Dracula (Horror of Dracula)

Dracula (Horror of Dracula)

1958

Director- Terence Fisher

Cast- Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh, John Van Eyssen, Janina Faye, Charles Lloyd-Pack, Valerie Gaunt

          

    Titled Horror of Dracula in the States (I guess to avoid confusion with the Lugosi version),what can be said about this movie that hasn’t been said before? This is practically required viewing for a serious horror, fan alongside The Exorcist or Silence of the Lambs. Still, it is over 60 years old, so there is a very good chance that younger fans haven’t seen it.  

            

   

Vlalorie Gaunt as Dracula's Bride. Has there ever been a better name for a vampire?

    After the 1931 Bela Lugosi Dracula, this is the most important Dracula film ever made. First, it established Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as horror icons. Now, I know that they both starred in The Curse of Frankenstein the previous year, and nothing against that movie, but when people think of Christopher Lee, they think of Dracula. And Peter Cushing wasn’t the definitive Dr. Frankenstein, that honor goes to Colin Clive. Cushing was, and is, however, the definitive Van Helsing. Second, along with The Curse of Frankenstein, it established Hammer as THE maker of horror films for next decade and a half. Third, and maybe, most importantly, it brought Dracula into the latter half of the 20^th Century and stretched the boundaries of the gothic horror film. The bright red blood, the graphic hammering of the stake into Lucy’s chest, the crucifix shaped scar on her forehead, the melting of the vampire in the sun, all became things viewers expected in future vampire films.

           

    As far as faithfulness to the book, it is so-so. It eschews most of the characters (even Renfield who manages to make his way into almost every other version) and does the same switch and swap with the names that many other versions do. It also reduces the plot severely, maybe more than any other version. However, even though all of this makes for a terrible film if you’re using it to write a book report on Dracula, it makes for an excellent film in terms of pure entertainment. The film basically boils everything down to Van Helsing vs. Dracula. Anything that doesn’t bring us closer to that conflict is minimized or done away with. This movie made Van Helsing as important as Dracula, and changed the Dracula mythos forever.

         

 

   I once heard (in reference to literature) that a “classic” was a book that no one liked but were forced to read. I would certainly not apply that definition to this film. It is required viewing, for anyone who wants to understand the Dracula mythos, but you will defiantly enjoy it.