At a hundred and twenty six years old Irish Author Bram Stoker’s Dracula is considered one of the most classic works in English Literature. But despite being adapted into movies, plays and short stories, rarely has the tale of the titular character been authentically captured. 

Characters, events and even the eventual demise of the Count are often not faithful to Stokers story. Did you know for instance that Stoker describes Dracula as having a long white mustache? Did you know that Sunlight doesn’t kill Dracula but merely weakens him? Sunlight killing a vampire was actually introduced by FW Murnau’s Nosferatu released in 1922. Nosferatu itself, being a version of the Dracula story with various names and other details changed because the rights to Dracula were not awarded to the filmmakers by the Stoker estate. Over the years many different iterations have made changes to Stokers story leaving the question, which version of Dracula is truest to the Authors original vision?

 Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Director Frances Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now)  was determined to do just that with his gothic romantic horror, Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Featuring a 90s Hollywood A list cast, with Gary Oldman as the Count, Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker, Winona Ryder as Mina Harker and Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing. This particular version of the story remains very close to Stoker’s original writing. Offering a striking and beautiful, stylized retelling of one of the greatest monsters in literary history. 

Shooting Stoker’s novel was no easy feat and an insistence on practical effects, utilizing methods similar to the early days of cinema made the shoot a pretty tough one for all involved. Gary Oldman likely had it hardest, with a never ending slew of costume changes and countless hours spent in the makeup chair to give Dracula his various looks. By the time it came to filming Oldman was probably fatigued and irritable having to put up with heavy prosthetics and uncomfortable costume choices.He and Coppala would frequently butt heads some of these exchanges can be seen in a fantastic making of documentary with some wonderful behind the scenes footage. Coppala had smartly built up a camaraderie with his cast. Having them live together and rehearse the movie before stepping onto set. This created a bond and a willingness to get the job done no matter what. Coppola even suggested the cast read the book and anything they found that was in Stokers story but not in the script would be added to the final screenplay. 

 The end result is a hypnotic nightmare paying homage and sometimes even improving on some of the most classic imagery in horror movie history. The films score by Polish composer Wojciech Kilar is urgent romantic and bold A story so well known is giving a new lease whilst respectfully looking back to the author's original writing. There aren’t many Dracula’s as true as this one.