"I don t drink...wine."- The Dracula Thread

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  • Posts: 15,125
    Dracula is one of my favourite books, I took Gothic Novels as one of my English Lit modules at University and studied Bram Stoker's excellent work.

    Francis Ford Coppala film adaption is probably the film I like the most, though I grew up watching the Hammer Horror films so alot of sentiment toward them.

    I hate the Coppola's movie. I call it pseudo Dracula.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,186
    @Ludovico

    It's a very stylish film for sure but in many ways I feel like it brings the book rather well to life. Oldman is excellent as Dracula, at least in my humblest of opinions. And the score is perhaps not for everyone but I really like it. Then again, it's a strange film so I can easily understand what makes it so polarizing.
  • Posts: 15,125
    Oldman lacks the menace. And Dracula was never meant to be an angsty lovesick vampire, or Lucy Westenrae a tart. The movie is filled with errors regarding the source material and the era in which the story is set.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,186
    That is certainly true. Some liberties were taken. How do you feel about the BBC miniseries starring Louis Jordan, @Ludovico?
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,804
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    That is certainly true. Some liberties were taken. How do you feel about the BBC miniseries starring Louis Jordan, @Ludovico?

    Wow, I remember thinking it was okay, better than the Jack Palance version while still in the same league... the Langella version was just too 'Hollywood'... and the Oldman version was just too artsy... Hammer was (and IS) where it's at! For ME, at any rate.
  • Posts: 5,994
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    That is certainly true. Some liberties were taken. How do you feel about the BBC miniseries starring Louis Jordan, @Ludovico?

    Wow ! I didn't know that this guy :

    jordanlouis_001.jpg?itok=9WXQxsnF

    had played the Count. Oh, you meant Louis Jourdan ?

    DraculaFog.jpg

    Of course, there's that :

    91H0vXadTZL._SX342_.jpg

    I've seen the first movie, and it was rather good.
  • Posts: 618
    William Marshall is fantastic as the cursed Prince Mamuwalde, a.k.a. Blacula.

    His voice is incredible.
  • Posts: 16,169
    I have fond memories of the Coppola version, and saw it about 17 times in the cinema when it was released. I do love the film. But, I'd agree with those that it doesn't follow the book as much as it claimed to. The Mina/romance/ reincarnation subplot had nothing to do with the book. Gary Oldman was excellent, yet I never quite felt he was Dracula. More that he was specifically portraying the historical Vlad The Impaler placed in a variation of Stokers story. The Palance version had the same reincarnation subplot and his Drac was also Vlad Tepes. I found Palance far more terrifying than Oldman.

    One of the rarest adaptations, Purple Playhouse's 1973 TV version of DRACULA is available for viewing on YouTube. Finally caught it. Norman Welsh made an interesting Count, and had an interesting look with the white hair, gray lined cape. However, I wouldn't all it one of the best, but still worth checking out if one is a fan.

  • Posts: 15,125
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    That is certainly true. Some liberties were taken. How do you feel about the BBC miniseries starring Louis Jordan, @Ludovico?

    It's OK but very tv. I love Jordan in general but he's miscast as Dracula. Van Helsing is very bland. What the BBC has going for its adaptation is maybe the best Mina Harker and a few scenes that are very much like in the book.
  • Gerard wrote: »
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    That is certainly true. Some liberties were taken. How do you feel about the BBC miniseries starring Louis Jordan, @Ludovico?

    Wow ! I didn't know that this guy :

    jordanlouis_001.jpg?itok=9WXQxsnF

    had played the Count. Oh, you meant Louis Jourdan ?

    DraculaFog.jpg

    Of course, there's that :

    91H0vXadTZL._SX342_.jpg

    I've seen the first movie, and it was rather good.


    Never seen those, are they comedies or really horror
  • Posts: 19,339
    They are black comedies.....he he..... *i'll get my coat*
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Has anyone tried to dress up as Dracula and walk through town? Just to see if the gypsies bow to you?
  • Posts: 618
    The Blacula films (1972-73) are surprisingly good!
  • Posts: 15,125
    Has anyone tried to dress up as Dracula and walk through town? Just to see if the gypsies bow to you?

    It's not only the clothes it's the attitude. And the overall appearance.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Turns out there are various Dracula video games out there. I don t play myself, but wonder what those would be like. Anyone tried?
  • Posts: 15,125
    Turns out there are various Dracula video games out there. I don t play myself, but wonder what those would be like. Anyone tried?

    The Sega genesis one of Coppola's Dracula I saw. It was really rubbish.

    Oh the Japanese animated Dracula based on Marvel's Dracula was laughably bad.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Turns out there are various Dracula video games out there. I don t play myself, but wonder what those would be like. Anyone tried?



    Oh the Japanese animated Dracula based on Marvel's Dracula was laughably bad.

    I saw a clip from that. It was really weird, and yes, bad.
  • Posts: 16,169
    I used to have the animated film taped from television. Pity the animators couldn't give Dracula that Jack Palance likeness Gene Colan drew in the comics.
    Still, I do like Marvel's story arc used for the film. Just poorly executed.
  • Posts: 15,125
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Turns out there are various Dracula video games out there. I don t play myself, but wonder what those would be like. Anyone tried?



    Oh the Japanese animated Dracula based on Marvel's Dracula was laughably bad.

    I saw a clip from that. It was really weird, and yes, bad.

    Bad is an understatement. It starts with the Big Bang. It has a baby reincarnated/resurrected into a superhero, a dozen storylines going in all directions and ending nowhere, Satan, God and a team of vampire hunters all set against Dracula.
  • Posts: 16,169
    It pretty much makes BILLY THE KID VS DRACULA and DRACULA VS FRANKENSTEIN (1971) look like masterpieces.

    I love every frame of BILLY THE KID VS DRACULA actually.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    With all his powers, given to him by The Devil or not, Dracula is truly a supervillain.
  • Posts: 15,125
    About the popular misconception that Bram Stoker based Dracula on Vlad Tepes: https://vamped.org/2015/01/27/vlad-dracula-vampire/
  • Posts: 5,994
    I can't resist posting this :



    Classic !
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    With his shapeshifting abilities, I wonder if Dracula kickstarted the new interest in the werewolf mythos within popùlar culture as well
  • Posts: 15,125
    With his shapeshifting abilities, I wonder if Dracula kickstarted the new interest in the werewolf mythos within popùlar culture as well

    In folklore the line between vampire and werewolf is blurry. I think the idea of contagion through bite is originally a vampiric one.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
  • edited August 2018 Posts: 15,125

    Far more menacing and scary than Coppola's Dracula, but far less cheesy or indeed comedic.

    Anyway. Anybody else thinks modern werewolves (and maybe zombies too) owe more to vampires than actual werewolves of old?
  • Posts: 17,759

    Hahaha!
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