Dracula, that bloodsucking bastard...

Yeah, he's a popular guy in the genre. Maybe not so much now, but he was all over the place for the early cinematic decades. The original novel is public domain, so that's why we have so many bastardizations going around, and that's what we're here to talk about.


Currently 34 "Dracula" movies in the db.
https://junkepics.com/film/?category=1&tags=dracula


As you can see, there's a lot of shitty standalone titles, a bunch of Hammer/Universal sequels, and a lot of remakes/adaptions of the story. Of the ones that are trying to (at least vaguely) follow the source material, we have:


Germany's 1922 "Nosferatu" with Max Schreck
Universal's 1931 "Dracula" with Bela Lugosi
Universal's 1931 Spanish version with Carlos Villarias (not seen)
Hammer's 1958 "Horror of Dracula" with Christopher Lee
Jesus Franco's 1970 "Count Dracula", again with Christopher Lee
Dan Curtis' 1974 "Dracula" with Jack Palance
Paul Morrisey's 1974 "Blood for Dracula" with Udo Keir
that 1977 tv movie "Count Dracula" with Louis Jourdan (not seen)
Werner Herzog's 1979 "Nosferatu" remake with Klaus Kinski (not seen)
Universal's 1979 "Dracula" with Frank Langella
Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 "Dracula" with Gary Oldman
Mel Brooks' 1995 "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" with Leslie Nielson
Dario Argento's 2012 "Dracula 3D" with Thomas Kretschmann (not seen)


How would you rank these? Add more if you want, because I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty.


This Jack Palance one I'm watching isn't too shabby. Moody, like any good Dracula movie needs to be, and never a dull moment. That's something that the Hammer Dracs have plenty of: dull, boring, dreadful scenes. Of course, casting is a big deal too, but I can't fault many (if any) of these performances, because they're all pretty good at playing him. Are they all coincidentally great actors, or is Dracula just an easy role to play? 🥴

I like Udo Keir's movie, even though he's such a pussy in it. He needs virgin blood, and of course it barely resembles the source material, it's still kind of an original take on it. Plus, it's super sleazy, and that's always a good thing.

Leslie Nielson's comedic take was kind of a dud, which is a shame, because Young Frankenstein was actually a decent movie in its own right. Of course, I always hate how much of a joke the character has become. If Adam Sandler has played Dracula 3 times... I officially hate Dracula now, but goddamnit... he used to be cool, when real actors played the part.

The first Hammer Dracula movie is probably better than all of Universal's Dracula movies, but the sequels all suck. Coppola's version was pretty good, and had a great look to it. I like it.


Thoughts on Dracula? That bloodsucking bastard...