PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Synopsis: “Jonathan Harker rouses the ire of Count Dracula after he accepts a job at the vampire’s castle under false pretenses. Harker’s friend, Dr. Van Helsing, then embarks on a hunt for the predatory villain when he targets Harker’s loved ones.”
A triumvirate of absolute horror legends have birthdays in May. Vincent Price (5/27) would be celebrating his 112th, Peter Cushing (5/26) would be 110, and the incomparable Christopher Lee (5/27) would be 101, and still incomparable. Coincidentally, both Lee and Cushing (who co-starred in a staggering 24 films together) star in a film that turns old enough to collect Social Security this month (5/7/1958), Horror of Dracula (or just plain Dracula in the UK).
Frequent Hammer scripter Jimmy Sangster (Horror of Frankenstein) tackled the task of condensing Bram Stoker’s beloved work into a feature film length, while trying to distinguish itself from Universal’s 1931 hit. He accomplished this by dropping some recognizable aspects of the story (this meant: no Renfield, no Demeter, Hell, no London!) to not only account for running time, but also to accommodate both budget and sets. Hammer’s prolific in-house director, Terrance Fisher (Curse of Frankenstein), was brought on board to helm the project.
Taking liberties with the source material, Harker (John Van Eyssen; Concrete Jungle) – here a librarian – journeys to the remote castle home of the titular Count Dracula (Lee). There, after an early encounter with a sexy female vamp (the aptly named, for a horror film, Valerie Gaunt; Curse of Frankenstein), things go from bad to worse for poor Mr. Harker. Doctor Van Helsing (Cushing), while investigating Harker’s disappearance, finds the castle vacant save for the now fanged Harker, whom he subsequently stakes, and reports back to Harker’s fiancé Lucy (Carol Marsh; A Christmas Carol). Soon, Lucy too falls under the bloodthirsty Count’s spell, setting the doctor and her friends Mina (Melissa Stribling; The Avengers) and Arthur (Michael Gough; Batman Forever) fast on the evil vampire’s trail.
In my not-so-humble opinion, Horror of Dracula is the finest vampire film made, to date, in the English language. Not so much a cash-in/re-make, as a unique re-imagining. Despite his very vocal frustration with the deviations from Stoker’s story, Lee brought a savage sexuality to Dracula that was very absent in Bela Lugosi’s version – this Dracula had fangs! You see him bite woman! Feral red eyes!! There’s red blood! The film was notorious during its initial run for those reasons alone. While a lot of the violence takes place slyly out of frame, there were plenty of reasons for audiences of the day to hide behind their hands.
Who can forget the now iconic image of Lee, baring his blood-stained fangs, a wild ferocity in his red eyes, snarling at the camera? It was the blueprint for vampire films to follow. And the studied, clinically detached Van Helsing, brought to incredible life by Cushing, would go on to hunt his nemesis in eight more features in the coming years, a clear testament to the staying power and the ability to captivate audiences of this penultimate horror duo.
Widely regarded as a pioneering masterpiece of gothic horror cinema, Horror of Dracula stands up today as a vibrant, colorful, thrilling watch, and is a brilliant start to one of cinema’s lasting horror franchises.
Horror of Dracula is available on streaming, and on Blu-ray from the Warner Bros. Archive Collection.
