Another Sixteen Screams For Halloween: Day 15 (Dracula [1958])

Oh boy! We get to talk about Hammer Horror today! It's got a great beat and it's a lovely tune about performativity, with lots of interesting theatrical dancing-- Wait, shit, sorry, that's the Kate Bush song. No, we're actually talking about the Hammer film studio in England which did a whole bunch of horror films in the middle of the 20th century. Hammer Horror is a catchall for them, and I'd never seen one until now. For a first, I went with one that was both highly rated on Letterboxd and had the two iconic actors most associated with Hammer Horror: those two being Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Here we are, then, in a Hammer adaptation of the tried and true literary classic Dracula. How is it? It's not half-bad.

For a Dracula adaptation it certainly takes its liberties. Like how Jonathan Harker and Cushing's Dr. Van Helsing are in cahoots before the film even begins, and that's why Harker is at Dracula's castle. Or the swapping around of Lucy and Mina's partners in the film. Or how Harker bites it within the first 20 minutes. Or how Dracula's castle and the well-to-do society he invades seem to be like, a half-hour carriage ride away from each other? The broad strokes of Stoker are kept, but Hammer isn't afraid to change things up and make a quick and breezy 80 minute vampire movie. If you want a more literate and erudite adaptation, they're out there. You're here for some spooky vampires and to see splashes of bright Technicolor blood, and this Dracula adaptation cuts right to the chase and gives you that.

Just because it's speedrunning doesn't mean it's a fast-paced film, though. There are plenty of scenes of old British people (namely Cushing and Michael Gough) talking about what they're going to do. I quite like Cushing's Van Helsing, as I find it nails the perfect balance between a proper Victorian gentleman and a scientist/monster hunter who's devoted himself to going after vampires. Christopher Lee's also quite good and imposing in this, but therein lies a bit of a rub: his presence in the film is pretty brief. The glimmers of appearance he has in the Holmwood home, striding with imperious confidence towards the woman he's about to nibble on the neck, are powerful in their own right. I do also dig the effects when he melts in sunlight at the end of the film. For most of it, though, Lee haunts the proceedings from the night. Haunting, and hunting. In the end, it's a pretty neat little speedy adaptation of Dracula. I like it, but I imagine it had more power back in the day. Or maybe the like six or seven sequels Hammer banged out go even wilder than this, unrestrained by Stoker's framework. That could be something to discover in marathons in future, but for now we're at the finale. The stage is set.

Happy Halloween.