Archive for the ‘Vampire Originals’ Category

Nosferatu (1922)

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror or simply Nosferatu) is a German Expressionist vampire horror film, directed by F. W. Murnau, starring Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok. The film, shot in 1921 and released in 1922, was in essence an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with names and other details changed because the studio could not obtain the rights to the novel (for instance, “vampire” became “Nosferatu,” and Count Dracula became Count Orlok).

Hutter (Harker in Stoker’s novel) is an employee at a real estate firm in a fictitious German city called Wisborg (the name of the town being a reference to the actual town Wismar), living with Ellen, his wife. His employer, Knock, receives a mysterious letter. Knock decides to send him to visit Count Orlok in the Carpathian Mountains to finalize the sale of a house. Hutter leaves his wife with his good friend Harding, and Harding’s sister Lucy, before embarking on his multiple-month journey.

Close to his final destination, Hutter boards at an inn, where the locals become frightened at the mere mention of Orlok’s name, and discourage him from traveling to his castle during the night. In his room at the inn, Hutter finds a book entitled The Book of the Vampires, which he disregards before falling asleep.

Hutter is left to finish his journey on foot after his hired driver refuses to pass the bridge to the castle. However, he is soon picked up by Count Orlok’s coach, which is driven by a strange specter that hides its face, and moves at an unnatural speed. At his arrival at the castle, whose doors open by themselves, he is welcomed by Count Orlok. His grotesque facial features hidden at this stage by his hat, Orlok initially appears to be a mere eccentric gentleman. Hutter has dinner at the castle; Orlok refuses to eat and silently reads a letter. A bell rings at midnight and a startled Hutter cuts his thumb. Count Orlok tries to suck the blood out of the wound, before being repelled by a cross hanging around Hutter’s neck. Hutter falls asleep in the parlor after a conversation with Orlok.

Hutter wakes up to an empty castle with fresh wounds on his neck, which he attributes to mosquitoes. That night he is joined by Orlok and they sign the documents for the sale of the house facing Hutter’s. Hutter finds The Book of the Vampires in his luggage and starts to suspect that Orlok is nosferatu. He tries to hide in his bedroom as midnight approaches. However, the closed door opens by itself and Orlok comes in, his true nature revealed. At the same time, Ellen sleepwalks and is found by Harding in a comatose state, screaming for Hutter. Her screams stop Orlok, who leaves Hutter untouched.

Waking up, Hutter explores the castle and its crypt. He finds a coffin, where Orlok is resting in a dormant state. Paralyzed with fear and the sheer sight of the nosferatu, he dashes back to his room, where he witnesses Orlok piling up coffins on a coach and climbing into the last one before the coach leaves. Hutter escapes the castle through the window, but is knocked unconscious when he falls and hits the ground. Meanwhile, the coffins are shipped down a river on a raft.

Next, Hutter is at a hospital after his flight from the castle. The coffins are put into a large boat, after the crew sees that they are full of soil and rats.

In a psychiatric ward, Knock is in a confinement cell where he eats flies and tries to bite the neck of his doctor. Hutter decides to leave the hospital to warn his town against Orlok. In his cell, Knock steals a newspaper with news of a new plague, which causes him to rejoice. The sailors on the boat carrying the coffins get sick, and soon all but two are dead. One of them decides to destroy the coffins, which are now crawling with rats. However, Orlok wakes up and confronted with this vision, the sailor jumps into the sea. The captain ties himself to his ship’s wheel. Orlok is the new master of the boat.

The ship arrives in Wisborg. Orlok leaves it unseen in one of his coffins, quickly followed by the rats. He moves into the house he purchased across the street from Hutter’s house. Knock escapes from his cell. Hutter also arrives in Germany. The next morning, the ship is inspected and it appears empty, except for the dead captain with wound marks on his neck. The logbook of the ship is found, the doctors realize they are dealing with plague. The town is stricken with panic. Ellen reads the book of vampires, despite Hutter’s forbidding. She learns how to kill a vampire: a woman pure in heart must make him forget the rooster’s first crowing. The town is flooded with corpses and its people chase Knock, mistaking him for a vampire.

Orlok stares from his window at the sleeping Ellen. She opens her window to invite him in but faints. As Hutter leaves to get help, Orlok comes in. He drinks her blood and forgets about the dawning day. A rooster crows and Orlok goes up in smoke as he tries to escape. The last image of the movie is Orlok’s castle in the Carpathian Mountains.

