Vampires have been part of the popular imagination for centuries. The macabre folklore came from supposedly real reports of blood-sucking corpses attacking the people of small Serbian villages in the early 18th Century. Later historians, philosophers and scientists have explained the phenomenon in hindsight as paranoia and ignorance of medical notions accepted today. Meanwhile, literature and other forms of art have eternalized the mythical creature as a staple of the horror genre.
Bram Stoker wasn’t the first writer to explore the concept, but the characters introduced in his 1897 horror novel Dracula have made such an impact they’re still around. At the same time, the best-known vampire movies inspired by the book have only highlighted specific aspects and to varying degrees of accuracy. Horrors like Tod Browning’s Dracula were loosely based on it, while comedy movies like the animation Hotel Transylvania only took certain elements.
10 Van Helsing Totally Changes Stoker’s Hero
The 20 Strongest Vampires, Officially Ranked
Vampires have become a cultural mainstay. While they may vary in power, these hunters of the night have proven the most powerful of their kind.
The 2004 action movie Van Helsing is named after the heroic character who shows up later on in the book but turns the knowledgeable professor into the Vatican’s monster hunter. The only thing in the plot that does resemble the original story is that Van Helsing goes to Transylvania to take down Count Dracula. Van Helsing doesn’t mention most of the book’s protagonists, featuring new characters like Kate Beckinsale as a fearless Transylvanian princess.
Hugh Jackman plays a younger version of Van Helsing who also fights werewolves and other monsters. The movie made him an immortal whose eternal fate is killing evil creatures. The name update from Abraham to Gabriel Van Helsing happens because he’s the Archangel Gabriel.
Van Helsing
The famed monster hunter is sent to Transylvania to stop Count Dracula, who is using Dr. Frankenstein’s research and a werewolf for nefarious purposes.
- Release Date
- May 7, 2004
- Director
- Stephen Sommers
- Runtime
- 131 minutes
- Main Genre
- Action
- Writers
- Stephen Sommers
9 Dracula 2000 Proposes a Continuation to the Original Story
Promoted with the title Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000, this action horror movie continues the story in the current century. The movie is set hundreds of years after Abraham Van Helsing defeated the Count. His descendant Matthew Van Helsing owns an antique shop built on the English estate formerly known as Carfax Abbey. Jonathan Harker found the estate for Dracula in the original book.
When thieves break into the store, they steal a sealed silver coffin and later manage to open it. The evil creature that slept in the coffin awakens — Gerard Butler’s young and jacked Dracula. Despite the box office failure and negative reviews, it’s worth watching Dracula 2000. If not for the creative explanations for the villain’s weaknesses, at least for Butler’s scary yet nuanced performance.
Dracula 2000
A group of thieves breaks into a chamber expecting to find paintings, but instead they release the count himself, who travels to New Orleans to find his nemesis’ daughter, Mary Van Helsing.
- Release Date
- December 22, 2000
- Director
- Patrick Lussier
- Cast
- Gerard Butler , Justine Waddell , Jonny Lee Miller , Christopher Plummer , Jennifer Esposito
- Runtime
- 1 Hour 39 MInutes
- Writers
- Joel Soisson , Patrick Lussier
- Production Company
- Dimension Films, Neo Art & Logic, Wes Craven Films
8 Hotel Transylvania Sees Dracula as Good and Misunderstood
The 10 Funniest Versions of Dracula
Icon of horror that he is, the famous Count Dracula has appeared time and time again in comedies both live action and animated.
Count Dracula has been a comedy character once in a while, but he’s rarely seen in children’s animation. Hotel Transylvania is not inspired only by Dracula but actually creates a universe with various creatures and characters from other canon books, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This interesting animation depicts monsters as a misunderstood kind that avoids contact with humans.
