Dracula

Warning: You know what for...

So this post is going to be a triple of Dracula the original book by Bram Stoker, the Netflix Original Series that aired in January 2020 and Dracula Untold the film which was released in 2014.

First, I'd like to talk about the book which I recently read.

Dracula is a Gothic horror story that was written by Bram Stoker and published in 1897, which sounds like forever ago, and the book paved the way for every modern vampire legend that we have ever watched. Not Twilight, that's like Dracula's weird cousin that nobody likes.

Dracula is written in a diary form and is documented mainly by Jonathan Harker in the first half of the book as he travels to Count Dracula's castle to help him with the legal documents of his purchase of an English house that he will soon be moving to. Later it is documented by Mina Harker, Lucy Westenra, Abraham Van Helsing, Arthur Holmwood, Dr. John Seward and Quincey Morris.

The book is mostly centered around Jonathan realizing that something is wrong with the Count and the subsequent terror of trying to escape. Later on in the book it is lead by Van Helsing as they try to discover a way to destroy the evil that is Dracula before he can spread the terrible undead virus any more than he already has.

The story itself is rather frightening at times but I feel as if the new age horror that we experience has made it less scary than it originally was. I really enjoyed the book because of the many different points of view that it had but I did find the old English a bit of a struggle to read at times. Regardless, very well written and rather descriptive which really added to the horror.

Now on to the series...

Dracula was developed by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat and was based on the novel. The series aired in January of 2020 and was broadcast by BBC and Netflix. There are three episodes which each have between 80 and 91 minutes.

Claes Bang played the lead of Dracula along with Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha, Morfydd Clark as Mina Murray and John Heffernan as Jonathan Harker.

The series was terrifying. I absolutely loved it and it inspired me to finally read the novel that had been sitting on my shelf for a few months. I think the casting is perfect for what I pictured and what was described by Stoker in the novel. The story is more or less the same as in the novel except that the third episode touches a bit on what Dracula would be like in the modern day world which is obviously a horrible thing to think about but at least he didn't sparkle!

Dracula Untold is also inspired by the novel but much more loosely based and more of an origin story for the Count himself.

It was directed by Gary Shore and Luke Evans plays Vlad the Impaler who is portrayed as Dracula's alter ego, sort of. The rest of the cast includes Sarah Gadon as Mirena, Art Parkinson as Ingeras, Dominic Cooper as Mehmed and Charles Dance as the Master Vampire.

The story suggests that Dracula was originally known as Vlad until his land was threatened by the Turks who wanted to take their sons to train as warriors. Vlad refused and a war broke out which resorted in him going to the Master Vampire and asking for a way to defeat the Turks.

I really enjoyed this revamp (excuse the pun) of the classic novel and I loved the way that they linked it to a suspected vampire of that age. Since Vlad Tepes was known as being part of the house of Draculesti or Dracul which means dragon and reigned in Wallachia for three times between 1448 and his death in 1476/1477 depending on the historian you ask, it shows where the name Dracula came from and how Vlad totally makes sense as the original vampire. The only problem I have with this film is the way the vampires die, it is super dramatic and completely different from what I always pictured. Besides that, it is an amazing movie.

So I hope you enjoyed my explanation of Dracula. Let me know what you thought in the comments.

Thanks for reading xx