My Three Draculas: Movie Review

Another movie review?  Didn't she just do one of these two weeks ago?  Yes.  Yes, she did.  However, October is the month for great movies in my opinion, and I've just watched a new vampire movie that's inspired a post comparing some of the latest and the greatest.  So, feast your eyes on my movie reviews just as Dracula feasts on virginal neck meats.  

3.  Nosferatu (2024).  This movie is a remake of a 1922 rip off of Dracula written by Henrik Galeen.  The story is as vapid as the ether where Ellen (the Mena character) and Count Orlock (obviously Dracula) meet.   It's clear in the 1922 version that they weren't really concerned about good writing, as all of their edits to Bram Stoker's work only worsened the story.  Bram Stoker's widow wasn't fooled by the changes either and won a lawsuit for copyright infringement against the film makers.  As a result, the judge ordered all copies of the film to be destroyed and only a few copies survived.  I have watched the 1922 version and loved it as a beautiful work of early film making.  However, there were a few cheap draws in it, namely the infamous boob grabbing scene, but this was pre-censorship and they were pushing the envelope. 

Flash forward 100 years and all of the changes in the 2024 release were big improvements!  This film has superb performances delivered by an all-star cast including Aaron Johnson and Lily Rose Depp.  Bill Skarsgard has established himself as one of the best creature/monster actors of all time, rivaling greats such as Doug Jones.  The cinematography also exceeds all expectations with truly breathtaking scenes from brilliant director Robert Eggers.  Heavy on gore and the creep factor, also there are a number of envelope pushing scenes as well.  This film has so much going for it and is in many ways superior to the others in my list, sadly there's only so much all this talent can do with such a flimsy story, and not every envelope needs pushing, which is why I ranked it last.

2.  Dracula: A Love Story. 2025. Directed & written by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element), I truly did not expect a fresh take on a story written nearly 130 years ago, but Besson delivered a touching and elegant retelling of the classic story.  Unlike other iterations, this story is fairly low on the sex and gore aspects so frequently overused in vampire flicks, instead focusing on the devotion of a husband for his wife.  I always found it hypocritical that Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula claims to love Elisabeta more than any other while simultaneously keeping a harem and though making the journey to London specifically to find Mina, he shamelessly pursues and violates Lucy (which Mina walks in on).  Seems like he moved on from Elisabeta pretty well.  In Besson's version however, Vlad remains faithful to his wife, waiting for her reincarnation, creating female vampires only as agents of access to the closed off female world to help him search for Elisabeta.  Now this is a man who has crossed oceans of time (unfortunately, that lovely phrase never gets used) to find his beloved and redeem them both.  

The Van Helsing character, played by Christoph Waltz, is truer to Bram Stoker's original character in that he is a perfect blend of faith and science.  At one point he tells Count Vlad that God has not damned him to immortality,  but rather has extended his life in order that he may repent and reconcile with God.  Waltz is well established for his acting chops, but the rest of the cast, though relatively unknown, also deliver solid performances and the film is true to Besson's directing style.

1. Bram Stoker's Dracula. 1992. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. This movie in my opinion remains the best.  What would drive a man to become a monster?  Betrayal, plain and simple.  Count Vlad loved his wife, but his love for God drove him to war. While he is fighting in the name of God, his enemies send false news of his death causing his wife, Elisabeta to take her own life.  Victorious in battle he returns to find his beloved is dead.  In his deepest moment of despair the priest (Van Helsing is an earlier life) tells him that her soul is damned because she took her life.  His devotion to God is rewarded by being separated from his true love in life and the afterlife? This gives rise to the bitterest feelings of betrayal.  He rejects God, curses him, and well, you know the rest.

This film uses only practical effects and has aged well.  The acting?  Gary Oldman always brings it, in fact I would say he carries this film.  Anthony Hopkins is solid though as the priest and the vampire hunter he always seems mad compared to Waltz's stoic steadiness.  The rest of the cast is just decent, and I truly question Keanu Reeves being cast as a Victorian dandy. The costume design was revolutionary and overall that combined with a higher creep factor is why this film narrowly beat out Besson and Eggers newer releases.