Released in the US as The Horror of Dracula
1958
Directed by Terence Fisher
Sorry about the gap between this post and the last post. I got the dreaded "short wait" on Netflix for this one and couldn't find it anywhere else. Of course, I have seen about four Dracula movies for the list by now so I could probably just freestyle this review and you wouldn't notice.
That last sentence sounds like I am complaining. I am actually not; I am quite fond of the story; it is just hard to surprise me with the plot after seeing so many adaptations of the novel. However, this movie actually had some great twists and changed enough of the story to keep my interest.
This is the story, as we all know, of Jonathan Harker, Van Helsing, the Homewood family, and, of course, Dracula. In this adaptation, however, Harker is already fully aware of what Dracula is and has come to his castle to kill him. Hilarity ensues. Well, at least it does if you think the above picture is funny.
I really enjoyed this film. It was great seeing a Dracula movie in color. The whole story is a great opportunity to show some real gore (I mean the entire plot revolves around blood). Unfortunately, in the 20s and 30s we didn't get a lot of violence on screen. However, in this film, we get blood gushing out of women and some seriously crazy eyes.
Overall, a fun movie and probably the best Dracula film I have ever seen.
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
Christopher Lee could not see a thing in his contact lenses.
Lee only received 750 pounds for his work in this movie.
I have actually seen this movie twice. When I was a little girl it seemed there was a stretch of time that vampire movies were on every Saturday. They really scared little me so it was funny to see this one again as an adult. I enjoyed it but I think it's because it seems so corny now.
ReplyDeleteI agree; it is very corny to watch now. However, the idea of a stake being hammered into someone still freaked me out.
DeleteThanks for commenting!
It was fun to see Christopher Lee as a young man, no? I always think of him as the really old guy throwing spells and what-not.
ReplyDeleteOh totally. He will always be Saruman to me.
DeleteWhen I was young and VHS was cutting-edge technology, BBC2 used to show one or sometimes two Hammer Horror movies every Saturday night. Past my bedtime, but I would record them to watch on Sunday and then keep in a cupboard for future viewing (which never actually happened because it turned out that VHS wasn't the end of history as far as home cinema was concerned and it was all soon obsolete).
ReplyDeleteGreat film!