'Vampire Hunter D' (1985) Review: Still Slick and Morbidly Eye-popping After 40 Years
- Jack Ransom
- Jun 6
- 3 min read
By Jack Ransom - June 6, 2025
A cult anime feature which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Vampire Hunter D sees Doris Lang (Michie Tomizawa), who is chosen as the next bride of the vampire Count Magnus Lee (Seizo Kato). She hires a mysterious vampire hunter known only as D (Kaneto Shiozawa) in an attempt to escape her ill-gotten fate.
When it comes to anime, I really only have scraped the surface amount of the wealth of films and TV series that I have interest in. It’s a pretty scattershot approach in terms of my viewings: I love Perfect Blue & Akira, couldn’t click with Ghost in the Shell (I preferred the ScarJo live action adaptation, sorry), only have seen two Ghibli films (Grave of the Fireflies & The Boy and the Heron, once again - sorry) and I have seen a few adaptations of pre-existing comic book (Batman: Ninja) and video games (Netflix’s Devil May Cry - thoroughly enjoyed that).
Vampire Hunter D (and its sequel) had been on my radar for a while and with this anniversary screener arriving courtesy of Shudder, I thought now would be the time to bare fangs and dive in. This is certainly an intriguing, gloriously atmospheric slow burn, that makes up for the simplistic plot and familiar tropes. Said plot isn’t particularly original as it essentially boils down to a video-game style boss run/’save the princess’ quest line, with a stop-start and occasionally jarring cut to a different scene. It's functional though and I was never bored throughout the sharp 80 minute duration despite the slower pacing and simplistic nature.
Where the film excels (and honestly gets full marks for) is its visual style and design. This is a gorgeous, macabre, sleazy, gory and at times, disturbing feast for the eyes that I really hope I can see on the big screen at some point in the future. The world-building and production designs are a fascinating blend of Dark Souls-like gargantuan constructs and vast empty spaces, Western horizons, retro-futuristic weaponry, industrial military-like interiors and vehicles (a cyborg-inflicted steed for D), traditional Transylvanian clothing and villagers and a myriad of mythological, supernatural, cosmic and demonic creature designs that are a horror fans dream come true. D himself even has a cackling split personality face-ingrained in his hand. All the antagonists are gory, slimy, grotesque and murderous and the film doubles down on the sinister schlock and splatter. The action sequences are a blend of kinetic and highly stylised, sometimes even tapping into a turned-based approach.
The voice cast all fit their roles and the contrast of the overblown pomposity of most of the character performances are a fun contrast with the almost-muted, stoic, perfectly edgy badassery and dramatic flair of Kaneto Shiozawa’s vocal portrayal of D. Seizo Kato is gloriously hammy and channels the familiar gravitas of Dracula's past (even though he is not Dracula in name) and Michie Tomizawa goes through all emotions from courageous through to helpless.
Vampire Hunter D is a bizarre, slick, morbidly eye-popping and stunning in its imagery and crafts a world that you will be begging to learn more about. The characters' iconography will certainly appeal to fans of cult horror or any inkling of interest in mature fantasy. The story is very simplistic and can feel a little clunky in the pacing department, but the thick, oozing atmosphere makes up for this foibles. Will certainly check out the sequel.
'Vampire Hunter D' celebrates it's 40th anniversary this year and is available on Shudder
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