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Dracula (1931)

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Dracula is a classic 1931 horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Béla Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal Pictures Co. Inc. and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which in turn is based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Renfield (Dwight Frye), a British solicitor, travels through the Carpathian Mountains via stagecoach. The people in the stagecoach are fearful that the coach won’t reach the local inn before sundown. Arriving there safely before sundown, Renfield refuses to stay at the inn and asks the driver to take him to the Borgo Pass. The innkeeper and his wife seem to be afraid of Renfield’s destination, Castle Dracula, and warn him about vampires. The innkeeper’s wife gives Renfield a cross for protection before he leaves for Borgo Pass, whence he is driven to the castle by Dracula’s coach, which was awaiting him at Borgo Pass, with Dracula himself disguised as the driver.

Renfield enters the castle after his driver and his luggage disappear, and is bid welcomed by charming but weird nobleman Count Dracula (Béla Lugosi), who is a vampire, as seen him crawling from his coffin before Renfield left the inn. Dracula and Renfield discuss the purchase of Carfax Abbey in England, and afterwards Dracula departs. Renfield faints when opens a window and a bat comes in, and Dracula, morphed from bat, forces his wives to get away from Renfield and he bites him.

Aboard the Vesta, bound for England, Renfield has now became a raving lunatic slave to Dracula, who is hidden in a coffin and gets out for feeding on the ship’s crew. When the ship arrives in England, Renfield is discovered the only living person in it, the captain lashed on the wheel and none of the ship’s crew is discovered. Renfield is sent to Dr. Seward’s sanitarium.

Some nights later, Dracula hypnotizes an usherette and tells her to inform Dr. Seward (Herbert Bunston) that he is wanted on the telephone. Before leaving, Dracula meets with Dr. Seward who introduces him to his daughter Mina (Helen Chandler), her fiancé John Harker (David Manners) and the family friend Lucy Weston (Frances Dade). Lucy is fascinated by Count Dracula, and that night, after Lucy has a talk with Mina and falls asleep in bed, Dracula enters her room as a bat and feasts on her blood. She dies in an autopsy theatre the next day after a string of transfusions, and two tiny marks on her throat are discovered.

Several days later, it is seen that Renfield is obsessed with eating flies and spiders, devouring their lives also. Professor Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) analyzes Renfield’s blood discovering Renfield’s obsession. He starts talking about vampires, and that afternoon chats with Renfield, who begs Dr. Seward to send him away because his nightly cries may disturb Mina’s dreams. When Dracula awakes and calls Renfield with wolf howling, Renfield is disturbed when Van Helsing shows him a branch of wolfbane, that stops wolfs as Van Helsing says, and also is used for vampire protection.

Dracula visits a sleeping Mina in her bedroom and bites her, leaving her the same marks Lucy had. She talks to the others about a dream of hers, when Dracula visited her. Then, Dracula enters for a night’s visit at the Sewards. Van Helsing and Harker notice that Dracula does not have a reflection in the mirrored top of the cigarette case. When Van Helsing shows that “most amazing phenomenon” to Dracula, he smashes the mirror and excuses himself leaving. Van Helsing deduces that Dracula is the vampire.

Meanwhile, Mina leaves her room and runs into Dracula’s hug in the garden, and is discovered there unconscious. The next day, newspapers write about a “beautiful lady” who lured little children playing in the park with chocolate and then biting them. Mina recognizes the beautiful lady as Lucy, who has risen as a vampire. Harker wants to take Mina at London for safety, but he is finally convinced to leave Mina with them. Van Helsing orders nurse Briggs (Joan Standing) to take care of Mina when she is sleeping, and not to remove the garland of wolfbane around her neck.

Renfield again escapes from his cell and listens to the three men discussing vampires. Before Martin (Charles K. Gerrard), his attendant, arrives to take Renfield back to his cell, Renfield narratives to Van Helsing, Harker and Seward how Dracula convinced Renfield to allow him enter the sanitarium by promising him thousands of rats with blood and life in them.

Dracula enters the Seward parlour and talks with Van Helsing. Dracula tells him that Mina is now his after fusing his blood with hers, and Van Helsing swears revenge by sterilizing Carfax Abbey and finding the box where he sleeps and stake him. Dracula tries to hypnotize Van Helsing, almost succeeding, but Van Helsing shows a crucifix to the vampire and turns away.

Mina is visited in her bedroom by Harker, and they talk about the night. Harker notices Mina’s changes, as she now becomes step by step a vampire, and when a bat (Dracula) enters the room and squeaks to Mina, she answers trying to attack Harker but Van Helsing and Dr. Seward arrive just in time to save Harker. Mina confesses what Dracula has done to her, and tries to tell Harker that their love is finished.

