DRACULA,
A CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE Dracula, the vampire and horror monster, succeeded on the screens in 1931 by director Tod Browning. His work stands out even today, after Hollywood unsuccesfully tried to revive the character with an untold story. By María José Santana
T
he arrival of sound, color, multiple formats and growing possibilities in production, allow directors to remake a film, being Fantasy a genre with great advantage for this maneuver. Dracula, a classic character in horror movies, has had different versions, but there’s two tahat have conquered a significant audience: in first place, we have Dracula, directed by Tod Browning and screened in 1931, who began its career in the era of sound cinema; on the other hand is Dracula Untold (2014), written and produced by Irish director Gary Shore, centered on the character’s origins with a mixture of vampire mythology and the true story of Vlad the Impaler. In both films the character was from another world, which for normal people was an unknown being with powers that made it almost invincible. The Dracula film, played by Béla Lugosi, still is a real terror figure. The scene shots, the close-ups of the face before the action cause in the audience a fear that the directors claim is difficult to genera te. But the second Dracula, starred by Luke Evans, is not to be feared in the film as the director gave a radical change to the
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character, which has humanity and a family; in addition, he is the prince of Transylvania and thus, its defender. All these circumstances make people not afraid of him and understand why he assumes the figure of a vengeful hero.
exciting soundtrack that arouse emotions in viewers before each action happens, it fails creating a spontaneous connection with the story. Audience cannot feel nostalgia, passion or hate in certain scene without music indicating what to feel.
We are talking about a reboot where we see two very different versions that adapt to the cinema with the time and needs of the director: the cinematographic genre (drama or horror) and the filming scenario. That is why there are different aspects in which each one stands out or loses credibility. For example, in 1931 Dracula there is no evidence of a soundtrack, what you hear in film are ambient sound and conversations between characters. In both introduction and final scenes appears a melody like two pins, being in this year the beginning of sound cinema. The absence of music takes you to feel, inevitably, tension and discomfort into the story, as its function in film is to increase character’s emotion. Soundtrack absence generates tension and spectators only can expect terror developments. But while Dracula Untold has an
Count dracula preparing for battle, Dracula untold
Hypnotizing look, Dracula 1931
