Dracula!!!

The first vampire, etched into our minds from books, films and TV. And now this will be the focal area of my first blog.

Dracula? Yes, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and its many adaptions. Dracula was written in 1897 by Bram Stoker. It was loosely based upon a fifteenth century Romanian named Vlad Tepes (aka Vlad the Impaler). The book was suggested to be so grotesque that people shouldn’t read it; and it was therefore labelled as a horror.

Now, many of us avid readers, be it horror only genre or those who just enjoy reading whatever looks to be interesting and gives us a thrill, have read this book. Firstly, this is a great book. If you read the original with the old style language – “I never sup” compared to the updated “I never drink” – it comes across as dated. But we know, right? It was written in the nineteenth century, of course it is dated… but only by release. Because the story was both unique and unusual it stood the test of time… very much like the lead character.

But was this book a real horror? In my opinion, no. O-M-G!!! I hear you scream. This is a horror; it has been listed as such and Mr Stoker herald as the father of the genre. Well maybe more Edgar Allen Poe is the true father, but let us not get into a pissing match here. Why do I not believe Dracula to be a horror? Well, let’s look at the story. A man who found out his love was dead, and then kills himself because of the heartbreak. Only to rise from the grave and feed on blood – still not sure why blood is significant but do we really care? Its blood! He spends the next few centuries alone, living – or dead – with heartbreak. Now let’s just take a moment. He loved and lost his world, and as a result of misfortune was to walk the Earth watching others die that he cared for.

Now fast forward to a chance meeting with Harker. Dracula sees a picture of Mina and his heart races. For centuries he has only seen paintings of his dead wife. Now Mina comes into his life and is the spitting image of his dead wife, perhaps a reincarnation? If he cheated death then perhaps his wife also did? He must be with her.

Why I see this not as a horror but as a love story that has enough slash in it for us fans. Dracula is a story of love across time. I challenge you to read it again with that idea this is a love story and not a horror.

Now fast forward to the movies. This is where the character was taken from the pages of Stoker’s book, but thrown into a new persona. Firstly the physical features. Nosferatu, the first black and white adaptation of the book got the character right. The fangs were in the right place, the ears and bald head were also accurate. But then reverting back to a younger man was not – probably due to limitations of the time. The character was hell-bent on killing. Not something I remember from the book. But this film was close, very close.

Then came the British Hammer Horror productions in the 1950’s. Sir Christopher Lee was now brought into the role as Dracula – no signs of Vlad Tepes of the rat-like face and fangs. Here we had the horror, blood, gore and a supernatural being that went about biting the necks of anyone that looks tasty enough. Poor Peter Cushing’s job was to eradicate this monster from the face of the earth… something he would continue to do over several films, and usually in similar manners – steak through the heart, garlic, sunlight and the rest.

Then we come up to the modern era. The wonderful titled “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, as if this title would give movie goers the hard core plot of the book; like screaming out “Yo, we’re doing this and we’re doing this right”. They did very well. Who better to play Van Helsing than the cannibal himself, Sir Antony Hopkins. It was, by far, the closest we got to the book… but still not that close. I guess we could use this as a demonstration to the class that film adaptations from books never seems to go as planned – Stephen King would probably agree, using The Shining as an example.

And that brings us to Twilight. Now, I have seen the films but not read the books – I need to make that clear. I haven’t read them because I’m just not that interested in the story. If you need to know, an ex-girlfriend made me watch them, in my defence. I don’t need to discuss this adaptation of a vampire in any more detail – we already know right? I will also make it clear here that I am not dissing Stephenie Meyer at all, her sales and fan base speak for themselves, and that is something I will most probably never even come close to . Here the vampire, or rather vampires, are living in harmony with humans. Yeah, doesn’t get me excited. Instead, Stephenie gave the reader a closer resemblance to Stoker’s Dracula; just someone that was looking for love. So can we hold that against her? Open to discussion here as I have my views but I am more interested in hearing what you have to say on this vampire rendition.

And finally, when we had just began to think the vampire was truly dead and that there were little anyone could do with the character, we have the descendant from the master of the macabre, Joe Hill. NOS4A2!!! Holy crap on a stick, how do you even come up with a title like that? This screams genius right from the front page. Just when you thought the character was dead, Joe resurrects him, gives him a new set of threads, and sends him out into a new world. Kudos to him.

So that is Dracula and his many renditions. So what do I think about the vampire and his future? Do you think he has a future in films? As for his appearances in books, I think there is a lot left to do with him; both Joe and Stephenie showed us that. But this is one for the better horror and thriller writers to take further. For me, I just don’t have the currency (taps temple with forefinger) to make something fun out of him. I did give it a try once, but found even I was bored by the idea. If I was to send that out to the reader then it would be me on the stake.

I would like to hear your views. Do you think the character has a future in both books and film? Which version was your favourite and why? Give me a shout out on Instagram (link below) and let me hear your views.

https://www.instagram.com/m.k.mcgowan/

Your friend, The Bastard!