Dracula

In Depth Analysis

2010-09-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Did Bram Stoker base his Dracula upon the historical Dracula?
Although it is widely assumed, even among scholars, that Bram Stoker based his novel upon the historical figure of Vlad Tepes, there is at least one prominent scholar who challenges this assumption. Her name is Elizabeth Miller, a professor with the Department of English at Memorial University of Newfoundland. More>>

Dracula Themes
The Consequences of Modernity
The Threat of Female Sexual Expression

The Promise of Christian Salvation

More>>

Dracula Motifs
Blood
Science and Superstition
Christian Iconography
More>>

Dracula Symbols
The Weird Sisters

The Stake Driven Through Lucy’s Heart

The Czarina Catherine

More>>

Vlad III Dracula Count Dracula Dracula Novel Vampire Movies Other Vampires Vampire Games Dracula Travel Gallery

Dracula Art Gallery

Dracula Novel - Characters List

Dracula Travels

The Vampire Diaries

2010-09-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Vampire Diaries returns for the second season with fun-filled episodes that even newbies to the series can appreciate. It’s True Blood, minus the truly disturbing sex scenes and overbearing “historical” accuracies. It’s Twilight, plus better actors and weekly installments.

Let Me In

2010-07-26T04:18:00.000-07:00

Let Me In Red Band Trailer

If you are like me, you always worry when you hear that there will be yet another US adaptation of an European or Asian movie. This was my exact feeling about the US adoration of the cult Swedish vampire movie Let The Right One In.

Worry no more, the scenes from the new movie, Let Me In are great, and the acting is incredible. Plus, it goes back to the original book for source material. Like the book and Swedish movie, it's set in the 1980s. And the new director Matt Reeves chose to locate it in the snowy winter of Los Alamos, New Mexico. On the Let Me In panel at Comic-Con, Reeves said that he wanted the movie to be set against the backdrop of Reagan's Cold War America, where "evil," and "fighting evil," were part of the national discourse.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Priest

2010-07-25T02:03:00.000-07:00

Priest - the movie looks more exciting up, with its vampires and warrior. At San Diego Comic Con 2010, Stewart and Tartakovsky presented an amazing animated prologue for the movie Priest, as they wanted to use the animated sequence as a chance to explore the history of the Priest world, a universe where humans and vampires have been at war for centuries. In particular, Stewart jumped at the chance to portray this type of adult material via the traditional hand-drawn 2D animation that Tartakovsky specializes in. That would include blood and violence and vampires and war.

Stewart promises that the film will be a "really different take on vampire mythology," and that the project was the chance to create a world that was both unique yet familiar. It got us interested. We will all keep an eye on this one.

Carmilla-Mircalla's Dracula Art Project

2010-07-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

We present you Carmilla-Mircalla's Dracula Art Project, the result of an year of study and hard work, an inspirational project prepared for her thesis. The project is a lovely traditional work in ink, pastels and watercolors.

Dracula coachman

Lucy Westenra

Old Dracula

Mina Murray

Transylvanian woman

Transylvanian man

Ranfield

John Seward

Jonathan Harker

Dracula

Van Helsing

Quincey Morris

Lucy Westenra

True Blood

2010-07-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

True Blood Season Finale
Sookie gives careful consideration to a life without vampires of any kind. While secretly planning a perfect payback for Russell, Eric deals with his feelings of right and wrong. Tommy's latest overstepping boundaries leaves Sam in a rage.

The True Blood San Diego Comic-Con 2010 panel was a great place to see. Series creator Alan Ball showed the six thousand fans on hand some great new footage of upcoming scenes. He also confirmed that there will be a forth season of True Blood. We hope for many more.

True Blood

Underworld 4

2010-07-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

Underworld 4

Underworld's creator Len Wiseman, confirmed at the San Diego Comic-Con that his wife Kate Beckinsale, who played the main charted in the first two movies,will return to the franchise for the forth movie.

The Walking Dead TV series

2010-07-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

New The Walking Dead Red Band Trailer

Robert Kirkman & Frank Darabont present The Walking Dead TV series for AMC, in which police officer Rick Grimes leads a group of survivors in a world overrun by zombies.

30 Days of Night: Dark Days

2010-07-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

New 30 Days of Night: Dark Days Red Band Trailer

Vampire comics are big in San Diego right now. Even bigger? Vampire comic book adaptations.
Catch your first look at the 30 Days of Night sequel: Dark Day.

Ireland

2010-07-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

Clontarf - Bram Stoker was born in 1847 at 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf. As a boy the author used to spend hours playing in that graveyard and St. Michan's Church, where the Stoker family had a burial vault.

Trinity College, Dublin - Bram Stoker attended Trinity College from 1864 to 1870. He graduated with honours in mathematics. He was auditor of the College Historical Society and president of the University Philosophical Society, where his first paper was on "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society".

