Dracula on Film

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Hello. I recently began rereading the Dracula novel and began wondering if any of the movie adaptations of Dracula are accurate at all. Most I’ve personally watched are very stylized and interpretative. What do you think is the film adaptation, whether movie or TV, that is most similar to the novel?

God bless! 🙂
 
It’s a long and quite complex novel. Like most novels of that length, it has to be severely cut for a movie adaptation. The movie that I personally found the most authentic, in the sense of capturing the character of Bram Stoker’s original Dracula and the spirit in which he attacks his victims, was Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu, starring Klaus Kinski.

The Dracula movie I most enjoyed, though, was Mel Brooks’ Dead and Loving It.
 
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Personally I liked the one Bram Stoker’s Dracula with Gary Oldman 1992
 
There is no Dracula movie that begins to come close to the book. It’s unfortunate. It’s one of my favorite books though. I don’t know if Bram Stoker was Catholic but Dracula contains some very Catholic themes if you’re into that type of thing in your horror novel.
 
I believe he was Irish and raised Catholic but didn’t practice later in life, though Dracula is certainly filled with Catholic themes. It’s interesting to me how Jonathan begins as a skeptical Anglican but comes to appreciate the Catholic/Orthodox faith of the Romanians that helps him fight Dracula.
 
anna said:
Personally I liked the one Bram Stoker’s Dracula with Gary Oldman 1992
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It’s a good film and I enjoyed Gary Oldman’s performance. However, I just can’t get past Keanu Reeves’ and Winona Ryder’s attempt at an English accent.
 
Has anyone watched the 1977 BBC series? I’ve heard some people say it’s accurate to the novel.
 
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It’s not a very good adaptation from the novel. However, it’s being silent and black and white gives it an extra creepiness when watching it in the dark.
 
The most accurate film version of Stoker’s novel that I have seen is the 1977 Count Dracula starring Louis Jourdan as Dracula. I saw it on my local PBS station out of Nashville. It is available from BBC Video.
 
Everybody who recognizes Nosferatu.
  1. silent film buffs
  2. everybody who saw the “Night Shift” episode of Spongebob Squarepants
 
Werner Herzog’s “Nosferatu” is the only good rendition IMHO. I “discovered” the glorious tradition of Georgian folk music because of this film.
. Hamlet Gonashvili singing tsintskaro…is the most beautifully haunting song on the planet. You can find the relevant film clip on YouTube as well although it is rather macabre. Kate Bush uses a piece of the song in one of her songs too.
 
I just watched the 1977 BBC version last night and I have to say, it was amazing. Really surprised me, both in its faithfulness to the novel and its Catholic spirituality. No, it wasn’t as flashy as some other versions, but to me if you love the novel and want a truly Catholic take on it, watch that version.
 
alcuin18 said:
wondering if any of the movie adaptations of Dracula are accurate at all.
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As has been said, the answer is not quite. I’ve read the book and seen several of the movies. My favorite is the Frank Langella verson from 1979, which I saw in the theater. I couldn’t sleep for days.
 
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