina to take a cross. Mina is very reluctant and when Arthur presses it into her hand she screams, jumps up and faints. A cross-shaped burn mark is found on her hand. Arthur and Van Helsing then leave for the location they found out (the very same address Mina was called to – not by Arthur but Dracula) but when they arrive there the coffin has vanished.

During the night, Van Helsing and Arthur guard both of Mina’s windows against a return of Dracula, but he visits and bites her nonetheless. A remark by the maid leads Van Helsing to the coffin’s location: the basement of the Holmwoods’ house. He places a cross inside it, while Dracula locks him in the basement and takes Mina with him. Arthur frees Dr. Van Helsing. A chase then begins as Dracula rushes to return home before sunrise. He attempts to bury Mina in the soil and finds Dr. Van Helsing and Arthur close behind and dashes into his home.

Inside Van Helsing and Dracula battle it out, with Dracula quickly gaining the upper hand. Van Helsing fakes a faint and escapes from Dracula’s clutches. He tears open the curtain to let in the sunlight and, forming a cross of candlesticks, he forces Dracula into it.

Dracula crumbles into dust, as Van Helsing watches in horror. Mina regains her humanity, the cross-shaped scar fading from her hand as Dracula turns to ash and leaves only a ring behind.

His uncle, the superstitious old Tada Cuda, treats Martin like an Old World vampire and tries unsuccessfully to repel Martin with strings of garlic bulbs around the home and a crucifix. Martin mocks these attempts and says bitterly, “There’s no real magic… ever.” Martin strikes up a friendship with a lonely housewife, turning into a full-fledged affair with tragic results. The tone of the film is sad and filled with longing and unfulfilled desire– rather different for the traditional vampire movie, cliches of which are parodied in Martin’s dreams and in the mock-silent-film scene where Martin terrorises Cuda in a children’s playground. The ironic ending both gives a new twist to the traditional fate of vampires and suggests that Martin’s disease is more widespread than we might care to imagine.

As the police prepare to hand Blade over to a group of vampires, Blade is rescued by Hannibal King and Abigail, Whistler’s daughter. The two head a group of vampire hunters called the Nightstalkers, formed by Blade’s mentor to assist him. Blade reluctantly joins the group after learning King was once a vampire. King and Abigail reveal that Danica Talos (Parker Posey), who was the vampire who bit King, has located and resurrected the ancient first vampire, Dracula (Dominic Purcell) (who is referred to as Drake throughout the film). Talos hopes that by resurrecting Dracula, he (Drake) will help save the vampire race and eliminate Blade. In his first confrontation with Blade, Drake shows a sort of affinity for the “Daywalker”, as they are both “honorable warriors” (somewhat ironically, while Drake is delivering his speech about honor, he is hiding behind a newborn baby he has taken hostage). During the beginning of the chaos, King is incapacitated by Drake.

Blade eventually learns of a bioweapon the Nightstalkers had created called Daystar. The weapon is capable of killing any and all vampires in a nearby area. However, there are two catches: The first is that Drake’s blood must be infused with the virus. As he is the first vampire, his DNA is still pure, which, infused with Daystar, will make it work to its maximum capacity. The second: the virus has a possibility of killing Blade, as he is a half-vampire.

Blade and Abigail learn of the vampire “final solution”, which involves several hundred human beings being kept alive in a comatose-like state in body bags. This keeps in line with vampires needing live food sources if the entire vampire race were to take over the world. Blade coldly has all of them killed, destroying their “final solution.”

The two return to find the Nightstalkers have been all but wiped out. The only exception is King, who has been kidnapped by Drake (disguised as Blade’s mentor, Whistler), who had also killed the rest of the Stalkers; and kidnaps a young girl named Zoe, the daughter of one of the Nightstalkers. Blade and Abigail have no choice but to rescue King from the Talos building where he had been chained and tortured for information, and where Drake also is hiding.

Meanwhile, King is tortured for information about Daystar. When this fails to get any information from him, Talos instead tells King that she will bite him again and leave him to feed on Zoe. Blade and Abigail eventually enter the building and the fighting begins. Abigail kills Danica Talos’ brother, Asher (Callum Keith Rennie) and King kills Jarko Grimwood (Triple H) while Blade engages Drake in a sword battle. In the end, Blade impales Drake with the Daystar arrow, which draws his blood and releases it into the air, killing all the nearby vampires, including Danica Talos. Drake dies after promising Blade a “parting gift.” The disease subsequently appears to kill Blade as well. The FBI later discover Blade’s body and call off their search. However, the corpse turns back into Drake’s at the morgue. The film ends with Blade driving off into the sunset to continue his war against vampires.

Buffy (Kristy Swanson) is a popular cheerleader at Hemery High School in Los Angeles. She is a care-free popular girl whose main concerns are shopping and spending time with her friends. She is soon approached by a man named Merrick Jamison-Smythe (Donald Sutherland). He informs her that she is The Slayer and he is a Watcher that has been sent to train and guide her. At first she refuses to accept her duties, but eventually sees there is no other way. She admits that she has dreams of past Slayers and reluctantly acknowledges that she is the Chosen One. She runs into Pike (Luke Perry), who is seen as a loser in her school. He becomes the “damsel in distress”, being rescued by Buffy many times.

