The Transfiguration, receiving its UK premiere at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival, is a bold calling card debut from writer-director Michael O’Shea. Its central conceit sees an African-American teen, Milo, drenching himself in vampire lore, much of it gleaned from movies, and attempting to become a blood-sucker himself.

It’s something of a ‘realist’ spin on the vampire movie, a horror subgenre that’s proved just as prone to re-examination and re-appropriation over the years as the ever-adaptable zombie movie. The number of unique cinematic spins on vampire mythology far outweighs the constraints of a top five (there are five Twilight movies alone), but here’s a selection of some of the diverse, compelling options out there for creatures of the night…

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