Dracula Mania: Horror of Dracula

My first Hammer horror delight and even though this is just one film out of a whole lot that they made I think I get now why these pictures have a huge following.  They’re pretty to look at, competently directed, the actors give good performances and they change the story just enough to differentiate itself from past incarnations making it feel fresh.  This one was Hammer’s first stab at Dracula.

The story they went with doesn’t resemble the classic tale really at all.  Jonathan Harker travels to Castle Dracula because he’s the new librarian.  However, he reveals through a diary entry that he’s really there to do a hit job on Drac (Christopher Lee).  When Harker is unsuccessful the Count flees and Van Helsing (Peter Cushing (Star Wars)) is left to pick up the pieces and go after the vampire with the help of Harker’s brother, Arthur (Michael Gough (Batman (1989))).  I told you it was different.

I’m fine with these story changes though.  The way it’s rolled out makes the movie feel like a small part of a larger story and I like that.  Before the audience is brought into the fold Van Helsing and Harker must’ve discussed vampires, Dracula, their powers, weaknesses, how they found out about Dracula, the horrible things that he’s done, how they tracked him down and they clearly formulated a plan on how to kill the bastard.  Dracula must’ve been looking for a new librarian so the timing was convenient.  But I’m sure he was just angling for a meal and puts ads out for servants all the time.      

There are two kinda big things that annoy me though.  First, Dracula’s castle is clean as a whistle.  The filmmakers didn’t even attempt to make the place look spooky at all.  It’s bright, uses many colors and doesn’t appear to be that big.  It really bothered me that Dracula would live in such a nonthreatening abode.

Second is Dracula himself.  He’s barely in this fuckin’ thing!  And when he is he pretty much only snarls or hisses.  I don’t have anything against Christopher Lee but I didn’t care for him in this.  And it’s really his appearance because he can’t help that he has practically no dialogue.  He looks too British and he’s got salt ‘n pepper hair that makes him look professorial ‘n shit.  I’m sure a lot of you out there grew up with this version and this is how you think Dracula should go but Lee just doesn’t sit right with me.  He acts like more animal than man and the imbalance is too much.  To dehumanize the character to this extent doesn’t make sense to me.  You’re supposed to connect with Dracula a little, understand where he’s coming from.  Here we don’t get a chance to and it makes Dracula seem like kind of a barbaric idiot quite frankly.  I mean he gets infiltrated by a hitman and almost gets himself killed because of it (why Harker staked the bride first and not Dracula I have no idea), attempts revenge but doesn’t achieve total victory (Lucy gets killed), goes for a second revenge and fails again leading to his own demise.  So what has Dracula really accomplished?  Not a goddamn thing.  He’s just some asshole that can’t get his evil plot together.

Moving on, in this version we actually see vampire Lucy out in the woods taking a child to feed on and that’s the only time we get that.  The death of Lucy is pretty awesome with a fair amount of blood.  Van Helsing is his usual steadfast self and he appears to be English, not Dutch, this time.  Dracula’s castle is located in Klausenberg and not Transylvania and also Mina, Lucy and Arthur don’t reside in England but someplace closer to Klausenberg called Carlstadt.  Fangs and blood are definitely used here as opposed to the ’31 version but no bats or wolves.

I thought this was fun and I like that it’s pretty short (about 80 mins) but it only takes bits and pieces from the original yarn and that totally threw me.  I think I’ll enjoy it more with successive viewings as well as other Hammer horror movies because now I have a better idea of what to expect.

Creep factor: None.  It’s a vibrant, clean and neat film.

Romance factor: None.  Dracula’s purely a monster this time.