Dracula


Plot Synopsis: 

A solicitor named Renfield travels to Transylvania in order to do business with the mysterious Count Dracula. Things take a sinister turn when Dracula makes his way to England and fixates on a woman named Mina. From there, characters must unravel what exactly is Dracula's plot. 

Mixed Aspect: 

I want to start with the one mixed aspect I have towards the movie. This movie takes a lot of liberties from the source material. I am starting here because I tend to like addressing adaptations on their own merits. That's why I am bringing this up right off the bat. It's not something I have particularly strong feelings about this one way or the other. It may help that the basic plot is intact. A lot of character actions and motivations are where the changes are made. 

Positives: 

From there, I would like to talk about the things I liked about this movie. The main thing that stands out is Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. The man gives a performance that feels captivating, mysterious, and a little bit unsettling. The movie also has this amazing gothic look and feel to it, especially for the brief time we are in Dracula's castle near the beginning of the film. The film is also short and decently paced. It moves pretty quickly for me, which makes it a pretty easy and engaging watch. I also love the verbal sparring between Dracula and Van Helsing. My final positive is Tod Browning's direction. It is quite clear that the man truly understood how to compose a shot. Right from the beginning, you are given a sense that something is off with Dracula. 

Negatives: 

Now, it's time to look at the things I didn't care for in the film. Because this movie is from the 1930s, you can tell that not all of the effects hold up. Going off of that, the horror aspect to this movie does feel a bit dated too. This movie is just from a different time. At points, it did also feel as though some things could have been fleshed out a little bit more. For example, we learn that Van Helsing knows all of this information regarding Dracula, but we're never actually told why. Finally, it does feel like the movie kind of just ends abruptly. Keep in mind, my negatives are nitpicks, at best. To me, these are not major problems.

Final Thoughts: 

While I did have some minor issues. I legitimately enjoyed watching this film again. I don't have a lot of history with the classic Universal Monster movies, so that's what my next couple of reviews are going to focus on. If you haven't seen this yet, I recommend giving it a watch at least once.

My Rating:

🩸 🩸 🩸 🩸 

Comments

  1. BeckyMay 6, 2021 at 12:18 PM

    Oh man, I need to watch this again! it's been so long since I've seen it! :)

    ReplyDelete

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