Horrorfest 2018: Dracula's Daughter

Welcome to Horrorfest 2018! This year we have a theme. I’ve decided to watch 31 Universal horror films that I’ve never seen before. Universal was the first studio to really be known for, and define, the horror genre. I’ve been interested in movie monsters ever since I was a kid, so I’ve seen most of the big Universal flicks – DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, etc. But there are many that don’t star the big monsters that I’ve never gotten around to, and even some sequels to the big ones that I never bothered with. So here we go.

This year I’m starting with DRACULA’S DAUGHTER, the 1936 sequel to DRACULA, directed by Lambert Hillyer. I always avoided this movie because I couldn’t understand what Universal was thinking making a sequel to DRACULA and leaving out the great Bela Lugosi. You could argue, well, Dracula dies in the first one, but Frankenstein’s monster dies in every movie and comes right back, sometimes even as Boris Karloff, so why not the same treatment for Dracula?

Turns out despite Lugosi’s absence this movie is a much more direct sequel to the original than I previously assumed, starting exactly where the last one leaves off, with Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan reprising his role) having just staked the vampire. He’s arrested as an apparent murderer and sends for his psychiatrist protégé (Otto Kruger) to hopefully help prove him sane and, in doing so, prove the existence of vampires.

Meanwhile the titular daughter (Gloria Holden) shows up with her creepy right-hand man (Irving Pichel) hoping to her destruction of Dracula’s body will free her of her own vampiric curse. Unfortunately, that doesn’t pan out, so she moves on to hoping for a more psychiatric cure, which brings us back to Van Helsing’s protégé.

Most of the strengths of the movie rely on call backs to the original. Edward Van Sloan is always hypnotic in his Van Helsing (and Van Helsing-esque) roles in various Universal flicks, and the film is wise to return to the locations of the Transylvanian town and Dracula’s castle for the climax of the movie, becoming sort of a mirror image of the original. The one new element that works is Holden herself as Dracula’s daughter – although Lugosi’s absence is felt, she’s up to the task, and has a new element to grab onto, which is the fact that she’s a reluctant vampire. This adds to some interesting subtext when it comes to a scene where she attacks a young woman (Nan Grey) who has been lured to her studio under the pretension of posing for a painting. This results in the best scene in the movie.

The movie’s greatest weakness, however, is Otto Kroger as the… hero, I guess? He’s cranky, stuffy and unpleasant, and treats his love interest/secretary (Maruerite Churchill) like crap, most of the time. Most of his scenes are played for laughs, but the joke is usually on him, which makes for a strange protagonist.