After a botched attempt at assassination by Abraham Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) leaves his castle to satisfy his thirst and gather more Brides…
I know I have watched this movie before but happily I could not remember much of it.
One thing I love - and this might have to do with watching the same basic story over and over again - is how this movie toys with the familiarity of the story and it’s conventions.
While he is initially presented as an innocent stumbling into danger, John Van Eyssen’s Jonathan Harker is revealed as a vampire hunter who has come to end Dracula’s reign.
The characterisation of the title character is also toyed with - from his introduction, looming at the top of a staircase.
He then descends and coly introduces himself.
In contrast to Lugosi’s diabolical otherworldliness, Christopher Lee is a monster camouflaged by a handsome visage.
While some variation of sex is present in prior versions, there is a sexuality to this Dracula that is more explicit.
His feeding on his victims is conceived as a seduction:
Lying in bed, Lucy (Carol Marsh) breathes heavily with anticipation as Dracula enters her bedroom, circles the bed with bared fangs, and descends on her.
His conversion of Melissa Stribling’s Mina is even more eroticised:
Mina is positioned backing toward her bed as Dracula steps toward her. The door closes, hiding them from view in a familiar bit of visual innuendo. But then the film cuts to inside the room, as Mina continues to back onto the bed.
Dracula cradles her as she falls back to the mattress, smothering her with kisses before they descend out of frame.
Jack Asher’s photography adds to this sense of dangerous sensuality - filled with rich colours and shadows.
The film is genuinely creepy - the undead Lucy’s reappearance in the forest, attempting to lure a young child to their doom, is particularly unsettling.
I love the movie’s brevity - the film never leaves Central Europe.
Peter Cushing makes for a fantastic lead - combining Holmesian deduction with swashbuckling physicality - the finale where he races across a dining table to tear down curtains and shower Dracula with sun is awesome.
And of course, there is the leading man.
Christopher Lee does not have a lot of dialogue, but his commanding, lustful performance is as iconic as Lugosi’s was in the 1931 original.
A superb blend of gothic horror and swashbuckling adventure, Horror of Dracula is a lot of fun.
Related
Dracula (1931 Spanish version)
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
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