Halloween Horrors: HORROR OF DRACULA

HORROR OF DRACULA  (1958)
Directed by Terence Fisher
Starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh, John Van Eyssen, Charles Lloyd Pack, Valerie Gaunt
Not Rated (contains PG-13-level vampire violence and horror).
SCAREmeter: 4.5/10
GOREmeter: 5/10
OVERALL: 3.5 out of 4 stars

There are two major sources of classic horror cinema; the "Universal Monsters" of Universal Studios from 1923 and through the late 1950s, and "Hammer Horror" of Hammer Film Production, which retold many of the same or otherwise similar stories from 1957 through 1974.  Hammer Horror accompanied the "British Invasion cultural phenomenon in the 1960s, and made international stars out of actors like Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Michael Gough.  Before the European New Wave would introduce realistic gore and real world-environments to the horror genre with movies like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) and ROSEMARY'S BABY (1969), Hammer Horror reinvigorated the stolid horror genre by injected it with sex and fluorescent Technicolor-red blood.
While it was 1957's THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN that marked Hammer's first foray into color horror and began their successful relationship with the Gothic macabre, their 1958 follow-up with an even (slightly) more famous monster, DRACULA, released in the United States as HORROR OF DRACULA (to avoid confusion with Universal's 1931 classic, which was in continuing re-release), is probably their most famous and popular film, and cemented Christopher Lee's status as a horror movie icon.
HORROR OF DRACULA is a far looser adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic novel than the 1931 Universal film, and trimmed very lean from its source, removing most of the stage-setting and obligatory skepticism of the supernatural, and instead leaps right in.  Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) arrives at the castle of Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) in Romania as the Count's new librarian, but it is soon revealed, by whatever the case, that Harker is already perfectly aware of Dracula's vampiric state of being and is planning to kill him.  But Dracula has a Bride with him (Valerie Gaunt), and to the Count's displeasure, she infects Harker with a bite.  Later, Harker hides his journal for his colleague, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) to find, before he descends into Dracula's crypts and hammers a stake into the heart of the Bride, but is overcome by the Count himself.  Van Helsing makes his way to Romania and finds the journal and sets about finishing Harker's work, including slaying the now-vampiric Harker himself.  Van Helsing returns to England to inform Harker's fiancee, Lucy Holmwood (Carol Marsh), and her brother, Arthur (Michael Gough) and his wife, Mina (Melissa Stribling) of Harker's misfortune.  As vengeance for the death of his Bride, however, Dracula has arrived in England as well, and intends to take the Holmwood women as his new vampiric concubines.
While Bela Lugosi performance in the 1931 Universal film remains probably the most influential movie vampire ever, and clearly influenced the look of Christopher Lee's Dracula as well, Lee's has achieved an iconic status of its own, and we have this movie to thank for establishing the tradition Halloween vampire look with the plastic fangs and streamlines of blood that drip from the mouth.  And while Lugosi's Dracula remains so famous for his trademark speech pattern and Romanian accent, Lee makes an indelible impact with only 13 lines of dialogue and relatively little screen time, woven in and out of the film for only the most necessary appearances.
Hammer's DRACULA is a great romantic in the pantheon of Stoker adaptations, with sexy vampires, a booming score, European grandeur and a stand-out kill that takes a cue from F.W. Murnau's German Expressionist classic and unauthorized Dracula-adaptation NOSFERATU (1922).
While still far short of the gory details of later films such as Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 version, it's also a leap from the super-repressed Universal classic that is almost entirely absent of blood save for a momentary finger cut.  Stakes are hammered into squealing vampires as blood oozes up and there's a fantastic moment of a vampire cooked by the sun, using now-primitive special effects.  The opening title is very memorable, as the camera creeps down into the castle crypts wherein are old coffins, one labeled, "Dracula" for the title card of sorts, as bright red blood then dribbles onto it.
The start is a little slow, and even a tad confusing in some cases, especially if you already know the story pretty well, as it re-writes much of it, not for the worse, but it's a minor obstacle for some.  By the later half of the film though, things really get moving, with some of the best cinematic Dracula moments.  It holds its own against the many, many cinematic versions of the oft-adapted story, with simplicity and smarts.