Batsu Review - Dracula

This Dracula film in particular is considered by a large portion of the general audience as the most faithful adaptation of the Bram Stoker's novel (after all, it has his name on the title). And while it is very faithful in contrast with other Dracula films, it makes a lot of departures from the original work. Not many people actually know this, but there was no romance between Count Dracula and Mina in the original novel... Nevertheless, this is not a bad thing on its own right. Given the large amount of Dracula films, turning the plot into a romance makes the movie to stand out and the story to feel fresh.

The characters from the film are just... functional. Outside of Van Helsing's excentric personality, the multifaceted/sympathetic Dracula, and the innocent but corrupted Mina, the characters are not very interesting, especially in the case of Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris (you know, there is a reason why Morris never made an appearence in the other Dracula films...). This doesn't mean that the treatment of the characters by the film is necesarily bad, after all, it wouldn't make much sense to further develop Holmwood, Morris, Lucy or Jonathan if the focus of the film would be on the relationship between the Count and Mina. The romance between these two on the other hand is just fine. On one hand, you can feel the temptation to which the characters are exposed, the brute force of the adoration they feel for each other piercing through their values and codes. At some point, you can understand why Mina falls in love with Dracula, how she is enchanted by his presence, his surreal aura, his tales from a foreign and mysterious land to which she strangely feels she belongs. This is achieved through the excelent soundtrack, transmiting both the deep feelings of Dracula and his violent and evil will, and the visual presentation, creating situations and images that perfectly mix perversion with beauty and sensuality.

However, the love story of the film is not actually very substantial. Why did Dracula love Elizabeth so much? The background of their relationship is never developed, nor it is explored why Dracula loves Mina outside of being the reincarnation of Elizabeth. It seems as their attraction is almost instinctive, but there doesn't seem to be an actual build up of it. You get how Mina is seduced up to a certain point, but when she is able to put aside the fact that Dracula killed her best friend, I feel like there has to be a better justification. On the other hand, there is no explanation whatsoever to Elizabeth's reincarnation and how that is related with the philosophy of Christianity.

The visual presentation of the film is one of its most remarkable atributes. The heavily stilyzed costumes and scenarios help to build the dreamy atmosphere and nature of the plot, and make the movie to stand out, however at some points of the film the exaggerated style can give account of the fakeness of the scenarios, for example in the case of the mental asylum, breaking the inmersion a bit. This also goes for the special effects, which most are made in-camera. Special mention to that horrible green fog...

The acting of the film is another point of controversy, but I won't develop this point since everyone knows what I'll say.

Summing up, Dracula it's a film interesting in its visual presentation and its treatment of the vampire monster, mixing the evil with lust wonderfully. However it's kind of superficial and carried out by a lacking cast of actors.