Five places to visit if you love vampires

To celebrate the book release of Strange Blood: 71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampire Movies, here are five places to visit if you love vampires:

Lost Boys Pizza

Not just the name of this pizza joint in Archway, London, has been inspired by the 1980s vampire movie The Lost Boys, but also the background music, the look of the pizzas (charcoal black), their names (Kale All Vampires, Fangs for the Memories, etc), and events (vampire yoga and special screenings of The Lost Boys).

More info and photos => Lost Boys Pizza


Highgate Cemetery

One of the world's most haunted cemeteries is said to have a vampire roaming the premises. The many cats of this cemetery are supposed to protect us from this evil being.

More info and photos => Highgate Cemetery


Vampire Café

The Vampire Café is actually a restaurant instead of a café and can be found in Shinjuku, Japan. What to expect: cross-shaped food, darkness, blood-red decorations, and waiters dressed-up as a vampire and speaking with a Transylvanian accent.

More info and photos => Vampire Café


The Museum of Vampires and Legendary Creatures

Located in Les Lilas, France, the Musée des vampires et du monde de l'imaginaire dives deep into vampirism and supernatural folklore through rare texts, antique books, Hammer film collectibles, Dracula toys, and vampire killing kits.

More info and photos => The Museum of Vampires and Legendary Creatures


Bran Castle

Also known as Dracula's Castle, this is a hilltop estate where you can learn all about its connection to Bram Stoker's Dracula as well as many other Transylvanian legends. A tour of the castle lasts four hours.

More info and photos => Bran Castle

About Strange Blood: 71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampire Movies:

This is an overview of the most offbeat and unique vampire movies spanning nine decades and 23 countries.

Strange Blood encompasses well-known hits as well as obscurities that differ from your standard fang fare by turning genre conventions on their head. Forget about Dracula and sparkling vampires. Here, they come in the form of cars, pets, aliens, mechanical objects, gorillas, and floating heads. And when they do look like a demonic monster or an aristocratic Count or Countess, they break the mold in terms of imagery, style, or setting.

Leading horror writers, filmmakers, actors, distributors, academics, and festival programmers present their favorite vampire films through in-depth essays, providing background information, analysis, and trivia regarding the various films. Some of these stories are hilarious, some are terrifying, some are touching, and some are just plain weird. Not all of these movies line up with the critical consensus, yet they have one thing in common: they are unlike anything you've ever seen in the world of vampires.

Just when you thought that the children of the night had become a tired trope, it turns out they have quite a diverse inventory after all.

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