Later that night, Dracula hypnotizes Briggs into removing the wolfbane from Mina’s room so he can enter. Van Helsing and Harker see Renfield, having just escaped from his cell, heading for Carfax Abbey. They see Dracula with Mina in the abbey, and when Harker shouts to Mina, Dracula sees them and thinks Renfield had trailed them. He strangles Renfield tossing him from the staircase and is hunted by Van Helsing and Harker. Dracula sleeps in his coffin as sunrise has come, and is trapped. Van Helsing prepares a wooden stake while Harker searches for Mina. He finds her in a strange stasis, and when Dracula moans in pain when Van Helsing stakes him, Mina returns to her old self. Harker leaves with Mina and Van Helsing stays and the sound of church bells is heard.

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Horror of Dracula (1958)

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Dracula is a 1958 British horror film, and the first of a series of Hammer Horror films inspired by the Bram Stoker novel Dracula. It was directed by Terence Fisher, and stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. In the United States, the film was retitled Horror of Dracula to avoid confusion (and international copyright infringement) with the Tod Browning-directed Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi.

Jonathan Harker arrives at the castle of Count Dracula, posing as a librarian. He is startled inside the castle by a young woman begging for help, claiming to be a prisoner. The woman looks horrified at the sight of Dracula on the stairs and runs out. Dracula then greets Jonathan and guides him to his room, where he locks him in. Jonathan starts to write in his diary and his true intentions are revealed — he is here to kill Dracula.

The woman begs Jonathan to help the next evening and clutches at him. She leans against him as if crying but then tries to bite him. Dracula arrives and yanks her off and fights with her. Jonathan tries to protect her but is overpowered by Dracula and bitten. The pair depart and Jonathan is worried he might become a vampire. Jonathan descends to the coffin room, where he finds Dracula and the woman in their coffins for sunrise. Armed with a stake, he impales the woman first. When Jonathan turns to Dracula’s coffin, it is empty — and Dracula is waiting by the door for him.

Dr. Van Helsing then arrives looking for Jonathan. He is horrified when he discovers Jonathan lying in a coffin as a vampire. Staking his friend, he leaves to deliver the grim news in person to Jonathan’s fiancée Lucy, her brother Arthur Holmwood and his wife Mina.

Arthur is quick to dismiss Van Helsing, but soon seeks his aid when Lucy falls ill. Van Helsing suggests that Dracula wishes to replace the woman Jonathan took from him with Lucy. Lucy becomes a vampire and tries to lure a young niece to her but the girl is saved by Van Helsing and Arthur. Van Helsing suggests using Lucy as a means to find Dracula but Arthur refuses and so Van Helsing stakes Lucy in her coffin.

Van Helsing and Arthur try to track down the destination of Dracula’s coffin (which had left the castle just as Van Helsing was arriving there), resorting to bribery. Meanwhile, Mina is called away from home by a message telling her to meet Arthur at a certain address. The next morning, they find Mina in a strange state. Determined to find the coffin they plan to leave again but not before Arthur begs Mina to take a cross. Mina is very reluctant and when Arthur presses it into her hand she screams, jumps up and faints. A cross-shaped burn mark is found on her hand. Arthur and Van Helsing then leave for the location they found out (the very same address Mina was called to – not by Arthur but Dracula) but when they arrive there the coffin has vanished.

During the night, Van Helsing and Arthur guard both of Mina’s windows against a return of Dracula, but he visits and bites her nonetheless. A remark by the maid leads Van Helsing to the coffin’s location: the basement of the Holmwoods’ house. He places a cross inside it, while Dracula locks him in the basement and takes Mina with him. Arthur frees Dr. Van Helsing. A chase then begins as Dracula rushes to return home before sunrise. He attempts to bury Mina in the soil and finds Dr. Van Helsing and Arthur close behind and dashes into his home.

Inside Van Helsing and Dracula battle it out, with Dracula quickly gaining the upper hand. Van Helsing fakes a faint and escapes from Dracula’s clutches. He tears open the curtain to let in the sunlight and, forming a cross of candlesticks, he forces Dracula into it.

Dracula crumbles into dust, as Van Helsing watches in horror. Mina regains her humanity, the cross-shaped scar fading from her hand as Dracula turns to ash and leaves only a ring behind.

