Bram Stokers Dracula and the Seduction of Old School Movie Magic – Den of Geek

When Bram Stokers Dracula opened in November 1992, it astonished the industry and silenced many of Francis Ford Coppolas sharpest critics. Snarked about in the press beforehand as Bonfire of the Vampiresa reference to Brian De Palmas misbegotten Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)the whispers were that director Coppola had created a lurid and weird vampire movie based on one of the most oversaturated characters in fiction. Well, Bram Stokers Dracula was certainly lurid and weird, but in the best possible way.

Originally conceived as a Victorian mans repressed anxieties about lust and passion being given demonic shape, Coppolas vision for Dracula was entirely divorced from the pop culture image of Bela Lugosi in a cape. While the movie was marketed as the director of The Godfather going back to the 1897 source novel that no one had ever faithfully adapted (which turned out to be only partially true), the movies true appeal lies in its decadent imagery. Its a marriage of lavish costumes, freaky makeup, and half-forgotten magicians effects. And the last bit was given new life by Francis son, Roman, who became the films visual effects director.

Somehow it all came together, with performers such as Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Waits, and Ryder going so big that their cries threatened to burst through the soundstage walls. The hypnotic union thrilled audiences, who made Bram Stokers Dracula a surprise holiday blockbuster, and was ultimately celebrated by the industry, which awarded the movie three Oscars, including one for Eiko Ishiokas dazzling costumes and Greg Cannons makeup. The irony is that, in its way, it was the industrys skepticism toward Francis Ford Coppola that made the movies unusual vision possible.

For some reason I always thought it was unfair I had the reputation of being a director who spent a lot of money, which is not really the case, Francis said in a recent interview with film critic F.X. Feeney. The only movie that I really spent a lot of money on, and went way over budget, was Apocalypse Now.

Be that as it may, when Ryder first piqued Coppolas interest in making a Dracula movie, which as it turned out was a favorite novel from his youth, he knew the studio would never agree to his first inclination: As with going to the jungles of the Philippines on Apocalypse Now or Sicily in The Godfather, Coppola initially imagined shooting Dracula in Transylvania and inside actual crumbling castles.

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Bram Stokers Dracula and the Seduction of Old School Movie Magic - Den of Geek

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero