Bram Stroker's Dracula

I just finished reading Dracula for the umpteenth time, so I'm just chock full of inspiration for this review. Of course, I'm not the only one inspired to write something after reading Dracula, Stephen King took on the vampire myth with the book (then TV movie) 'Salem's Lot. Roger Corman, maker of outrageously dumb and over-bloody 'B' movies offered up Dracula Rising. One of the first movies, Nosferatu, is the story of the infamous count. Then we have the comedies and spoofs, Love At First Bite, Once Bitten, Blackula (?), Dracula's Dog (??), Bunnicula (???), and even a breakfast cereal - Count Chocula. Lots of possibilities, but for now, let's look at film Bram Stoker's Dracula, shall we?

This film (for the 12 of you who haven't seen it) stars (deep breath now) Winona Ryder (Mina Murray-Harker), Keanu Reeves (Jonathan Harker), Sadie Frost (Lucy Westenra), Richard E. Grant (Dr. John Seward), Cary Elwes (Arthur Holmwood), Tom Waits (R. M. Renfield), Bill Campbell (Quincey Morris), Anthony Hopkins (Dr. Van Helsing) and Gary Oldman (Ol' Drac himself). The film starts with a brief history of Dracula in his pre-vampire days, nearly all of which was invented by the author of the screenplay. We then jump up several hundred years to the (movie's) present, where a young solicitor named Harker is traveling through eastern Europe, on his way to attend to the business of an important client named Dracula. After his trip (and what a long, strange trip it's been .. oops sorry, we're discussing the undead, not the Grateful Dead), he arrives at the decrepit castle of his host, who greets him cordially, offers him food, and gets down to business. After the business, Dracula sees a photo of Harker's intended, the lovely Mina (who bears a striking resemblance to the Count's dead wife from the unauthentic opening sequence). He then gives Harker a stern warning about falling asleep in any other part of the castle, which Harker promptly ignores, and is visited by 3 semi-clad young lady vampires, who are stopped from sucking him dry by the convenient arrival of the Count. But alas, Harker's reprieve is a brief one, and the count travels to England, leaving Harker in the clutches of the evil semi-clad Hell-whores (and no, they aren't Sandra Bernhard, Madonna, and Shannon Doherty). We then go to England to meet Mina, who is visiting her wealthy friend Lucy, and meeting Lucy's three boyfriends, Messrs.. Seward, Morris, and Holmwood. Lucy eventually chooses to marry Holmwood (why not, he soon becomes Lord Godalming, and is quite rich to boot), but then Dracula arrives, and before you know it, Lucy is well on the way to becoming a semi-clad Hell-whore. Holmwood calls Dr. Seward, who can't figure anything out, so he calls his mentor, Dr. Van Helsing who arrives too late to be of much help. Meanwhile, Mina has been hanging out with this neat new Prince Vlad, who she met on the streets of London. They get closer and closer and closer and then she gets word from Harker, and leaving her prince behind, goes to Harker, and becomes Mrs. Harker. Vlad is beside himself with grief, and that's when Dracula finally does in Lucy for good. Van Helsing then gives the intrepid vampire hunters their first lesson in vampire extermination on Lucy. The Harkers come back, and after comparing notes with the others, discover that Prince Vlad and Dracula are the same, and that he is the reason for Lucy's death. So they all go to Dr. Seward's insane asylum (where we've been getting amusing glimpses of Renfield), which happens to be next door to Dracula's London Lair. While they're out hunting Drac, he's busy recruiting Mina into his herd of Hell-whores (but since Ms. Ryder was somewhat modest at the time, she never becomes semi-clad). Dracula, after finding most of his London Lair destroyed, runs home to Transylvania, with the vampire scouts in hot pursuit. We have a big chase scene, Morris is mortally wounded, as is Dracula, who staggers into his castle with Mina, who finally puts him out of their misery for good.

The film, though better than most of the Dracula flicks made so far, still suffers from the flaws most of them have, mainly that Dracula goes after Mina because she's his one true love. Problem is, there's no trace of that in the book. Dracula's only motive is his thirst and he goes to London, because his little mountain retreat isn't exactly having a population explosion, and London is. With that BIG exception, the film is quite faithful to the book, using many of the same scenes, literary devices (the book is a collection of journal entries, letters, and newspaper clippings) and dialog. If you can get around the 'Love Never Dies' theme Coppola slapped on this film, you'll find it quite enjoyable.