Rent Dracula (1958)

Tastefully Indecent - Dracula review by griggs

There’s something gloriously excessive about Hammer’s Dracula — all velvet drapes, scarlet blood, and posh men in crisis. It takes Gothic melodrama seriously but never forgets it’s also meant to be fun. Christopher Lee makes an entrance so commanding you almost wish he’d linger longer — his Count is on screen for barely ten minutes — while Peter Cushing brings the kind of clipped intensity that could make staking a vampire look like good manners.

The production design is a fever dream of candlelight and shadow, every frame dripping with rich reds and moral peril. It’s not the most faithful retelling of Stoker; that’s half the joy — it trades literary dread for operatic drama and doesn’t look back.

Lush, lurid, and unashamedly romantic, Dracula proves that horror can still sweep you off your feet while draining you of blood. Hammer at its best: tasteful, yet just a little bit indecent.

Colourful Revamp. - Dracula review by Steve

Low budget reboot of the eternal literary legend. With the previous year's The Curse of Frankenstein, this revived the horror film across the world and made genre stars of Peter Cushing as Dr. van Helsing, and Christopher Lee in the title role. This is a long way from the rodent-like Max Schreck in the original Nosferatu (1922).

This Dracula is an erotic figure. When a repressed suburban housewife (Melissa Stribling) comes home to her husband (Michael Gough) with bite marks in her neck, she is glowingly post-coital. She never knew it could be like this! These women leave their windows open for the Prince of Darkness. So he is a threat to christianity and suburban values...

The film begins with the open pages of Bram Stoker's novel and a narrative voice. But this isn't remotely faithful, especially compared with FW Murnau's classic. Though it doesn't take the liberties of some of Hammer's sequels. Most of the changes are to accommodate the budget, but many of the most famous episodes are lost.

Apart from the schlock of the flesh and the Technicolor blood, this is a film about addiction. Dracula's desire is always described as a drug. There is actually quite a lot of exposition, describing the rules of the vampire film, which everyone now already knows. It's a stripped down sexy romp, and while not the definitive version, still a landmark in UK cinema.