Just called Dracula in its country of origin (I wanted to differentiate it more from the other films so I went with the American title), this British horror classic was the Hammer remake of the American Universal original. Hammer was honestly a really incredible film studio, basically the face of British horror films during the middle of the twentieth century, and while I haven’t seen all of their famous horror movies, I can confidently say that I am a pretty big fan of the ones I have seen! This film, and their rendition of the modern Prometheus story in The Curse of Frankenstein are some of the best later gothic horror movies I’ve seen (although I think The Curse of Frankenstein may just edge ahead of Dracula… maybe I ought to write a review of that sometime!) In a lot of ways, this film has had such an influence on the vampire genre that it can be compared only to the classic Tod Browning/Bela Lugosi flick… The Horror of Dracula was only the second film ever to give its titular bloodsucker a set of fangs (beat only by the Turkish Dracula in Istanbul (1953)), the first film to use red colored contact lenses (which would become a staple of vampire media in the decades after), to feature premade sharpened wooden stakes, and, in a lot of ways, this film brought back a brooding sensuality to the Dracula character that had been lost since Lugosi’s first picture. Also, it was the breakout role of Christopher Lee! Gotta love it for that!
To begin with though, probably the number one thing that stuck out to me and my friends when we watched it: this movie has absolutely bonkers pacing. And not in a bad way! It comes out to under an hour and a half, but with how rapidly paced it was it ended up feeling even shorter. When we started it, the opening sequence, with Jonathan Harker visiting Dracula’s castle, was so fast paced that we were practically reeling! We barely got to know the guy before he was already being captured by the count and practically killed! The rest of the film definitely slowed down compared to that breakneck speed opening sequence, but it never got quite so slow as Werner Herzog’s more melancholic and deliberate take on the Dracula narrative.
But what about the characters? Okay, so the first thing that was weird is that the names of some of the female characters are switched; it is Mina who succumbs to Dracula’s influence and Lucy who is intended to marry Jonathan Harker. No clue why they straight up flipped the names. Also, the female characters are pretty flat. I remember liking the spookiness of vampire Mina though.
Since most of the other characters end up pretty flat, who really stands out are the two leading lights of the Dracula tale: Van Helsing and Dracula himself! This film pairs up two of the greatest actors in the entire horror canon, Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Christopher Lee as Dracula. Cushing’s Van Helsing is an absolutely stunning and iconic role, and personally my favorite rendition of the character. The only other Van Helsing that gets anywhere close is Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Cushing is such a master! I adore just about every single role he has ever been in; since I mentioned The Curse of Frankenstein already, his performance as Victor Frankenstein in that film is STELLAR. Cushing is the real deal. Christopher Lee is just about the only actor who is on the same level, and him being set up opposite Cushing in this film makes for such a power duo. As has already been mentioned, Lee in this film brought so much to the Dracula role. In a lot of ways, the image of Dracula that we have today is just as much due to Lee’s creative contributions in this performance as to Bela Lugosi and Bram Stoker himself. This isn’t the first time that Christopher Lee starred in a Hammer film, having earlier played the monster in The Curse of Frankenstein, but this is the first one that really allowed him to show his acting chops. He’s a genuinely good actor, an absolute legend! If you like classic horror and really great performances, you gotta watch Cushing and Lee in this movie!
I give Terence Fisher and Hammer's The Horror of Dracula...
3.5 Bats out of 5!
Click the image for a great youtube video all about Hammer's Dracula franchise!
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