Favourite DRACULA movie?

I've seen way worse flappy bat effects and I put the '31 version second to the '58 one. You go into it expecting corn but it surprises you with it's overall effectiveness and with Lugosi's performance.

If you put Lugosi's performance in the Spanish version, you might have competition against Hammer's version.



If we are looking past specifically "Dracula" films, the best vampire films are nearly always deconstructions of the vampire myth. Martin, Fright Night, What We Do In Shadows, Near Dark, Habit, Vampire's Kiss, Vampire Ferat and Blood for Dracula (which I just noticed is on this poll, and is actually the best Dracula movie).

Zero votes for Spanish Dracula, one vote for Dead and Loving It and Coppola's Dracula being in the lead are all things that make me sad about this poll.


I'll assume the zero for Spanish as being because not enough people have seen it (it's hands down better than Browning's version, even if the actor playing Dracula sucks). I'll also assume the one vote for Dead and Loving It is a joke, because I'm pretty sure anyone who really believes that would be unable to turn on a computer. And while I'm not a Coppola Dracula hater--its a really ambitious movie and really interesting as a film that plays around in all of the magic tricks that film is capable of--its actually handling of the Dracula narrative isn't great. And most of the acting is atrocious in a not very fun way. But, it does have Winona Ryder in it, which is always a plus (even though she is also terrible in this)

If you read the book, the entire 300 pages is an exercise in scenery-chewing and suppressed sexual impulses. It's decadent, lurid and violates the sensitivities of the time and place with neck-biting as a metaphor for sex. Coppola's version goes there. Nobody had a formula for a vampire story in 1890, so Stoker's version was quite a scandalous melodrama. That's what I like about this movie. We'd already seen the Hollywood versions, but Coppola's goes back to the source and goes full-out Victorian melodrama.

The new crowd seem to be misreading the question. It's what's your favourite Dracula movie? Not which is the best. Those can be very different conversations.

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They can be different convos, but not by necessity. If we explain why we like it best, we are likely to offer reasons-as-justifications ("I like it because it is good in terms of..."). Alternatively, our discussion may be limited to a purely anthropological account idiosyncratic takes ("I like it, not because I say it is good, but because I happen to prefer features X,Y, and Z for no particular reasons"). However, this is quite limiting and as we do tend to try to understand each other, the question "Why?" in the "do you have a reason" sense usually emerges.

You write like someone in love. How can I argue with you? I cannot defeat your love. And if I could I would be a villain to do so. I must have read a different book and seen a different movie.

I've only seen two of those: the 1931 version and Coppola's version, which I barely remember. I really like the Lugosi one, though.

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Rewatched it in the last few months and was again struck by this (just as I was in '92).

i would say BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (1992)

This was a tough one for me, seen a few on the list, but not others. If I had to choose it would be Bram Stokers Dracula. Recently re-watched this (last October) in the in cinema, beautiful experience.

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Bram Stoker's Dracula, by a long shot. Keanu Reeves is perfect for the witless Harker and Anthony Hopkins nails the fanatic Van Helsing. Gary Oldman makes Dracula really creepy in a creepy way, not just the static European formality of Lugosi's version. I love Tom Waits as Renfield and making the vampire-ette topless enhances the Victorian pot-boiler sensuality of the whole vampire concept. It's closer to the book than most blood-sucking movies and, it's worth noting that the book was considered to be pushing the boundaries of lurid in its day.

How? He can't do an English accent in this film. His acting is wooden. 99% of the human race would have been "perfect" in this sense of being "witless." Keanu was similarly horrible in Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. I know we all love Keanu now. He is the super nice-guy action star. He is really nice to people on set, shares the wealth, is generally humble, and doesn't grope women. He is St. Keanu. Super. Duper. He is still horrible in this movie.

That was a pretty good comment when I wrote it a few days back. Albie08 should do his own work.

"Bram Stoker's Dracula, by a long shot. It's so psychologically decadent, Keanu Reeves is perfect for the witless Harker and Anthony Hopkins nails the fanatic Van Helsing. Gary Oldman makes Dracula really creepy in a creepy way, not just the static European formality of Lugosi's version. I love Tom Waits as Renfield and making the vampire-ette topless enhances the Victorian pot-boiler sensuality of the whole vampire concept. It's closer to the book than most blood-sucking movies and, it's worth noting that the book was considered to be pushing the boundaries of lurid in its day."

Reeves presents a very shallow character as being well....shallow. That's in keeping with the literary character, accent or not. I don't know if it's good acting but it is it might be good casting. On the accent note, of course Hopkins does the Dutch Van Helsing with a British accent, so that's off too and who knows what accent Gary Oldman's made up Wallachian/Dracula accent is, and who can forget Tom Waits, doing a Tom Waits accent while he eats flies, which somehow seems right for Tom.



Being a fairly pulpy story to begin with, all this seems to work.

Sorry for the late reply but yes…I’m not a huge fan of Coppola’s Dracula either.
I actually prefer Browning’s version of Dracula over the Spanish version (I own the 75th anniversary edition that contains both, along with Frankenstein 75th anniversary edition).
I voted for Hammer’s Dracula because it was not only great, but highly influential in its treatment of the Dracula mythos.