Horror of Dracula (1958) – Vampiric Projections

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Dracula Storbritannia 1958 Regi Terence Fisher Med Peter Cushing, Christoper Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh 1t 22m DCP Engelsk tale, utekstet Aldersgrense 15 år

Horror of Dracula is a 1958 Hammer Horror film directed by Terence Fisher. Its official British title is simply Dracula, but to avoid confusion, it was released in the U.S. as Horror of Dracula. It stars Christopher Lee as the eponymous Count and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, roles for which both actors would be remembered forever afterwards. Lee would later come to resent his role because of increasingly inferior sequels and typecasting.

Indeed, Christopher Lee articulated these thoughts on various occasions:
“I’ve always tried to put an element of sadness, which I’ve termed the loneliness of evil, into his character. Dracula doesn’t want to live, but he’s got to! He doesn’t want to go on existing as the undead, but he has no choice.
The stories as I’ve had them given to me have had almost no relation to the book…which is my reiterated complaint. My one great regret has always been that I have never been able to present the Count exactly as Bram Stoker described him in every way.”

A very loose adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, the film opens with Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) arriving at Castle Dracula, ostensibly to begin work as a librarian. In fact, he has come to destroy Dracula, but the plan falls through as he becomes a victim of the Count. Shortly thereafter, Van Helsing arrives to investigate, quickly learning that Harker has been turned into a vampire and that the Count has moved out from his castle in search of more prey.

Joseph Chang wrote in his essay Reviving the Undead: The Resurrection of the British Empire in Dracula: “Despite Hammer’s utilization of shocking visuals, such as bright-red blood and sharp vampire fangs, Count Dracula in this version seems decidedly less unnerving. His unsettling air of foreignness is largely diluted by a familiar sense of Englishness, such as his perfect British accent and westernized castle—and his colonial plan of invasion is nonexistent. The aggressive, atavistic, and repellent foreigner threatening to invade the [British] empire is replaced by an “easterner” with English qualities and no intention of meddling with the affairs of the empire.”

Oscar Debs, curator of the Vampiric Projections, will read short excerpts from Chang’s text after the screening.