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Dracula (Bela Lugosi) is tucked away in his castle in Translyvania with his 3 vampire brides when estate agent Renfield comes a-calling. After turning him to the ways of the night, Dracula and his vampire children head towards England where they have Mina Harker and family in their sights. Getting to them however, will be a problem as Professor Van Helsing (Edward Sloan) knows what Dracula truly is.

Based on the stage play, and not wholly on Bram Stokers book, it's inconceivable that modern horror exists today without some debt to 'Dracula'. Over 70 years on and Tod Brownings direction can still raise the goosebumps when it needs to, the first half of the film shrouded in an eerie mist that is ripe with atmosphere. Fog wouldn't be this scary until John Carpenter got his hands on it. The look of the film alone is worth investigating as his cob-webbed sets of Dracula's castle are able to give a shiver down the spine alone. Cloaked in an ominous black and white, it's easy to see just why they've been so influential. The long, winding stairs in the castle are enough to cause a nightmare by themselves.

It's when the lights go up however, that the film is robbed of its atmosphere and a lot of the power is gone. 70 years on and it's clear that this is a stage adaptation. In fact it's painfully stagey at places. The transition and editing between scenes is clunky and exposition is rolled out dramatically, with little adherence to logic or tension. And for all the wonderful atmosphere conjured up in the first half, the second half is slooow and devoid of many chills.
It's hard to think of a film that has a duller climax (hell, it even happens off-screen). It's criminally short of tension, horror or even interest. Just because it's a stage adaptation, doesn't mean that it shouldn't be changed for a completely different medium.

There are the saving graces of some performances however. Dwight Frye is a demented, gleeful presence as the insane, insect-eating Renfield (the reveal of him on a ship full of dead men is worth your time alone) and even though he lays on the ham with a thick accent, Sloan is effective as Van Helsing and far, far better then Hugh Jackman could ever hope to be.

The finest reason to watch this is Lugosi however. Although not the definitive Dracula (Christopher Lee gets my vote), he is an awesome icon of evil here. Looking every inch the ancient vampire he really sells the horror of the part and the glare in his eyes burns with a real maleovlance, making up for the lack of blood in the film.

It's strange that 'Dracula' is still so well remembered as it's far from a great film. In fact it's half a great one, and half a poor one. But when you've got great performances, a fantastically creepy first half and some wonderful images (the 3 brides, the ship of dead men), they can compensate for anything. Age has not been kind to 'Dracula', but for its influence alone, the original Prince of Darkness still deserves your respect.

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originally posted: 06/21/04 23:02:57
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