In both mainstream and indie circles, true crime-inspired thrillers are on the rise, and directors at this year’s Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival Thriller Picture Show did not disappoint.

With the long-awaited remake of Nosferatu by Robert Eggers quickly approaching, it’s a great time to dust off your old favorite vampire flicks to amp yourself up. Whether you’re an Interview with the Vampire (1994) person or you’re more into The Lost Boys (1987), or even if you’re a 30 Days of Night (2007) fanatic, vamps have the unique ability among monsters to adapt to almost any kind of story.

The horror in Midnight Mass isn’t its vampire, though that is horrifying as well, but in its people—that an entire town of good, well-meaning families could be so easily convinced to turn on each other and their humanity. It’s a difficult but necessary pill to swallow in a post-COVID, post-QAnon world.

Jakob’s Wife, directed by Travis Stevens and starring the highly acclaimed Barbara Crampton and Larry Fessenden, both plays well with a vampire and man-of-the-cloth dynamic, while also reinforcing the growing trend in horror of pushing subgenres in new, much-needed directions.

The Transfiguration stitches together a new vision of what it means to be a vampire in modern cinema. A lovechild between Let the Right One In, and the hidden ’70s gem, George A. Romero’s Martin, it effectively builds on the rich history of vampire films in the U.S. and maintains a sense of relevancy, without sacrificing its unique point of view.