Dracula (1931), directed by Tod Browning, is one of the most iconic horror movies of all time and is arguably one of the first film versions of Bram Stoker’s book. Count Dracula is portrayed by Bela Lugosi, a Transylvanian vampire who comes to England to woo Mina Seward and to extend his evil dominion. There is an element of time bound drama in the depiction as Van Helsing struggles against time learning all he can about the vampire of deadly influence who is staking sinister claims on Jonathan Harker, Renfield and the rest of those around him.
What polls the viewers’ curious nature right away is the Count as portrayed by Lugosi. His accent and hypnotic stare, refined menace and menace, and once more his accent defined what a typical vampirical diva was to be like in the next couple of decades. His Dracula is understatedly sophisticated but every word comes out with an aura of menace that has guaranteed that this performance remains as one of the greatest ever in horror films. It was interesting how myself shuttled back and forth in thoughts on whether Lugosi’s Dracula was a monster-like count or a gentlemanly count – and still, later, the movie was actually pretty lenient since it was already quite an old one.
A really interesting fact about the film Dracula is that it was a commercially successful blockbuster thus earning Universal Pictures the crown ‘the hub of the classic monster film’ and creating a chain of horror movies that included Frankenstein and The Mummy films. Produced on a cut of approximately $355,000, Dracula amassed a little more than $700,000 during its first run which was an impressive figure during that period. It also marked the arrival of the famous monster movie age at Universal studios.
Personally, when I see the film Dracula I feel as if I am entering into the history of film horror. While this film does not have the scares of modern cinema and is more about the environment, the gothic decor, the low-angle lights and the shadowy figure of Lugosi immerse rather than frightens the audience and the effect is timeless. The impact of the cinematography of the film on the vampire pulp is more than apparent. The representations of the vampires made by Lugosi virtually set the standards of how vampires should look, and to this day, the film Dracula is one of the apexes of the horror film genre.