Smiley Fangs: Three Vampire Comedies

Happy Halloween, readers. While this holiday practically requires scary movies, the truth is that sometimes we like our monsters to have more in common with harmless trick-or-treaters than the beasts who populate our R-rated slashterpieces. This goes double for what is arguably history's favorite monster, the vampire. Blood-sucking creatures of the night can be scary, but they're also fine fodder for humor. The following three fang flicks are some of the most endearing vampire comedies on any rental shelf.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

While the Buffy franchise is better known today for the wildly popular television series, creator Joss Whedon's original vision was a campy movie directed by his frequent collaborator Fran Rubel Kuzui. Kristy Swanson stars as the titular cheerleader turned nemesis of the undead. This 1992 feature is far from perfect, but it's still a surprisingly enduring guilty pleasure, as well as something of a time capsule for music and fasion. The cast is fairly impressive, sporting Donald Sutherland, Rutger Hauer and Paul Reubens in a variety of colorful roles. Add to that some of Whedon's trademark dry wit and you have the quintessential vampire comedy. The movie didn't come out as Whedon originally intended thanks to the usual studio meddling of Hollywood, but we all know that he got his extremely unlikely second chance and made one heck of a TV series as a result.

My Best Friend is a Vampire

Jimmy Huston's 1987 teen comedy My Best Friend is a Vampire is, at best, a cult classic for the cape set. It stars a young Robert Sean Leonard as a hapless high schooler who finds himself shying away from the sun and craving the red stuff while the rest of his peers are looking for prom dates. Rene Auberjonois slums it as teen vampire Jeremy's ancient mentor, a role that he seems to enjoy even if it's far from the stage where he made his name. What sets this particular film apart is that it's one of the first mainstream motion pictures to even obliquely approach the topic of teen homosexuality. In the movie, vampirism is depicted as being relatively harmless and horribly misunderstood, with Jeremy remaining effectively closeted for the duration. The concluding five minutes of the film is his coming out scene, a particularly bold message given the era.

Blood and Donuts

Canadian director Holly Date's 1995 film Blood and Donuts is so below-the-radar it could be used to infiltrate a navy base. Given a beyond-shoestring budget and a premise almost too goofy to work, it's a wonder the thing even got made in the first place. It stars Gordon Currie as a very old vampire raised from his slumber (in a sack, no less) by an errant golf ball. He wanders into an all-night donut shop where he befriends a regular played by top-notch character actor and current Stargate: Universe star Justin Louis. Canadian horror master David Cronenberg even has a cameo as a ruthless criminal. Blood and Donuts is funny and self-deprecating, a low-rent excursion for those of us who just can't get enough of the vampire genre.