Hooptober... And Then There Were Nine

4th Kill

This wasn't even on my HoopTober list, but my daughter wasn't impressed by the first two minutes of Yokai Monsters and I figured, if all else fails, I can usually tempt her with Universal Classic Horror.

I have a confession. I had Dracula (1931) pegged as one of my least favourite of these films. My memory of it was that it was a little slow and boring. And on this rewatch, I can see how I got that impression, because the second half of the film after they get to London is a little stilted and weirdly uneventful, before ending suddenly on a rather limp note.

But. BUT! The first act of this movie, when Renfield (not Harker in this version) journeys deep into Transylvania and meets Dracula in his native land, is genuinely dazzling. The Castle Dracula in this movie is one of the best gothic castle sets in horror movie history. It's so damn beautiful. The painted backdrops of it used in the exterior shots are like monochrome Constable paintings. And the actual interior sets are just mindboggling. Absolutely huge in size, with extra illusory size provided by more beautifully painted backdrops. The art design is gorgeous. That massive spider web would have required a beast the size of Shelob to spin it. And Bela Lugosi in that environment, just doing his full-body, crazy-eyed pantomime thing is just perfect.

My daughter asked why he was staring all the time in the first couple of scenes, because it made him look dead, and I pointed out that Dracula is supposed to be dead (I think? I've never been quite sure of that when it comes to Drac himself). This was like an epiphany to N: "Oh yeah! I always think of Frankenstein as dead, but Dracula is the same! So that's why he acts like that!" And this made me wonder about what was going through Lugosi's mind as he made up his way of portraying him - whether he was trying to give that essence of deadness to his look. And that in turn led me to the realisation that none of this physical embodiment of Dracula really even existed before Lugosi invented many of the characteristics and mannerisms of the character - all of which we now just lean on so heavily in all the thousands of subsequent portrayals of the character. History in the making, right in front of you, in this movie.

Best Kill (may contain traces of spoiler)

There are surprisingly few on camera, but the best has to be when Dracula attacks that guy on the staircase of the castle near the end. That staircase, like the castle, is one of the greatest gothic sets in horror history, and so it's more the backdrop to the death than the death itself which impresses - but I'll take it!