“Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make” – Bela Lugosi, Dracula (1931)
This Halloween, I wanted to put the spotlight on a classic that inspires horror stories to this day. I first watched Dracula (1931) when I got home from my first house party in grad school. I met some of my best friends that night, so Dracula always brings the feeling of that special night back. When I need a rainy night in with a spooky black-and-white movie, Dracula is first on the list.
The story begins with Renfield (Dwight Frye), an English solicitor, arriving in Transylvania from his home in London. He is on his way to the Carpathian Mountains to complete a real estate contract with a Count Dracula. The people of the village he passes through warn him not to venture to the castle, but Renfield continues. When his carriage stops in front of a crumbling castle in the mountains, Renfield finds that the driver has disappeared. He warily enters the castle, where he is greeted by Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) on a grand staircase by candlelight. Relieved that he is in the right place, they proceed with their business. Dracula tells Renfield that he has chartered a ship to take them and a few boxes to England once the documents are signed.
Renfield prepares to spend the night in the castle. After catching his vampire brides approach an unconscious Renfield, Dracula uses his powers to undo Renfield’s sanity and make him his servant. They are next seen on a tumultuous journey across the sea, where Dracula sleeps in a box of earth from Transylvania. When the ship arrives in England, a horrific scene waits on board. Renfield is the sole living being. The crew and captain are all dead, drained of their blood. Renfield is taken to a lunatic asylum while Dracula remains hidden until he can integrate into London society.
Dracula stages a meeting with Dr. Seward (Herbert Bunston), who runs the sanitarium where Renfield is being detained. The institution neighbors Carfax Abbey, the property Dracula purchased. He also meets Dr. Seward’s daughter, Mina (Helen Chandler), her fiancé John Harker (David Manners), and her best friend Lucy (Frances Dade). Dracula’s haunting of his new acquaintances begins with Lucy. Lucy awakens after a terrible nightmare feeling strange, with two puncture wounds on her neck. As everyone’s confusion and fears grow, a greater threat lurks in the shadows in the form of the mysterious newcomer.
Dracula is a pillar of horror cinema that is also a work of art. Beginning with its use of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake in the opening credits and continuing with ambitious production design and haunting storytelling, Dracula is an exquisite film experience. It is a classic that has been adapted many ways (my personal favorite is Dracula: Dead and Loving It by Mel Brooks). Bela Lugosi brought Dracula to life like no one had before, setting off a tradition of vampire films and literature that has not slowed down in almost one hundred years. Dracula recalls a time in horror cinema that deserves as much admiration and praise as the decades of horror cinema that followed.
Happy Halloween!
Jordan
By Night 