After brief training, she is drawn into conflict with a local vampire king called Lothos (Rutger Hauer), who has killed a number of past Slayers. Lothos kills Merrick, giving Buffy the motivation she needs. In a climactic battle set at the senior dance in her high school, Buffy defeats Lothos and his minions by being true to her own contemporary style and ignoring the conventions and limitations of previous Slayers.

Contrary to popular belief Buffy does not burn down the gym at the climax of the film. That element existed in Joss Whedon’s original script but was not incorporated into the final production. In the Buffyverse it is his script, not the film, that is considered canon; thus the references in the television program to Buffy having burnt it down.

The Forsaken are a group of French Knights that during the First Crusade made a pact with the demon Abbadon to live forever. There were nine knights: eight were turned into vampires and became known as the Forsaken the ninth was a sacrifice to Abaddon to seal the pact. Of the eight, four are dead, one is in Europe, one in Africa and two in the United States including the one Nick is tracking. Nick was bitten by a vampire but thanks to a drug cocktail the vampire virus is kept at bay. Each of the Forsaken carry a unique strain of the virus and killing the Forsaken kills the entire strain of virus killing all the vampires descended from it and stopping anyone just infected from turning which is why Nick is hunting this particular Forsaken: he believes him to be the one that his strain of the vampire virus is decended from and that if he kills him he will not eventually turn into a vampire (the drug cocktail eventually will lose effect). At first Sean is less than willing to indulge his new acquaintance, but then they find Megan (Izabella Miko), a girl Sean finds he is attracted to, bitten and left for dead by the vampires. Nick also proves he is telling the truth by killing a vampire, Teddy, by exposure to sunlight.

When Sean is infected with the vampire virus (Megan bites his hand while he’s covering her mouth), their only hope is to kill the vampire leader before it is too late. The Forsaken must be slain on hallowed ground so the three head for a Spanish mission 60 miles away – chased by the vampires and their day driver Penn. After a battle on the road Penn is killed and the car is running out of gas as its tank was shot so they are unable to reach the mission. They stop at a gas station where an old woman named Ina lets them in after seeing Megan. She shows them a newspaper connecting Megan to a bloodbath in Arizona; when Megan wakes up and is coherent enough to talk, she explains she was a victim of the vampires’ bloodbath (led by Kit) and after Kit bit her he left Teddy to kill her, which she did not do for some reason. Kit and Cym then catch up to them and lay siege to the gas station.

Sean discovers a graveyard outside and Ina explains that it is an old Spanish graveyard that was never dug up, making the house hallowed ground and thus a suitable place to kill Kit. In the following battle, Sean kills Cym with Ina’s shotgun but both he and Nick are injured and Kit forces him to be his new day driver then goes after Ina and Megan. As Kit is about to kill them Sean drives his car through the gas station wall and pins Kit to the wall, hoping to hold him there until the sun rises. Kit pushes the car back when it runs out of gas due to the hole in the tank but Sean then shoots him, knocking him into a beam of sunlight and shooting him again when he manages to escape the light. As Kit starts to combust, Sean, Nick, Megan and Ina flee the gas station; Kit’s explosive death ignites the gas. It seems Sean, Nick and Megan are finally clear of the vampire virus, but Nick is not cured as it turns out that the vampire responsible for his infection is descended from the other of the two Forsaken in the United States.

Nick takes to the road to try to find and kill the other Forsaken, leaving a letter of thanks for Sean. However, Sean catches up to him driving Kit’s car and insists on helping, having discovered that the Forsaken is probably in Denver. The two set off for Denver.

Pandora and Santino rescue Marius, having answered his telepathic call for help. Marius informs his rescuers that Akasha has been awakened by Lestat’s rock music. Akasha has destroyed her husband Enkil and plots to rule the world. Akasha is also revealed as the source of the attacks on other vampires.

Part Two takes place at Lestat’s concert. Jesse is mortally injured while attending the concert, and is taken to Maharet’s Sonoma compound where she is made into a vampire. The vampires from Part One later congregate in the Sonoma compound. The only vampires not present are Akasha and Lestat. Akasha has abducted Lestat and takes him as an unwilling consort to various locations in the world, inciting women to rise up and kill the men who have oppressed them.

Part Three takes place at Maharet’s home in a Sonoma forest. There Maharet tells the story of Akasha and the red-haired twins (who are, in fact, Maharet and her sister, Mekare) to Pandora, Jesse, Marius, Santino, Eric, Armand, Daniel, Louis and Gabrielle. Also present are Mael and Khayman, who already know the story. (see “Maharet and Mekare”)

In Part Four, Akasha confronts the gathered vampires at Maharet’s compound. There she explains her plans and offers the vampires a chance to be her ‘angels’ in her New World Order. Akasha plans to kill 99 percent of the world’s human men, and to establish a new Eden in which women will worship Akasha as a goddess. The vampires’ refusal of her offer will result in their deaths. The vampires refuse to join her; but before Akasha can destroy them, Mekare enters. Mekare kills Akasha by severing her head. Mekare then consumes Akasha’s brain and heart, thereby saving the lives of the remaining vampires and becoming the new ‘Queen of the Damned.’

