Random Data – What’s the Ideal Amount of Teeth-to-Body Blood Consumption in Vampire Movies? A Random and In-Depth Study

While watching Park Chan-Wook’s 2009 film Thirst, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a lot of blood consumption. Since Thirst is one of my favorite vampire films, I began to wonder if it’s better for vampire films to feature copious amounts of teeth-to-body blood consumption, or, if vampire movies are better when there is no teeth-to-body contact. Basically, are vampire movies better if they feature vampires drinking blood like they were at a spring break blood party (For instance, the attack in From Dusk Till Dawn), or do audiences and critics prefer vampire movies that feature vampires drinking blood from chalices because they don’t want their clothes destroyed (I love the blood popsicles scene in Only Lovers Left Alive)?

To answer this random question, I watched 82 vampire movies over the course of 18 months, and came up with some fun results. Here’s a breakdown of how I did it, and what were my methods.

1. I used a stopwatch (and time stamps for) to count the amount of seconds spent drinking blood (if it was 39.6 seconds, I rounded up to 40 seconds)
2. The vampire’s teeth had to make contact with the body of their victim. In Dracula (1931), he’s always about to bite a neck…but it’s never shown. Implied blood sucking wasn’t counted.
3. I did not count the moments involving drinking blood from cups or slurping blood off of floors. A person or animal had to be bit.
4. I only considered vampire movies with at least 15 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. This prevented me from watching thousands of vampire movies
5. I originally felt like 50 live-action vampire movies would give me enough data. However, I am a maniac, so I ended up with 82 vampire films. Thank you Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Sundance, Showtime, Starz, Tubi (great resource for free films), Crackle, HBOmax, and my local library.

Interesting tidbits – The 82 vampire films average 41.39 seconds of teeth-to-body blood consumption, and they have a 56.1% Tomatometer average and a 6.2 IMDb audience score average.

Really interesting tidbit – It’s neat that the Tomatometer and IMDb average rankings are the exact same. Critics and audiences seem to be on the same page.

Results

1st Place – Winner – Vampire movies featuring no “teeth-to-body” blood consumption

• 9 movies – Black Sunday, Dracula (1931), Lifeforce, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Horror of Dracula, The Last Man on Earth , The Monster Squad, Twilight: New Moon, Vampyr
• Tomatometer Average – 75.1%
• IMDb User Score Average – 6.8

With Dracula (1931), Vampyr, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Horror of Dracula and The Monster Squad in this category, it’s easy to see why it’s #1. Many of these films feature death and destruction, however, they don’t feature a vampire chomping into flesh and taking a drink. I love that these films have the highest Tomatometer average.

If you haven’t watched Only Lovers Left Alive, do it now. It’s wonderful.

2nd Place – Vampire Movies Featuring 60+ seconds of “teeth-to-body” blood consumption

• 18 movies – Underworld: Evolution, Yakuza Apocalypse, Fright Night (2011), Blade, Blood Red Sky, Near Dark, Shadow of the Vampire, Vampire’s Kiss, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Let Me In, Let The Right One In, Daybreakers, Blade 2, From Dusk Till Dawn, Thirst, Interview With the Vampire, The Addiction, Queen of the Damned
• Tomatometer Average – 66.4%
• IMDb User Score Average – 6.7

I call these movies the “Super Drinkers” because they feature a lot of blood consumption. Queen of the Damned, The Addiction, Interview the Vampire, Thirst, and From Dusk Till Dawn (lots of background blood drinking) are the five with the most blood consumption.

The reason this category is Fresh is because it’s home to Near Dark, Shadow of the Vampire, Let Me In, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Let the Right One In. That’s a huge lineup of amazing vampire movies that aren’t afraid to let their characters chug a Big Gulp’s worth of blood.

3rd Place – Vampire Movies Featuring 1-29 seconds of “teeth-to-body” blood consumption

• 34 movies – Nightwatch. Son of Dracula, The Lost Boys, Cirque Du Freak, Buffy the vampire Slayer, Ganja and Hess, Once Bitten, Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part Two, Freaks of Nature, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, The Hunger, The Little Vampire, Bordello of Blood, Nosferatu, Bloodsucking Bastards, Dracula Dead and Loving It, Stake Land, Underworld: Blood Wars, Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part One, Twilight: Eclipse, Blade: Trinity, Vampires in the Bronx, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, Martin, What We Do in the Shadows , Underworld, Fright Night (1985), Afflicted, Dark Shadows, Van Helsing, Def by Temptation, The Vampire Lovers, Underworld: Awakening, Vampire in Brooklyn
• Tomatometer Average – 51.6%
• IMDb User Score Average – 6

This is where things start going downhill. A 50.4% average isn’t bad, but it proves that vampire films that feature just a little bit of blood consumption, are like the brave vampire films that feature zero or a lot of blood drinking. We get cool movies like Martin, Vampires in the Bronx, The Hunger, Fright Night, The Vampire Lovers, and What We Do in the Shadows. But, now there are more movies like Once Bitten, Dracula: Dead and Loving It (which I love), Dark Shadows, and Cirque du Freak weighing down the average. It’s definitely a mixed bag category.

If you haven’t watched them yet, I totally recommend The Hunger, Vampires in the Bronx, Martin, What We Do in the Shadows and Afflicted.

4th Place – Vampire Movies Featuring 30-59 seconds of “teeth-to-body” blood consumption

• 21 movies – Daughters of Darkness, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Nadja, Priest, Dracula (1979), Dracula Untold, John Carpenter’s Vampires, Rise: Blood Hunter, Cronos, Byzantium, Vampire Academy, Dracula 2000, Innocent Blood, Vampires Suck, Bloodrayne, Vamps, 30 Days of Night, Twilight, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Blacula, Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
• Tomatometer Average – 46.5%
• IMDb User Score Average – 5.8

It seems like movies that fall somewhere in the middle of all the blood drinking don’t fare too well with critics and audiences. Dracula Untold, John Carpenter’s Vampires, Vampire Academy, Vampires Suck, Bloodrayne, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and Rise: Blood Hunter helped drag the average below 50%. It’s the only category that doesn’t cross 50%, and the average numbers fall in line with the average amount of blood consumption (42.4 seconds). It’s interesting, audiences and critics seem to want either less or more.

You should check out A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Cronos, 30 Days of Night, and Nosferatu the Vampyre. They are all excellent.

There you have it! Vampire movies that feature no teeth-to-body blood consumption have better Tomatometer and IMDb averages.