Film Review: Vampire Hunter D (1985)

by Joseph Perry

Official synopsis: In the year 12,090 A.D. technology and the supernatural have overtaken the world, leaving the land desolate and despotic. The remnants of humanity are scattered into small communities and live in fear of vampires who compose the ruling Nobility. When Count Magnus Lee tastes the blood of Doris Lang, she is forcibly chosen to be his next wife. In an effort to escape her ill-gotten fate she hires a mysterious vampire hunter known only as D, who comes from a peculiar lineage.

Director Toyoo Ashida’s Vampire Hunter D celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Longtime horror anime fans should be thrilled to get a fresh look at it, and those who have never seen it before are well advised to check out this classic Japanese anime film.

I won’t go into great detail about the history and legacy of Vampire Hunter D; suffice it to say that it marked a huge turning point in Japanese animation. The visual style is a marvelous mash-up of old-school anime that will press nostalgia buttons aplenty with hints of over-the-top insanity to come, inspired by Ashida’s take on Hideyuki Kikuchi’s light novel series, with the screenplay by Yasushi Hirano impressively adapted from the first of those stories.

The tone of Vampire Hunter D is somber gothic, combining classic spaghetti western movie tropes — such as the mysterious, wandering loner antihero who rides into town on a horse and finds that trouble soon follows — with classic vampire movie motifs and homage — for example, the main vampire is named Count Lee, an obvious reference to Christopher Lee, who portrayed Dracula in Hammer Studio fright fests. Plenty of nods to both Eastern and Western mythologies are also on display.

Vampire Hunter D  isn’t for the kiddies, as it contains gore galore and brief nudity. If you haven’t taken a dive into the wild world of anime horror, this classic is an excellent place to start. Those who have fond memories of watching this one in the past should find that it holds up wonderfully with age, and might even bring a nostalgic lump to a few throats. 

Vampire Hunter D is available on Shudder from May 30, 2025. 

Joseph Perry also writes for the websites Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), B&S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com), The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict (gbvreviews.com), and Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom). 

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