In Part Five, the vampires leave Maharet’s compound and assemble at Armand’s resort, the “Night Island,” (according to Anne Rice, inspired by Fire Island) in Florida to recover. They eventually go their separate ways. Lestat takes Louis to see David Talbot in London. After their brief visit with Talbot they depart into the night, an incensed Louis and his angry words filling Lestat with glee.

The 2002 film deviated considerably from this storyline. Several characters, including Pandora, were killed in the film, though they were not killed in the novel. In the film, Lestat turns Jesse after Akasha is killed by Maharet, rather than in the novel where Maharet sires her after she is mortally wounded at Lestat’s concert. The characters of Mekare, Santino, Daniel, Louis, Gabrielle, and Eric do not appear in the movie. The exclusion of these characters necessitates the alteration of the preceding events as written in The Vampire Lestat. Of those characters that do appear, none have more than an excessively minor role. Alongside this change, the lyrics Lestat ‘sings’ are altered, effectively eliminating the entire reason for anyone to attack at his concert (the reason being that his songs reveal ancient/sacred vampire truths). The concert attack still occurs. In the novel, Jesse meets him for the first time, leaps into his arms, and is then pulled back from him by the concert-goers. Then she is mortally wounded by a vampire after leaving the concert hall. But in the film, she becomes enamored with Lestat (and vice versa) in an alleyway after he saves her from a trio of vampires (unlike in the novel). Then, also unlike in the novel, before his concert, she gives him back his journal and tries to warn him of the attacks while at the concert by calling out his name. (Of course, he defends himself very well.)

Also in the novel, Jesse is thirty-five, is an apprentice for the Talamasca, and has psychic powers. But in the film, she’s in her early twenties, doesn’t have psychic powers, and is still an apprentice for the Talamasca.

While flying the coffin back to the United States one of the thieves manages to open the coffin, releasing Dracula. The count proceeds to feast on the blood of the thieves, one of whom happens to be flying the airplane, causing them to crash in the swamps of Louisiana. Surviving the crash, he heads to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Van Helsing’s estranged daughter Mary and her best friend Lucy live. Meanwhile Van Helsing and his assistant Simon head to the U.S. to recapture Dracula.

The one significant twist this film brings to the Dracula legend is its explanation of his origin. In this film, Dracula is established to be Judas Iscariot, cursed to walk the earth as an immortal for his betrayal of Jesus, being denied admission to both Heaven and Hell. This explains some of the vampire’s best-known weaknesses, primarily Christian iconography and silver, as Judas was paid in silver for betraying Christ to the authorities. Although Bram Stoker makes no reference to a vulnerability to silver in his novel, it is a part of some examples of European vampire folklore.

The Crypt Keeper is having lunch with the Mummy (William Sadler), who is boring the Crypt Keeper about his life in the film industry. The Mummy challenges the Crypt Keeper to a contest of rock, paper, scissors which the Mummy wins, and he slices off the Keeper’s hand with a meat cleaver. The Crypt Keeper laughs (as it didn’t hurt him at all) and the Mummy gets ready for the next round. The Crypt Keeper addresses the audience, and the movie continues.

Katherine (Erika Eleniak) lives with her delinquent brother Caleb (Corey Feldman). When he turns up missing, Katherine goes to the police to ask them to look for him, to no avail. Katherine reluctantly hires Rafe Guttman (Dennis Miller), a cynical and sarcastic private investigator whose office is an old adult movie theater, to look for Caleb. Rafe uncovers a brothel in a funeral home being run by vampires, where the money from the clients that visit the brothel is put towards a major Christian organization. The dwarf, meanwhile, destroys the key, so Lilith is now immortal.

Katherine gets kidnapped when they fall for a trap set up by the now-vampiric Caleb. Rafe kills the dwarf and fills some super soakers with holy water, and he and the reverend (looking to redeem himself) enter the brothel, burning all the vampires. They find Lilith, and soon the reverend is killed by a knife in the heart, and Lilith also breaks his hand. Meanwhile, Rafe finds Caleb and uses the super soaker on him. Caleb’s body is burned, and he falls to the ground.

Rafe rescues Katherine. Back at the church, while shooting a documentary, Lilith returns, leaving a bloody trail. Rafe cuts her heart back into four parts, as that is the only thing that can destroy her, once the parts are out of her body. Rafe is about to be killed by Lilith when Katherine grabs a trident and stabs Lilith’s heart out. Lilith’s body burns to bone, and Katherine and Rafe leave.

After locking away the box with the hearts in it, Rafe and Katherine sit in Rafe’s car. Rafe begins to fondle Katherine, when he asks “What’s that perfume you’re wearing?”. He pulls back her skirt to find a pair of bite-marks on her thigh, where she was presumably bitten by Lilith. Katherine replies, “It’s not perfume. It’s sunblock”. Then she quickly reveals her fangs as she bites into Rafe’s neck. The camera cranes upwards as we hear Rafe screaming.

Another Crypt Keeper clip is shown, then the credits roll.