Dracula

It's hard to screw up Dracula, Bram Stoker's classic tale of the immortal blood sucker. For the most part, even the remakes are really good. Recently I revisited John Badham's 1979 take on the horror legend and here's my thoughts.

Frank Langella dons the cape this time around as a sexier Nosferatu. It's 1913, and Count Dracula has just moved from Transylvania to Whitby England. He immediately sets his sights on Lucy, Kate Nelligan, the free spirited daughter of Dr. Seward, Donald Pleasance, and fiance to John Harker, Trevor Eve. In the process of wooing Lucy away from Harker, the Count has several victims that he feeds on, including Lucy's best friend Mina, Jan Francis. After Mina's demise, her father, Dr. Van Helsing, Laurence Olivier, suspects that Dracula might be one of the undead and enlists the help of Harker and Dr. Seward to put an end to the Count before he can make Lucy his bride.

This movie was a big hit at the time that it came out, but when Francis Ford Coppala's superior vision of Dracula came out in the 90's, this one seemed to be all but forgotten. Which is sad because this is a really great take on the classic. Badham and screenwriter W.D. Richter did an interesting spin on the story by reversing the roles of Lucy and Mina. And really it kind of makes sense. If you are going for a sexier Dracula, you would probably have him thinking with his member and chasing after the more wild, free spirited of the two women.

Badham does a terrific job of capturing the feel of the old school horror films. He gets the mood and atmosphere just right. He also has enlisted a top notch cast to bring this story to life.