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In another retelling of the classic story of Dracula, we find the arch fiend up to his usual brand of evil. The movie starts with a vampire hunter named Jonathan Harker arriving at Dracula’s castle in the guise of being Dracula’s new librarian. Harker manages to kill one of Dracula’s brides, but falls victim to the Count himself. This series of events leads Dracula to come after Harker’s fiancée and her family. The only man standing between Dracula and his revenge is Doctor Van Helsing. As the bodies start to pile up, the viewer can’t help but wonder if Van Helsing is in over his head…
It’s interesting to note that up to the point before this movie was made Bela Lugosi was considered to have given the best portrayal of Dracula ever. What is even more interesting to note is that Lugosi was still considered the best Dracula ever after this movie was made. Christopher Lee gives a great performance as the Count, but almost no one who knows anything about vampire movies considers his performance better than Lugosi’s. In one of the first scene of the movie Dracula shows Harking his room at Castle Dracula, and in it is a chess board. I can’t help but feel like most of this movie is like watching a game of chess between Dracula and Van Helsing. Peter Cushing is wonderful as Doctor Van Helsing, and portrays a man that refuses to give up his chase of Dracula even after so many people are killed in the process. One of the smartest things about the movie occurs when Van Helsing is discussing the nature of vampires with Arthur Holmwood, who asks about a vampire’s ability to turn into a bat. Van Heling tells him that it isn’t true and purely the stuff of fantasy. What makes this bit of dialogue great is that it’s the movie’s way of covering up the fact that in 1958 they didn’t have the technology to have Dracula morphing into different animals. They did it in Lugosi’s day and it looked fake, but we can forgive it because it was made over twenty years before this movie. However, seeing a rubber bat in color would have totally destroyed the atmosphere of this movie. The atmosphere in this movie is fantastic. Castle Dracula looks great. Another great thing about this movie is that it actually has blood in it. We even get to see Van Helsing hammer a stake into the heart of a vampire. This might sound like nothing today, but for the time such violence was not an ordinary occurrence in movies.
Perhaps my biggest compliment for this movie though is that it was a lot of fun to watch. I find too many horror movies today are gory, but aren’t very fun to watch. This movie made me want to see other Dracula movies with Christopher Lee in them, where as a newer movie like House of the Dead made me want to throw eggs at its director’s house.
Some people might find this movie a bit tame. For the time it was violent, but by today’s standards it would be rated no higher than PG-13. They even fade out on some potential violence, which reminded me of old Dracula from 1931. The blood looks like paint with its bright red texture, but I’ve been told that it is a staple for the Christopher Lee Dracula movies. You can tell that this movie was made during a different era of movie production. During the final struggle between Van Helsing and Dracula, there’s no witty one liners. There’s actually no verbal exchange at all, but that doesn’t lessen the conflict. In my opinion, their silence during the struggle just adds to its intensity, but some viewers might find it weird as a lot of us have been trained to expect a Bruce Willis quality one liner from our hero as he faces his arch enemy.
Viewers might be disappointed by Dracula’s lack of dialogue. I found this odd myself, but as the movie progressed, I couldn’t help but notice that Dracula’s silence made him seem a lot cooler. That’s probably the biggest difference I can see between Lugosi’s and Lee’s portrayal of Dracula. Lee’s Dracula comes off as more of a badass than Lugosi’s. Of course I haven’t seen Lugosi’s other Dracula movies, so his Dracula may have been just as much of a badass as Lee’s. Lugosi’s Dracula did fight Frankenstein after all, and in my book that’s pretty badass.
Every Dracula fan should see this movie. Every horror movie fan should see it too. The Horror of Dracula deserves to be called a classic for all the right reasons. I don’t know what else to say about this movie other then if you have a chance to watch, you should.
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