Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is perhaps one of the best retellings of the famous tale of Count Dracula. A gifted cast (made up of Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Tom Waits and directed by Francis Ford Coppola) and sufficiently creepy art design sets the stage for the story we all know so well. Yet the story doesn’t seem like the same old ho-hum retelling. Rather, it is a character portrait of a vampire and his earthly desires.

Plot summary for Bram Stoker’s Dracula:
Dracula (Gary Oldman) imprisons lawyer Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) and, after seeing a photograph of Harker’s love, Mina (Winona Ryder), Dracula travels by ship to London. There Dracula unleashes mayhem in all his fanged glory, even turning Mina’s friend Lucy into a creature of the night. When Dracula’s intentions toward Mina become known, her friends fight gallantly to protect her for the vampire.

Memorable scene from Bram Stoker’s Dracula:
Lucy summons Dracula to her bed. She is entranced by him, indeed, in a trance because of him. He comes slowly toward her. We see his movements. Quick. Too quick. He jumps atop her in the bed — he has taken the form of a wolf — and bites her neck, forever turning her to his dark side.

Memorable quote from Bram Stoker’s Dracula:
“They say you are a man of good . . . taste.”

Why Socreepy loves Bram Stoker’s Dracula:
Gary Oldman captures Dracula’s presence, his loneliness and his awesome power effortlessly. In the film one can feel empathy if not sympathy for the vampire who must walk the Earth for all eternity. It’s also very stylish and very cool – even if Keanu is not the best at accents. The eye candy and performance by Oldman more than make up for its flaws.

Frightening Fact:
Blood is an important ingredient in any Dracula film. A number of substances have substituted for the substance throughout Dracula films of the past. For Bram Stoker’s Dracula, red jelly stood in for the stuff of life.