Vampire snacks: Series to sink your teeth into on Showmax

An autumn chill is in the air and the long nights are drawing near. With the recent launch of vampire series Let The Right One In, Showmax is dead set on helping you make the most of the looming darkness. We’ve gathered a few series and movies that’ll suck you right into the world of immortal, blood-sucking horror ... and we have some notes.

Let The Right One In

In this series loosely inspired by the 2004 Swedish novel Låt Den Rätte Komma In (Let The Right One In) by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Mark Kane (Demián Bichir) becomes a serial killer to feed his 12-year-old vampire daughter Eleanor (Madison Taylor Baez). Complications arise when Mark and Eleanor move into the same building as Naomi (Anika Noni Rose), the detective investigating Mark’s crimes. Meanwhile, medical researcher Claire Logan (Grace Gummer, daughter of Meryl Streep) secretly works on a vampire cure for someone in her own family (cue terrifying lab experiments with a vampire chimpanzee).

Vampire lore: Vampirism is viral, transmitted by an infected bite. Symptoms include a restrictive blood diet, growing fangs, having enhanced senses, halted physical and mental development, and exposure to sunlight being deadly. There are also supernatural elements like having to be invited into a space or your veins will burst.

Snack: Twelve-year-old vampires are horrific because they’re insufferable forever. Dads will kill for their kids, moms will let kids suck the life out of them.

True Blood

This comic fantasy series based on the Southern Vampire novel series by Charlaine Harris imagines what might happen if the townsfolk of rural Louisiana (a state currently banning books, abortions, drag shows, and discussions of gender identity in schools) became aware of all the supernatural creatures secretly living alongside them, including vampires, shapeshifters, witches and fairies. Look out for magnetic performances from the late Nelsan Ellis as chef-turned-witch Lafayette, Rutina Wesley as his cousin Tara, Alexander Skarsgård as charming vampire boss Eric Northman, and Denis O’Hare as vampire king Russell Edgington, who rips out a man’s spine on a live TV news show and threatens to eat babies.

Vampire lore: True Blood does a deep dive into the possibilities of vampire culture, religion, politics and physiology. In brief, vampires are sexy reanimated corpses with enhanced super senses, strength and speed. They can survive on a blood substitute but yearn for the sparkle of the fresh stuff.

Snack: Politicians hide behind “traditional values” as they manipulate bigotry and the fear of “the other” (including vampires) to push society into fascism. But the water gets muddy and bloody fast since vampires see humans as a prey species.

A Discovery Of Witches

This fantasy series is based on the All Souls novel trilogy by Deborah Harkness. Historian Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer) discovers a bewitched manuscript about magical beings in the Bodleian library that pulls her into the world of magic, vampires, daemons, witches and forbidden love. She makes an unlikely ally in ancient vampire geneticist and biochemistry professor Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode), who helps Diana to protect the book and decode its riddles as she herself becomes a powerful witch, and they hop around time together. It’s a star-crossed romance for the Outlander lovers!

Vampire lore: Vampires can enjoy a glass of wine and little rare beef now and then, as a treat. Blood lust is bad manners, and power is to be shared and used responsibly as dictated by the secret supernatural committee, The Congregation.

Snack: Given immortality, riches, power and immunity from physical laws, vampires would spend most of their time in a small room having passive-aggressive arguments.

Chapelwaite S1

Vampires? Gotta have some Stephen King in there! This series is based on one of his eeriest short stories, Jerusalem’s Lot (1978) – which works as a prequel to his 1975 novel, Salem’s Lot. Recently widowed sea captain Charles Boone (Adrien Brody) returns with his three kids to his old family mansion, Chapelwaite, in Preacher’s Corner in Maine in the 1850s. There, as the dour locals treat them with fear, hostility and revulsion, Charles uncovers ancestral secrets, including an incestuous blood cult, vampirism, insanity, a worm god, and a cursed book, while the incessant scratching behind the walls of his house drives him insane. Is it rats, or something worse? Three guesses!

Vampire lore: Vampires are near-immortal but vulnerable to sunlight, decapitation, and piercing the heart. Vampire underlings’ physical powers are limited by the strength of their leader, in this case, Jakub (Christopher Heyerdahl). And they are not at all sexy unless you fancy corpsy creatures with wispy hair, sunken eyes, pointy teeth, and skin that’s just one loud sneeze away from falling off.

Snack: If mental illness and family murder are your intergenerational curse with parallels to vampirism, maybe don’t plop your kids down in the creepy old family mansion?

Vampire movies

Vampires In The Township In this 55-minute SeSotho short film, two men who use a mirror to connect to the dark side transform into vampires every full moon. With Tumi Modibedi and Luzuko Nteleko.

Net Ons A short and sweet 19-minute Afrikaans film about how the loneliness and isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown affects ancient Cape Flats vampires and ex-lovers Angel and Lorenzo. With Crystal Donna Roberts and Cantona James.

Vinnie & Olga A 21-minute local Afrikaans movie about Olga the nun and secret vampire slayer coming up against her greatest opponent, Vinnie the seductive vampire. With Edrien Erasmus and Paul Lückhoff.

Eternity South African English horror film. Vampires clash over the use of an Aids researcher’s serum that would allow them to walk around unharmed in daylight. With Hlomla Dandala, David James and Christina Storm.

Morbius The notorious Jared Leto-Matt Smith 2022 film about a biochemist who accidentally turns himself into a vampire superhero while trying to cure himself of a rare blood disease.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn and Breaking Dawn Part II. The final two films in the Twilight series explore Bella and Edward’s efforts to protect their half-human, half-vampire daughter Renesmee. With Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

The Cwezi Dynasty This full-length Kenyan horror movie focuses on a professor who leads a group of researchers into an encounter with unknown horrors as they pry into the legends and myths of the lost magical Cwezi Dynasty and their links to the world of spirits.