Horrorfest 2010: The Horror of Dracula

I've been looking forward to seeing THE HORROR OF DRACULA for a long time. I don't know why I never watched it earlier. Growing up, I was obsessed with the classic era of Universal monster movies (DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, all those guys) and would read any book I could find on the subject. The books always mentioned the second wave of horror films in the late 50s and 60s from Hammer Studios in England. Everything in print made those Hammer films seem way more scary and adult than the Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff monsters I was used to -- the publicity stills almost always had bright red blood splattered everywhere and even the name of the studio itself -- HAMMER -- seemed so harsh and unrelenting. And, at the time, the films all seemed so modern -- turns out, they're just relatively modern compared to the films of the early 30s, but looking back from 2010 they're still pretty old fashioned.

Anyway, HORROR OF DRACULA was the first of these. It's basically a remake of the usual DRACULA story, but there's a lot of twists that deviate from the source material and films that came before it. Some of them are welcome surprises while others are just weird.

Just looking at the cast list is exciting. It has been plundered over the years by the last few decades' best and most popular filmmakers -- Christopher Lee stars as Dracula and later appeared in Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS movies. Peter Cushing is Dr. Van Helsing the vampire hunter, and he was Darth Vader's boss in STAR WARS. Michael Gough is Arthur Holmwood, and he spent about a decade playing BATMAN's butler for Tim Burton.

The film opens like most DRACULA stories do, with Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) coming to visit Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) in his castle. But, it isn't long before Harker reveals as he writes in his diary that he actually knows all about Dracula's vampire status an, unlike his literary counterpart, this Harker has arrived specifically to kill Dracula. Unfortunately, he's no match, and before you know it, Dracula's on his way to terrorize Harker's fiance, Lucy (Carol Marsh).

Here's where I start to wonder if I remember the book correctly. Harker marrying Lucy? I thought he was marrying Mina? But, when they cut to Lucy's home, she's living with her brother, Arthur (Michael Gough) and his wife Mina (Melissa Stribling). But in the book, wasn't Lucy engaged to marry Arthur? Now I'm all confused.

Oh well. That's beside the point. The point is, Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) follows Harker to Dracula's castle, figures out what's going on, and returns to rescue Lucy with his vampire hunting expertise.

Here's the thing: Cushing and Lee are both badasses in this movie. But, they're both under stated and fairly tame. The whole movie reeks of decadence and operatic over dramatization, but Cushing and Lee resist chewing the scenery, most of the time. And, the screenplay doesn't really give them any super powers to work with, either. Lee's Dracula is probably one of the most human Draculas I've seen on screen -- he doesn't transform into animals, for instance, and although he appears to be a fairly refined gentleman, he doesn't waste too much time with the sweet talk and is far from poetic. He's mostly just a pissed off, dry, humorless creep you don't want to mess with who happens to look really good standing at the top of a big ass stair case wrapped in a cape. Which is kind of Cushing plays Van Helsing, too -- he's not the kind of guy who will start shit with you, but a glare from him will start you walking on egg shells.

The film is in beautiful color that really shows off the red blood, and Terence Fisher's direction is a model of efficiency. The movie clips along at a great pace, and there isn't a shot that doesn't need to be there.

Of course, Lugosi will probably always be the greatest Dracula there ever was, but Lee makes the part his own, which is a big part of what makes this movie so great.