What Color Eyes Do Vampires Have? A Comprehensive List

Curious about the true color of a vampire’s eyes? Wondering if they are black, or red, or golden? To some degree… you are correct. Over the years, vampires have evolved just like we have and their physical attributes have adjusted with the times.

What color eyes do vampires have? According to folklore, traditionally vampires were portrayed with pale skin, fangs, and red glowing eyes. But over time, this depiction has changed and their eye color has shifted from golden yellow to bright blue, to coal black.

Here is a rundown of some of the most popular Vampire movies and how their writers decided to showcase the lead characters written in. In some cases, the color of the vampire’s eyes would shift depending on mood or hunger. Let’s dive deeper into this analysis.

Dracula

According to the text found within Dracula, by Bram Stoker, the original vampire’s eyes turned from blue to red. So, it seems the Dracula’s color went to RED when enraged. You will notice that throughout time, this color does not hold up throughout film and cinema.

But at that instant, another sensation swept through me as quick as lightning. I was conscious of the presence of the Count, and of his being as if lapped in a storm of fury. As my eyes opened involuntarily I saw his strong hand grasp the slender neck of the fair woman and with giant’s power draw it back, the blue eyes transformed with fury, the white teeth champing with rage, and the fair cheeks blazing red with passion.
But the Count! Never did I imagine such wrath and fury, even to the demons of the pit. His eyes were positively blazing. The red light in them was lurid, as if the flames of hell fire blazed behind them.
Bram Stoker

Twilight Saga – Variety Of Colors

Vampire eye color played an important part in the storytelling and development of the Cullen family and their enemy counterparts throughout Twilight. Depending on what eye color each character had determined whether or not they were hungry.

Red	Vampires that live on human blood and has recently drank from a human.
Golden	Vampires who are well fed and who live off of a vegetarian diet. (meaning – non-human in the Twilight series)
Black	When a vampire hasn’t fed in several weeks, their eyes darken until they turned black like coal.

There is one caveat to this scenario. A newly made vampire in the Twilight series is “born” with red eyes. The theory is that they still have a large amount of blood in their system. So, it is almost as if they have already fed on a human internally.

Examples of Twilight Vampires that live on human blood:

Aro
Laurent
James
Victoria
Amazon Coven
Egyptian Coven
Volturi Coven

Examples of Vampires that are vegetarian:

Edward Cullen
Esme Cullen
Carlisle Cullen
Emmett Cullen
Alice Cullen
Denali Coven
Olympus Coven

Underworld – Bright Blue

While in a normal state, the Vampires in the Underworld series look very much like an average human – except they are much paler. However, when they become angry or enraged, their eyes turn either a shade of blue or gold. The brightness varies depending on who the character is in the movie.

Two of the brightest eyes belonged to Viktor – played by Bill Nighy – and Selene – played by Kate Beckinsale.

Vampire Diaries And Their Blood Vessels

We saw more defined and angry feeders in the series Vampire Diaries and The Originals. In this set, feeders showcased popped blood vessels that protruded from the bottom of their faces when enraged or hungry. The eyes also became somewhat bloodshot – but mostly blackened – as their fangs grew to feed. This was the case for the entire race.

Somehow, Stephan Salvatore, Damon Salvatore, and Elena Gilbert still ended up to look irresistible.

Night World Had Silver Eyes

A different spin for the supernatural powerhouses. In Nightworld, when a vampire was about to feed, their eyes would turn silver for the majority of the time. But in some cases, characters who started out with golden eyes had the silver hue just accentuate the gold.

Frostbitten – Red

On a normal day, the vamps in Frostbitten looked absolutely average at best. However, when they were about to strike, their eyes would turn orange and then red with exposed veins.

The Shadowhunter Chronicles – Cat-like

Almost cat-like, the undead in The Shadowhunter Chronicles had yellow eyes with black slits in the middle. This is also a different take than we have been used to in year’s past.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter – Bloodshot to Black

This particular film had several different settings for the vampire eye colors. In Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, you could clearly see the transformation of eyes depending on how angry a vamp was. The eyes would turn completely black when someone was absolutely enraged.

However, there were also many instances when you saw vampires fighting with bloodshot eyes. They also managed to just maintain this bloodshot look – never fully pushing to completely black.

My Babysitters’ A Vampire – Yellow

Another movie that showcased vampires looking like everyday people…e except when they got mad. When things heat up, the undead in, “My Babysitter’s a Vampire” suddenly showcases a yellowish glow, or in some rare cases, you could even see a purple glow at times.

Penny Dreadful – Red

It doesn’t matter if you are a master vampire or just an infected vampire, you still end up with blood eyes in Penny Dreadful. In fact, most vampires looked absolutely ghastly – taking on skeletal features beyond your traditional vamp fictional features.

Only Mina Murray would be able to return back to her normal state once she calmed down after being enraged.

Lost Boys – Yellow

I couldn’t put together a list of eye color and not include one of the first movies I saw as a child growing up in the 80s and 90s. Had to look it up, of course, because … who could remember? The Lost Boys showcased yellow eyes with rings of blood-red around the outer parts of the iris.

Angel

An outlier from the list, Angel showcased more of a bright green than anything else. The color does look like it has hues of yellow in it, but one would argue that this feeder gets hazel eyes when hungry or mad.

Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer hold similar features and traits since one is the extension of the other. However, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there were more yellow-eyed vampires than green.

Interview with a Vampire

In “Interview with a Vampire”, when feeding, I found evidence that Tom Cruise’s character, Lestat goes bright blue. You have to wonder if the current filmmakers leaned on some of their favorites from the past when making their own decision.

However, this wasn’t a steadfast rule. In researching Brad Pitt’s character – Louis de Pointe du Lac, you can clearly see that his eyes are not bright blue, but are instead bright yellow. So, there was no hard-fast rule in this series. Both men fed on humans. The rules aren’t similar to that of Twilight.

I read the Anne Rice book almost 20 years ago. Not sure if the eye color is different in the book.

30 Days and Nights – Black

In 30 Days and Nights, the vampires had black coals for eyes and the color took over their entire eyeball. Pretty creepy.

Vampirism was a virus and as long as you had any contact with the blood, you would turn. The transformation included grey skin, a narrowing of your eyes – which was a bit different from previous films – and razor-sharp teeth.

Another movie that had no color consistency (including their follow-up TV series), was From Dusk Til Dawn. Red eyes, blue eyes, black eyes, gold eyes – this movie had it all!

As long as they could get a hold of the contacts, they were placed into one of the fighters and feeders.

What is the vampire syndrome?

Vampire syndrome – otherwise known as porphyria is commonly referred to as vampire disease. Symptoms include:

sensitivity to sunlight – both skin and eyes
discoloration of urine – takes on reddish coloring (led people to believe they drank blood)
skin tightens and shrinks which makes canine teeth protrude (showcases “fangs”)
discoloration of skin – lightening showcasing a pale appearance

Count Dracula was actually rumored to suffer from porphyria which started the entire rumor that he was an actual vampire.

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