Review #233: Horror of Dracula (1958)


This review was originally written in October 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #87: Horror of Dracula (1958)

Yippee, another version of Dracula. That's three so far this month, and one more still to go.

This one deviates slightly from the novel's story (though most of the deviation comes from swapping names around). It starts with Jonathan Harker arriving at Dracula's castle, posing as a librarian but with the intention of finding and killing the vampire. He ultimately fails (mainly because he stupidly chose not to kill Dracula when he had the chance) and so Dracula takes it upon himself to stalk and terrorize everyone Jonathan held dear. Dr. Van Helsing is on the case, though, and there's a bit of back-and-forth before Dracula's ultimate demise.

Needless to say I really didn't care for this film. Not only is this story well-worn territory by this point, it's still incredibly slow and most of the scenes had me checking the clock numerous times. The actors all do their best, and there's a lot to be found in this film that visually inspired vampire-based cinema for decades to come, but I don't see myself ever watching this film again. Technically I feel like this is a better film than 1931's Dracula, but I certainly didn't enjoy watching it as much. Did I rate the older film too high? Or was I destined to underrate this one because it's the third time in 17 days that I've watched a movie about Dracula? I don't know. But at the end of the day I just didn't enjoy this one and so I'm going to rate it as such.

Overall Rating: 4/10 Candlestick Crucifixes

Vampire Slapstick: Near the end of the film, there's a scene where Dracula buries a character in an open grave. Apparently, on the first take the stunt performer being tossed into the grave was heavier than Christopher Lee thought they would be, and he fell into the hole after them!

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