Music of the Night(mares): Vampires’ Best Performances

Originally published on June 5, 2026. This article covers the best musical and music-based moments in vampire media, including TV, film, and Broadway shows.

---

Listen closely to the rhythm of your heart. The pounding of your pulse. A rushing in your veins, and a song of seduction echoing across the evening sky, jumping from star to star like a violin melody. Music thrums through every facet of life — and death. Thus, where the horror and music genres merge, we discover new and exciting takes on our favorite creatures of the night. Take, for instance, the blood rave in Blade or Dracula’s brides’ hypnotic chanting in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Below, we invite you to an enticing encore of musical vampires in television, film, and on stage. Whether they’re fronting bands or using folk songs as mind control, these bloodsuckers really bring us a bloody good time. Beware their strength … but also, stick around for a show unlike any other.

The best Musical Vampires:

• The Vampire Lestat
• The Lost Boys: A New Musical
• Only Lovers Left Alive
• What We Do In The Shadows
• Sinners
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• From Dusk Till Dawn

---

Rock music lives again in The Vampire Lestat

• Where to watch: AMC and Netflix

Body glitter, blonde hair, and blood. Are these vampiric staples or things you’d see at any rock ‘n’ roll show? Squeeze into your tightest velvet or leather pants, because Lestat de Lioncourt is back to gyrate his hips and scream his side of the story. Sexy and sensational, the third season of Interview with the Vampire promises all the delights and frights from Anne Rice’s original novels — with a few much-needed modern updates.

---

The Lost Boys: A New Musical invites Broadway audiences to join the club

• Where to watch: Palace Theater

Sink your teeth into a killer adaptation of a cult classic ’80s film. Critics describe The Lost Boys musical as a “spectacle,” with breathtaking songs as well as cinematic staging. Adventurous and ambitious, the musical follows the same plot as the iconic Warner Bros. film — with a few dance-number detours, of course. Don’t despair if you can’t catch it in New York City. The Lost Boys: A New Musical will embark on a national tour in spring 2028.

---

Adam finds solace in his guitar in Only Lovers Left Alive

• Where to watch: Hulu and Disney+

Quite often, music keeps us company in the loneliest parts of our lives. Vampires are not immune to deep depression or despondence. When there’s very little left for Adam to enjoy about immortal existence, he always has music. This famous underground musician yearns to find happiness in an ever-changing world through playing and recording. While his passion is at odds with his need to remain hidden, the positive impact of music on his withering mental state cannot be overstated.

---

What We Do In The Shadows introduces the Human Music Group

• Where to watch: Hulu and Disney+

Nadja and Laszlo will always be #CoupleGoals. Both gifted musicians, the vampires previously pursued separate music careers — throat singing and organ/saxophone/accordion, respectively — before recording a single album together. Decades later, the partners return to their musical roots at an open mic nite. Please welcome the Human Music Group to the stage! Their gig, particularly the ending bit, really brought the house down.

---

Remmick seeks connection and control in Sinners

• Where to watch: HBO Max

One of the many stand-out scenes in Sinners is the vampire Remmick’s hive mind Irish river dance. Disconnected from his heritage, this villain forcibly assimilates others into it in a desperate bid to call his ancestors back to him. What should be celebratory and beautiful becomes twisted, terrible, and terrifying. Rather than nurture a multicultural coven, he puts everyone under his spell. This unique take on colonialism and race in America keeps Sinners riveting and refreshing from start to finish.

---

Magic and music intertwine in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• Where to watch: Hulu and Disney+

Buffy the Vampire Slayer revolutionized network television with its iconic music episode, “Once More With Feeling,” which is a total slay in every sense of the word. While all of Sunnydale is bursting into song thanks to a jazzy demon called Sweet, our core cast of Scoobies each gets a turn in the spotlight to croon their hearts (and deepest secrets) out. And everyone gets a different genre of song — with our bleached-blonde, Billy-Idol-stole-his-look bad boy Spike belting out his “Rest in Peace” solo rock number that proves punk’s not dead. Just a little bloodthirsty and lovesick.

Bonus: Angel sings Barry Manilow

You thought Spike was the only one of Buffy’s beaus who could bring down the house? Well … he still might be if Angel’s karaoke night at Caritas is any indication. Throughout his tragic backstory, the brooding Angel is revealed to have a love of Barry Manilow’s music. This joke comes to a head in season 2’s “Judgment,” when the vampire with a soul is forced to awkwardly sing Manilow’s ballad “Mandy” before a crowd. This is because the jolly green empath demon Lorne (also called the Host) can read auras and divine destinies for people who sing, whistle, or hum in front of him.

(Stick around for the episode’s end credits, which feature actor David Boreanaz’s outtakes from the song sesh!)

---

The band hides a sinister secret in From Dusk Till Dawn

• Where to watch: Pluto TV

Every good dive bar has a sweaty, smelly onstage act to keep the ambiance pitch perfect. From Dusk Till Dawn features Tito & Tarantula, a Chicano rock and blues band stationed at the Titty Twister trucker club. At first, like the dancers, the band members seem raucous and raunchy, but not threatening. All too late, the club’s human guests discover that everyone else inside is a vampire — and they all explode in a goopy, gross, grotesque display of practical effects prowess.

---

Can you pick a favorite music-based vampire scene or story? Did we miss one you’d consider a cut above the rest? Put your fangs away — you can always let us know at side.show/geekgroup, or celebrate with more horror fans in the Sideshow Social Network.

Thanks for coming to our concert. And as always, don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!