One of the movies ranked as the best of the 21st century by film professionals for The New York Times is a historical Western that is secretly a vampire movie. This was one of two Westerns that hit the top 10 of the countdown, as both 2008 movies, There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men, ended up ranking high.

While No Country for Old Men was a pure Western, There Will Be Blood was different. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood tells the story of an oilman named Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) who arrives in Little Boston looking for oil and convinces the townspeople to turn their land over to him, where he then bleeds the town to death.

There Will Be Blood Is Secretly A Vampire Movie

Daniel Plainville Kills The Towns By Sucking Them Dry

The тιтle of the movie is There Will Be Blood, which refers to oil in this case. The film was loosely based on the novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair, and the story revolves around two key themes. The first is the blood that Daniel Plainview spills, with this playing out more than once in the film. The second is that oil is the lifeblood of the town he has arrived in.

In classic vampire stories, a vampire, such as Dracula, arrives in town, and death follows in his wake. He usually begins to kill people, literally sucking their blood to sustain his life while ending theirs. By the time the vampire leaves or is defeated, he has ravaged the town he arrived in, leaving it empty and void.

That is precisely what There Will Be Blood is about. Daniel Plainville discovered gold in California, which made him a wealthy man. His partner, though, died, and Daniel took his partner’s son with him to pretend to be family, so it would be easier to sucker people into letting him into their homes. When Daniel visits preacher Eli Sunday and his father, they allow him in, and this dooms the town.

By the end of the movie, several accidents occur in the town, resulting in death and destruction for the people who trusted Daniel and allowed him into their homes. By the time Daniel leaves the town, he has destroyed almost everything there, becoming a wealthy man and sucking it dry of the blood that supported it.

There Will Be Blood’s Daniel Plainview Is A Modern-Day Dracula

Daniel Plainville Shares Many Traits With The Legendary Vampire

When Daniel Plainville arrived in the town of Little Boston, he had to be allowed in before he could do anything. It was the classic Dracula trope, as he couldn’t enter and harm anyone there without an invitation. He had his own Renfield in his son H.W., so he used and manipulated him to allow him to get what he wanted. When he was finished with H.W., he discarded him.

However, the best example of Daniel being a vampire and a modern-day Dracula came when he began to destroy the town from within. He even had his own Van Helsing in Eli Sunday, but with one significant difference. In this vampire story, Dracula defeated Van Helsing. While Eli achieved a small victory, Daniel emerged victorious in the end.

The final “I Drink Your Milkshake” scene was where Daniel Plainview revealed what had happened. Eli wanted to partner with him to dig for more oil, but Daniel explained he had already bled the town dry and left it for ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, making Daniel wealthier than ever. Daniel then murdered Eli after forcing him to renounce God, which delivered There Will Be Blood’s biggest twist.