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House of Dracula (1945)

Friday, November 28th, 2008

House of Dracula was an American vampire horror film released by Universal Pictures Company in 1945. It was a direct sequel to House of Frankenstein and continued the theme of combining Universal’s three most popular monsters: Frankenstein’s monster, Count Dracula and The Wolf Man.

The main plot is that both Dracula and Larry Talbot are both seeking a cure from their respective monster afflictions from Dr. Edelmann (Onslow Stevens).

Dracula actually appears to be searching for a cure for his vampirism. Somehow Dracula survived his destruction by sunlight exposure from the previous film House of Frankenstein and initially seeks to be cured of his vampirism at the hands of the doctor as he seems apparently tired of his monster nature. But after re-meeting the doctor’s beautiful assistant whom he knew in his alias of “Baron Latos”, Dracula’s monsterous nature reasserts itself and infects Edelmann through a blood transfusion of his vampire blood, which turns Edelmann into a Jekyll and Hyde like creature. Though Edelmann succeeds in destroying Dracula, Edelmann realizes that he is slowly degrading into a murderous monster himself.

Lawrence Talbot soon arrives at Edelmann’s castle, seeking a cure for the curse that turns him into a werewolf (Talbot’s return from death having been maintained from his particular invulnerability to silver weapons which was used to explain his first reappearance as shown in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man) as Larry Talbot was bludgeoned to death by his father using a silver topped cane in the original The Wolf Man. The Frankenstein Monster plays a minor role in this film, only being found during Talbot’s attempt at suicide by drowning in the ocean late in the film. The Monster does not actually go into action until almost the climactic finish, which results in Talbot finally being cured of his affliction and falling in love with Edelmann’s attractive assistant (Martha O’Driscoll) and killing the Hyde like version of Edelmann. The Frankenstein Monster once again burned to death in yet another fire destruction of the castle he is in.

Also appearing in the film is Jane Adams, whose character, Nina, is a hunchback and was thus billed as one of the monsters in the film. In fact, her character is portrayed sympathetically and the use of an attractive actress to play an otherwise misshapen individual is notable for the time.

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Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Dracula’s Daughter is a 1936 vampire horror film produced by Universal Studios, a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula. Directed by Lambert Hillyer from a screenplay by Garrett Fort, the film stars Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill and, as the only cast member to return from the original, Edward Van Sloan. Dracula’s Daughter tells the story of Countess Marya Zaleska, the daughter of Count Dracula and herself a vampire. Following Dracula’s death, she believes that by destroying his body she will be free of his influence and can live as a human. When this fails, she turns to psychiatry and Dr. Jeffrey Garth. When his efforts fail, she kidnaps Janet, the woman Jeffrey loves, and flees with her to Transylvania in an attempt to bind Jeffrey to her. She is foiled and destroyed when her jealous manservant shoots her with an arrow.

Ostensibly based on a short story called Dracula’s Guest by Bram Stoker, the film bears little or no resemblance to the original source material. David O. Selznick initially purchased the rights to the story for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Selznick, probably knowing he could not legally make the film because of Universal’s copyright on the original film, sold the rights to Universal. After first assigning the picture to James Whale, Universal production head Carl Laemmle, Jr. finally put Hillyer in the director’s chair.

Upon its release, Dracula’s Daughter was not as successful as the original, although it was generally well-reviewed. In the intervening decades, criticism has been deeply divided. Modern critics and scholars have noted the strong lesbian overtones of the film, overtones that Universal acknowledged from the start of filming and which they exploited in some early advertising.

Dracula’s Daughter begins a few moments after Dracula ends. Count Dracula has just been killed by Professor Von Helsing (Edward Van Sloan). Von Helsing is taken by police to Scotland Yard, where he explains that he indeed did kill Count Dracula, but because he was already dead for over 500 years, it cannot be considered murder. Von Helsing, instead of hiring a lawyer, enlists the aid of a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), who was once one of his star students. Meanwhile, Dracula’s daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden), with the aid of her manservant, Sandor (Irving Pichel), steals Dracula’s body from Scotland Yard and ritualistically burns it, hoping to break her curse of vampirism. However, Sandor soon makes her realize that her thirst for blood has not been quenched and that all that is in her eyes is “Death”. The Countess resumes her hunting, mesmerizing her victims with her exotic jeweled ring. After a chance meeting with Dr. Garth at a society party, the Countess asks him to help her overcome the influence she feels from beyond the grave. The doctor advises her to defeat her cravings by confronting them and the Countess becomes hopeful that her will plus Dr. Garth’s science will be strong enough to overcome Dracula’s malevolence. The Countess sends Sandor to fetch her a model to paint. He returns with Lili (Nan Grey). Countess Zaleska initially resists her urges but succumbs and attacks Lili. Lili survives the attack but when Dr. Garth tries to hypnotize her to learn what happened, she suffers heart failure and dies. As the Countess comes to accept that a cure isn’t possible — and the doctor discovers the truth about her condition — the Countess lures him to Transylvania by kidnapping Janet (Marguerite Churchill), the woman he loves. She intends to transform him into a vampire and her eternal companion; Dr. Garth agrees to exchange his life for Janet’s. Before he can be transformed Countess Zaleska is destroyed when Sandor shoots her through the heart with an arrow as revenge for her breaking her promise to make him immortal. He takes aim at Dr. Garth but is shot dead by a policeman.

