10 Days to Halloween - Dracula (1931) - 22nd October 2012

I'ts a bit late in October to make this a full countdown to Halloween, so I've decided on doing a '10 Days to Halloween' countdown instead. This countdown will be some of the best or most classic horror films to come out over the last 80 years.
Now what can I say about the 1931 Dracula film? Well it 'sucks'... get it? No? Ok lets actually talk about the film.

The 1931 Dracula is the first film of the 'Universal Monster' horror films. Now we'll get to talking more about the Universal monster films and what I mean by that in other posts but for now let's just carry on with this one.

This film was shot after the silent movie era, meaning that sound and voice can contribute to the overall atmosphere. Now, on the topic of atmosphere, this film has everything  from a crumbling castle and cobwebs to bats and fog, even the way in which the film is shot adds to the creepyness, with camera shots peaking behind cobwebs in the corner of an old hall and very close up shots of erm... bees? Anyway, Dracula has all the elements to make it a real chiller.

So shall we move on to the main attraction of this film? Yes we shall. The main attraction is Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi. The casting choice for Lugosi in this film was purely for the fact that he couldn't speak English very well.

This led to the unmistakable timbre and accent of Dracula's voice in popular culture to come. In my opinion, no one but Lugosi could have played Dracula at the time, the look that he gives when in full costume just gives off an eerie quality and, like I said, his voice just goes so well with the character that he was a perfect choice for the role. Almost makes you check the locks and windows twice before you sleep at night.

This film really does do justice to the Bram Stoker novel of the same name. It immortalizes what Stoker was trying to convey in his novel in a classic, black & white, creepily eerie and horrifically chilling film.

I don't think that I will say much more on this film because if you have watched this then you know everything that I could possibly say about it and if you haven't watched it then what the hell are you doing reading this? You should go and watch this damn film!

That's it for today's '10 Days to Halloween'. You should come back tomorrow when we will look into what the best possible Frankenstein film is. Oh and I do know that Frankenstein is the doctor and not the monster


                                             All photos and video from Universal Studios                                           .