Horror Of Dracula

Horror Of Dracula
1958 - Hammer Films
Directed By Terrence Fisher



SYNOPSIS

Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) accepts a librarian job in the castle of Dracula, knowing full well who and what Dracula is. After staking a woman under his power, Dracula (Christopher Lee) kills him. Harker's friend Doctor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) comes looking and finds Harker is now a vampire and stakes him. Van Helsing returns to Harker's fiancee Lucy (Carol Marsh) to tell her the news but finds out she is now under Dracula's control. Van Helsing and Lucy's brother Arthur (Michael Gough) team up to put an end to Dracula for good.



MY THOUGHTS

Horror of Dracula put Hammer Films on the map as the most important studio in the horror genre since Universal in the 1930's. The studio revisited many of the tried-and-true characters of horror like Frankenstein's Monster and Dracula. This was their first attempt at the fanged count.
There's a campy feel to the whole thing (as with most Hammer films) but it doesn't detract from the experience.



Though he appears in the film only for brief moments, Christopher Lee owns the film as Dracula. His amazing presence adds more menace and chills than Bela Lugosi, the definitive Dracula.
Lee ranks as probably the screen's greatest all-time villain... and Dracula is his most famous role. He would become a star from this film and went on to play the role several more times, despite the way this film ends.

Peter Cushing's Van Helsing is one of the better performances of the character over the years. It's rare than an intelligent, well-spoken, complex character can be the hero of a horror film.

The film does deviate from Bram Stoker's classic novel, but does so to make the story better cinematically.

This is a very low budget affair. But with great sets and the atmospheric way they were shot, it doesn't look like it. The low budget means tight pacing, with little fluff or down time and makes for a more exciting film. It's simple, bare-bones storytelling and succeeds where many overdone vampire movies fail miserably.

Definitely one of the best big screen takes of the Dracula tale.