Television series

Castlevania

Name: Castlevania
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural
Released: 2017
Cast: Richard Armitage, Alejandra Reynoso, James Callis, Theo James, Adetokumboh M'Cormack

Castlevania turns a beloved side-scrolling video game into moody, ultra-violent anime-style television: swords, sorcery, monster hunts and centuries of vengeance rendered in fluid 2D animation. It's fast, darkly funny in bursts, and genuinely brutal, with Dracula reimagined as a grieving widower unleashing hell on Wallachia. Ideal for animation fans who want their fantasy R-rated and their body horror unapologetic.

TVMaze rating

7.9

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From the same house, Arcane proves animated video-game adaptations can be prestige television, with painterly visuals and a sibling rivalry that hits harder than most live-action dramas.

But Its slow-burn character drama and steampunk politics move at a different pace than Castlevania's monster-of-the-week momentum.

Blood of Zeus2020no page yet

Made by Castlevania's own animation studio, this swaps vampires for Greek gods and delivers the same fluid combat and mythic doom, following a demigod hero fighting his way toward Olympus.

But The mythology is thinner and the emotional stakes never quite reach the same tragic heights.

Devilman Crybaby2018

This unhinged Japanese anime throws teenage angst, demons and apocalypse into a blender, animated with the same willingness to go for broke that makes Castlevania's gore so satisfying.

But It's stranger, more explicit and considerably more nihilistic — not for the faint of heart.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Nosferatu1922

Castlevania's Dracula draws on the same folkloric well this film helped cement in cinema — the aristocrat as plague, grief curdling into monstrosity — making Nosferatu the great-grandfather of the show's antagonist.

The original screen vampire, silent and skeletal, still unsettling a century later — see where Dracula's cinematic shadow first fell before Castlevania ever animated a fang.

But It's silent, black-and-white and nearly eighty minutes of slow dread — a real tonal and pacing leap from the show's fast cuts.

Hellsing Ultimate2006no page yet

A gleefully over-the-top vampire-hunting anime with a monstrous anti-hero and gothic firepower, it's the spiritual older cousin to Castlevania's blood-soaked set pieces.

But The animation and pacing show their age, and the plot is thinner than the show's stylish carnage suggests.

The Legend of Vox Machina2022

Foul-mouthed, R-rated fantasy adventuring with a ragtag band of misfits, it captures the same tabletop energy and gore-soaked humour that runs through Castlevania's monster hunts.

But The jokes lean broader and cruder, and the animation is less painterly than Castlevania's.

Attack on Titan2013

Humanity besieged by monstrous forces and a hero driven by vengeance — this anime shares Castlevania's bleak stakes and relentless momentum, just on a much larger, more punishing canvas.

But It's a bigger commitment across far more episodes, and the tone is even grimmer with less comic relief.

Van Helsing2004

A gothic monster-mash blockbuster with a swaggering vampire hunter facing off against Dracula himself — pure pulpy spectacle if you want the live-action equivalent of Castlevania's energy.

But It's campier and shallower, more concerned with spectacle than the show's surprisingly rich character writing.

Underworld2003

Sleek gothic action with vampires and werewolves locked in ancient war, it channels the same brooding romantic-horror atmosphere, minus the animation, plus a great deal of leather.

But The mythology is simpler and the emotional core is thinner than Castlevania's family tragedy.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust2001

This lush anime film about a lone vampire hunter in a gothic future is a genuine ancestor to Castlevania's visual DNA — moody, elegant, blood-soaked.

But It's slower and more melancholic than Castlevania's action pace, prioritising mood over momentum.

Let the Right One In2008

Both treat vampirism as tragedy rather than spectacle — the horror lives in intimacy and loss, not fangs and battle, giving you the emotional register Castlevania only occasionally slows down long enough to touch.

A hushed, wintry Swedish film about a lonely boy and the ancient child-vampire next door, it asks the same question Castlevania keeps circling — can love survive when one of you is a monster.

But There's no swordplay, no comic relief, and almost no on-screen violence — it's tender where Castlevania is operatic.

Over the Garden Wall2014

Same folk-horror bones — a journey through a haunted wilderness toward an ambiguous darkness — but told in miniature, melancholic strokes instead of Castlevania's blood-slick maximalism, showing how far the same atmosphere can travel.

A ten-episode animated miniseries about two brothers lost in an eerie autumnal forest, it's gentle, strange and quietly haunted — proof that dread and wonder can coexist without a single decapitation.

But It's aimed at a much younger audience and has none of Castlevania's violence, sex or cynicism — a completely different temperature.