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Son of Dracula (1943)

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Son of Dracula is an American horror film released in 1943. It was directed by Robert Siodmak – his first film for Universal studios – with a screenplay based on an original story by his brother Curt. The film stars Lon Chaney, Jr. and his frequent co-star Evelyn Ankers. Notably it is the first film where a vampire turns into a bat on screen.

Hungarian Count Alucard, a mysterious stranger, arrives in the U.S. invited by Katherine Caldwell, one of the daughters of New Orleans plantation owner Colonel Caldwell. Shortly after his arrival, the Colonel dies and leaves his wealth to his two daughters, with Claire receiving all the money and Katherine his estate “Dark Oaks.” Katherine, a woman with a taste for the morbid, secretly begins dating Alucard and eventually marries him, shunning her long-time boyfriend Frank Stanley. Frank confronts the couple and tries to shoot Alucard but the bullets go right through the Count’s body and hit Katherine, seemingly killing her.

A shocked Frank runs off to Professor Brewster, who visits Dark Oaks and is welcomed by Alucard and a living Katherine. The couple instruct him that henceforth they would be devoting their days to scientific research and only welcome visitors at night. Frank goes on to the police and confesses to the murder of Katherine. Brewster tries to convince the Sheriff that he saw Katherine alive and that she would be away all day, but the Sheriff insists on searching Dark Oaks. He finds Katherine’s dead body and has her transferred to the morgue.

Meanwhile, Hungarian Professor Lazlo arrives at Brewster’s house. Brewster has noticed that Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards and Lazlo suspects vampirism. A boy bitten and drained of blood confirms this suspicion. Later,the Count appears to Brewster and Lazlo but is driven away by a cross.

Vampiric Katherine enters Frank’s cell and explains that she still loves him, that she married Alucard only to attain immortality, and that she wants to share said immortality with him. Frank is initially repulsed but then yields to her, as she advises him on how to destroy Alucard. Frank breaks out of prison, seeks out Alucard’s hiding place and burns his coffin thereby destroying him. Brewster, Lazlo, and the Sherrif arrive at the scene, only finding Alucard’s remains. They then go to Dark Oaks, where they find out that Frank has also set Katherine on fire, destroying her.

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The Return of the Vampire (1944)

Friday, November 28th, 2008

The Return of the Vampire is a 1944 film, released by Columbia Pictures starring Béla Lugosi, Nina Foch, Frieda Inescort, and Miles Mander.

Armand Tesla, a former Romanian scientist who became a vampire because of his obsession with the occult, moves to London. He has a werewolf servant named Andréas (Matt Willis), and preys on one family until he is staked in 1918. When his grave is disturbed by Nazi bombs during World War II, gravediggers who have to rebury the overturned graves decide not to bury Armand with the stake, pulling it out. He then claws out of the ground. He seeks out Andréas, who now, after being turned back by Armand, has the power to change form at will, and sets out to take revenge on the family that had staked him. In the end, Andréas is shot trying to give Nikki (the doctor’s daughter) back to Armand. The vampire tells the lycanthrope, “I no longer had need of you.” After changing back, Andréas, who finds a cross buried in corner of the church Armand has made a home, pulls it out and starts forcing Armand up the stairs toward the sun. A bomb dropped from a passing German bomber lands in the church causing an explosion, destroying the building. Andréas finishes the job by dragging Armand into the sun, finishing Armand and releasing Nikki of Armand’s spell. Then Andréas is finally dead of his bullet wound, resting forever in peace.

This is one of only three films in which Bela Lugosi played a genuine vampire, the other two being Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. In Mark of the Vampire, Lugosi played a supposed vampire who turns out to be a fake. In Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, Lugosi played a mad scientist who has a delusion that he is a vampire.

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