Dracula builds a human-free hotel for monsters where he lives with his daughter Mavis. Jonathan is a backpacker nicknamed Johnny. He shows up where Dracula lives, but the vampire never invited him and doesn’t want him there. When Johnny and Mavis fall in love, Dracula needs to open up to humans. The amusing story is elevated by the great voice-acting with Adam Sandler as “Drac,” Selena Gomez as Mavis and Adam Samberg as Johnny.
Hotel Transylvania
Count Dracula commissions and builds a massive monsters-only hotel in Transylvania, in which he raises his young daughter, Mavis. The hotel also serves as a safe haven and a getaway for the world’s monsters from fear of human persecution.
- Studio
- Sony Pictures Animation
7 Blacula Is a Blaxpoitation Horror Classic
Blaxploitation is a film movement that flourished in the 1970s. Historically, exploitation films are low-budget movies that bet on niche trends and shocking content. The more popular styles of exploitation films have their own names, and Blaxploitation is the one that features Black artists and addresses racial issues while mostly making parodies of blockbusters.
Among the most successful horror Blaxploitation movies are Abby and Blacula. The first is based on The Exorcist and the latter is, of course, the Black version of Dracula. The story starts in 1780 when an African prince becomes a vampire after visiting Dracula and ends up locked in a coffin. Then it jumps to 1972, when the coffin is opened by antique collectors in Los Angeles and the monster is set free.
6 Nosferatu the Vampyre Is Werner Herzog’s Take on a Classic
10 Best Horror Movie Costume Designs, Ranked
Costume design can make or break a horror movie. Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and other great antagonists are even scarier thanks to their wardrobes.
Nosferatu the Vampyre is a remake of the 1922 horror classic directed by FW Murnau that was illegally based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The original Nosferatu was the first movie adaptation of Dracula and changed the names of the characters as well as key points in the story to (unsuccessfully) avoid a lawsuit. The German Expressionism masterpiece created a vampire that has inspired many to follow, and Werner Herzog accurately duplicated its spooky costume for his version.
However, the brilliant director didn’t simply copy the source material to fit the 1979 color-and-sound aesthetic. Herzog’s remake of Nosferatu manages to be scarier than the original and than most movies of its decade. For instance, he added gut-wrenching scenes of the consequences of the vampire’s curse felt by humanity.
5 Renfield Turns Dracula Into a Comedy Action Movie
The original Renfield is a patient at the asylum where some of the book’s scenes take place. He also eats insects and is controlled by the vampire, among other minor similarities to this movie’s version. But just like Van Helsing, he’s not as present in the book as he is in the action comedy Renfield.
The movie is set in current times, and Renfield is tired of obeying his evil master after decades of service. With the help of his codependency support group and inspired by a brave police officer, Renfield starts gaining confidence and picturing his life without Dracula. This movie is an entertaining watch that features great performances by Nicholas Hoult as Renfield, Awkwafina as officer Rebecca Quincy and Nicolas Cage as Dracula.
Renfield
Renfield, Dracula’s henchman and inmate at the lunatic asylum for decades, longs for a life away from the Count, his various demands, and all of the bloodshed that comes with them.
- Release Date
- April 14, 2023
- Director
- Chris McKay
- Cast
- Nicolas Cage , Nicholas Hoult , Awkwafina , Ben Schwartz
- Runtime
- 1 hour 33 minutes
- Writers
- Ryan Ridley , Robert Kirkman
- Production Company
- Universal Pictures, Skybound Entertainment
4 Christopher Lee Got Scary in Horror of Dracula
10 Best Vampire Films From the Past 10 Years
Blood-sucking vampires are a celebrated horror staple and the past decade has featured some creepy and creative takes on vampire films!
For many horror fans, Sir Christopher Lee’s interpretation of the Count is the scariest and overall best. The incomparable actor was Dracula in nine movies of the Hammer franchise based on Bram Stoker’s work. The first movie of the franchise is 1958’s Horror of Dracula, which is also the first Dracula movie made in color.
