Chad

Trevor

Driven crazy with deja vu while watching this film. Each line of dialogue was hitting me as if I had just heard it, while the visuals were almost new-to-me.

It's a great film I've seen before, but not for years iirc. I own many versions of Dracula in print, film, and audio, but can't recall visiting them recently.

Doh, I finally remembered. I listened to a horror podcast a couple weeks ago discussing this film, and they sampled or commented on much of the dialogue.

Undeadcow

Bram Stoker's Dracula has got to be the most adapted book ever - I didn't think I could stand another adaptation of Dracula. Vampires are cool and the refined pacing of the source is nice but I think it's a little boring to see so many interpretations often recycling conventions, themes, designs, etc. I can see how this is a better adaptation of Dracula.

Starting from the ship trying to hoist Dracula overboard while he slashes their throats this adaptation is thick with atmosphere. [Although I wonder, how did the crew just randomly get hip to Dracula being a vampire mid-trip?] Carfax Abbey is perhaps too desolate (but eventually what a difference hundreds of candles make, I wonder what their candle budget was).

The count hesitates to dance because he hardly knows Mina but he has already lain claim to her blood. "...You must not pollute her blood" might be the greatest line I've heard so far this month. Mina is nicely ghoulish in resurrection.

Around 28 minutes in the shot of Dracula spider climbing down the exterior wall at night with the full moon in background is such a perfect image. Hypnotic swirling red light vampire eroticism is really under utilized in the subgenre. It's cool to see Dracula impale Van Helsing and their showdown with Harker on the ship is cinematic (although it looks like a more obvious stunt double in the death scene).

Ultimately I really enjoyed the 1979 version of Dracula, definitely a standout in the Bram Stoker adaptation cycle.

TheBigDave

I probably saw this a long time ago. But I don't remember it. So I'm counting it as a first time view.

Anyways, it was pretty good as far as Dracula remakes go. I loved the sets. His castle looked awesome. And I thought Frank Langella did a fine job. But over the years I've seen him in so many roles that every time he's on screen, all I see is Frank Langella and not Dracula.

Trevor

I think the fact that the crew had been whittled down to three gives us the answer.

numbercrunch

i consider this version top five dracula adaptions, along with dracula 1931, nosferatu, horror of dracula and jess francos dracula. I also have blood for dracula with udo kier a close 6th

Dick Laurent

I loved it, will buy for sure. I've seen reported that in the commentary the director explains about "draining" the color for the DVD release. I've seen some reviews that swear the picture was lush with color and now is almost black and white. Well whatever the director intended, it does look a little weird to me. Almost like watching a film in a movie theatre when someone opens the emergency exit and daylight hits the screen and produces that filtered effect.

Anyway, I'm still going to buy it, but am curious what it looked like with the original color.

wishbone

"You fools! Do you think with your crosses and your wafers you can destroy me? I am the king of my kind!"

I sorta remember a few scenes from early cable but mainly I know it from Helstar's 1989 album Nosferatu which features some dialogue from the movie. For the longest time I thought the dialogue was Christoper Lee's Dracula and not Frank Langella.

rbrown498

This'll give you some idea:



I think that this is a first-rate adaptation, and it contains one of my favorite movie lines: "If, at any time, my company does not please you, you will have only yourself to blame for an acquaintance who seldom forces himself but is difficult to be rid of."

pacaway

Even the friggin' credit font is cool! Love the style of this movie... Glad I bought it for this very day. Fantastic atmosphere.

WillieMLF

Never knew this movie existed, and I liked it a good bit. My wife felt it was dragging on too long. Langella is one good looking Dracula. You could hear pretty common hints of ET and Raiders of the Lost Ark in the music.

I'm another who plans on buying this one soon.

DWilson

I saw it in the theater and the original HBO broadcasts (that I taped) were in full color. Years ago I bought the laserdisc during a sale at Ken Crane's and I was shocked by it's video quality, -I thought I had gotten a defective disc.

DaveyJoe

Was it me, or was Langella doing something twitchy with his eyes? It was bugging me out.

clckworang

I could have sworn that I saw this one not long ago, but it didn't seem at all familiar to me when I started watching it. Not a bad movie, but I wasn't a huge fan of Langella as Dracula. He didn't come across to me as the suave romantic figure that Dracula usually does. Still interesting to see a different take on a very well known character.

As someone else mentioned, I did love the scene of Dracula crawling on the walls. That was a very striking visual moment.

Spiderbite

I think that was his "intense, hypnotic" look.

I thought this was a decent adaptation of the story. Nothing special. The one thing this version has on the original 1931 version is a great score. You never know how much a score is missed until you watch a movie without one.

I thought I had seen this movie before and was getting some disco Dracula action. Then after starting it I realized I was confusing this movie with Love At First Bite. Oops. Same year but very different movie.

And I thought the bat effects were horrible. They had just as good bat effects in the 1931 version.

Was this a big screen movie or a TV movie? It felt like a more expensive TV movie.

rbrown498

He has a condition called nystagmus, which is an involuntary twitching of the eyes. Apparently, if he concentrates hard enough, he can control it. I went to grad school with a girl who had it; hers was due to her head being squeezed too hard with a pair of forceps during her delivery. She could only see a few inches in front of her face.

Oh, it was a theatrical feature. Paid to see it in the theater back in '79...and loved it.

pacaway

One of the special features on the DVD said that Love At First Bite is probably what hurt their market. People were laughing at vampires that year and they were not going for the laugh.

DaveyJoe

Ah, now I feel bad. I thought he was doing it intentionally when hypnotizing people. I was wondering how he could do it without giving himself a headache. I thought it was kind of a neat effect. Maybe it wasn't as noticeable until HD.

ntnon

Even after all the many films, I still can't get over how every adaptation seems to shuffle characters and relationships haphazardly... and then still tell broadly the same story with broadly the same names in completely different places and order!

ntnon

That is a good line - and prompts a great reaction - the verbal double-take of slight agreement, then confusion and concern.