This movie stays close to the source material in comparison to other adaptations but also takes a few liberties. Jonathan Harker goes to the castle to take a job as Dracula’s librarian, yet he’s in fact a vampire specialist who’s plotting to kill the Count. When Harker fails and gets killed instead, Dracula seeks revenge and attacks the man’s family. As Harker’s friend and fellow researcher of vampires, Dr. Van Helsing has to try and stop the evil monster.
3 Browning’s Dracula Made Bela Lugosi a Horror Icon
One year before his magnum opus Freaks, Tod Browning directed the first-ever horror movie with sound. The first talkie of the genre was simply titled Dracula and it redefined the antagonist’s appearance. Despite seeming too campy for our current standards, the Bela Lugosi version of the vampire has a good reason for being so expressive. The character’s mannerisms, endlessly reproduced since were created by the actor when he was Dracula on Broadway a few years before being approached by Hollywood producers. As it worked well with theater audiences, Browning decided to have Lugosi reprise the stage Dracula.
But Bela Lugosi’s contributions to the History of Cinema go further. He was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild and was blocked by Hollywood because of it. Still, the Hungarian who deserted his parents to chase his dreams in America never gave up on acting. He must have loved being a horror icon, as he continued to work on horror movies until his death. His last role was in a B-movie by Ed Wood called Plan 9 From Outer Space, in which the concept of vampires is reimagined.
Dracula (1931)
Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.
- Release Date
- February 14, 1931
- Director
- Tod Browning
- Cast
- Bela Lugosi , Helen Chandler , David Manners , Dwight Frye , Edward Van Sloan
- Runtime
- 75 minutes
2 Dracula Untold Is a Medieval Origin Story
The genius twist of Dracula Untold is going back in time to give an origin story to the antagonist of the book, which is originally set in the writer’s own century and describes the vampire as a mysterious entity. The movie has no similarity to the plot of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but it does respect the villain’s characteristics to a degree. It’s a very creative prequel that explains how Prince Dracula — not Count — turned into a powerful creature to save his kingdom and his family in the 15th Century.
Dracula Untold resembles Game of Thrones in many scenes as it recreates medieval wars with heavy loads of fantasy. It nods to Stoker’s real-life inspiration for the infamous character’s name: the Wallachian Vojvoda called Vlad Dracula. There’s a speech in Chapter 3 of the book that implies a connection to Vlad, but the character isn’t based on his real-life completely. The Dracula Untold protagonist is Vlad the Impaler himself, and the movie incorporates several historical facts into the narrative.
Dracula Untold
- Release Date
- October 10, 2014
- Director
- Gary Shore
- Cast
- Luke Evans , Dominic Cooper , Sarah Gadon , Art Parkinson
- Runtime
- 92 minutes
- Main Genre
- Action
1 Bram Stoker’s Dracula Is Actually Francis Ford Coppola’s
Francis Ford Coppola named the movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but is it? It certainly is one of the most accurate in comparison to all others. The movie is faithful to the book’s time period and locations, while including all main characters with personas close to the original version. Yet there are key differences between this 1992 adaptation and the real Bram Stoker’s Dracula. For example, the love triangle between Jonathan, Mina and Dracula only happens in the movie. Dracula takes an interest in Mina in the book, but she’s terrified instead of charmed by him.
This romantic horror drama redefined vampire narratives, and its cinematography and effects have also been influential. In a 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, cinematographer Robbie Ryan said he was inspired by it while shooting Poor Things. The star-studded cast of Bram Stoker’s Dracula includes Winona Ryder as Mina, Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing, Keanu Reeves as Jonathan and Gary Oldman as Dracula.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
The centuries old vampire Count Dracula comes to England to seduce his barrister Jonathan Harker’s fiancée Mina Murray and inflict havoc in the foreign land.
- Release Date
- November 13, 1992
- Director
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Cast
- Gary Oldman , Winona Ryder , Anthony Hopkins , Keanu Reeves , Richard E. Grant
- Runtime
- 2 hours 8 minutes
- Writers
- Bram Stoker , James V. Hart
- Production Company
- American Zoetrope, Columbia Pictures, Osiris Films