Back to Travel page

UK

2010-07-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

Slains Castle - Bram Stoker had never been to Transylvania, so he based his description of Dracula's Castle on castels he has seen in UK. Bram Stoker was staying in a hotel in Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, when he heard of nearby Slains Castle, which became transformed in the “castle of the dead”.

Whitby - Dracula arrives in England at Whitby. In this coastal town, Stoker spent his holidays. The story of the boat was taken from newspaper reports, such as that of August 11, 1890, which read that a Russian Schooner from the Black Sea had run ashore in Whitby. It is clear that Stoker rewrote these genuine newspaper reports in his novel. In Whitby you can visit the "Whitby Civic Society", where Barm Stoker stayed between 1890 and 1896.

London - After slaying a victim in the town, Count Dracula then moves south to London; it was the voyage Stoker himself made upon his return from his holidays. Stoker also moved in the mundane circles of London and he used this in the novel too.

Highgate Cemetery is believed by many to form the backdrop for the climax of the novel. In the novel, friends of Lucy Westenra decide to stop her suffering as an undead. Her friends thus convene in a pub, Jack Straw’s Castle. The pub still exists.

Though believed to be in nearby Highgate Cemetery, it has been shown that the voyage from Hampstead to Highgate does not correspond with the descriptions given in the book. Lucy’s “real” tomb was likely placed in Hendon Cemetery, in the opposite direction. In Hendon Cemetery, there is indeed a strange mausoleum, which perfectly fits the descriptions of Stoker’s novel. In reality, it is the tomb of Philip Rundall, a prominent member of Hendon’s community, who died in 1827. So, we recommend visiting both cemeteries.

Back to Travel page

Transylvania

2010-07-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

The Isle of Snagov and the Snagov Monastery - Cross a moat by rowboat to arrive at Vlad's tomb. The richly dressed corpse, exhumed in 1931, had been decapitated. In the place of a human skeleton were the bones of an animal.

Bran Castle - is a dark, gloomy edifice towering over a bed of stone, gruesome yet beautiful as a preserved fortress. The castle, built in 1377, is an important national monument and landmark of Transylvania, due not only to the majestic beauty of the castle and the uncanny landscape, but also to the legend of Count Dracula. In the park area, there is a open-air gypsy bazaar where you will find the best selection of Dracula dolls, shirts, souvenirs & memorabilia in Transylvania.

Brasov - one of three major centers in Transylvania established in Vlad's time. It was in Brasov that Vlad enjoyed his meals while hundreds of villagers died on stakes at the base of Timpa Hill. Also, don't miss to visit the "Black Church".

Sighisoara - the best preserved medieval town in all of Europe, and birthplace of Vlad. Visit the gory Torture room and Witch's Trial, the outdoor grave sites and historic Clock Tower.

The Borgo Pass - you will pass rivers, trees, swamps and mountains, capturing the essence of Harker's trail through the Carpethian Mountains

Poenari Castle - most Dracula purists consider the Poenari Castle to be the true Castle of Dracula. The Citadel was built in 1459 by Turkish prisoners and served as a fortress for Vlad Dracula and his family. It also provided the Romanians with a nearly unreachable point of defense in guarding the entrance to the Arges Valley.

Hunedoara Castle - Vlad III Dracula was imprisoned in the Hunedoara Castle (1462) by the king Matthias Corvin. After 7 years Vlad Dracula was recognized at the court to be an devoted ally.

Back to Travel page

Vampire: The Requiem

2010-07-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

Vampire: The Requiem is a role-playing game published by White Wolf, set in the World of Darkness, and the successor to the Vampire: The Masquerade line. It was first released in August 2004, together with a new core rule book for the World of Darkness. Although it is an entirely new game, rather than a continuation of the previous editions, it uses many elements from the old game in its construction, including some of the clans and their powers. The game's title is a metaphor for the way vampires within the game view their life.

Although it can be considered a full game in itself, Vampire: The Requiem requires the World of Darkness corebook for use.

The game takes place in modern-day earth where vampires form complex societies hidden from human awareness. Vampires that share common physical powers and qualities group themselves into "clans", but they also join "covenants" along religious, political or philosophical lines (a player's covenant is generally more important to his character than his clan). These groups differ radically in purpose and outlook and are often in conflict, though one principle they agree upon is that they must hide their existence from humans.

Vampires are unliving humans created when a vampire drains a human dry of blood and then feeds the corpse a few drops of its own vampiric blood. This process is deliberate and draining for the sire, so vampires do not procreate often.

Vampires generally dwell in large cities, where they can find plenty of prey and easily remain inconspicuous. Vampires do not need to kill humans to steal blood; humans go into a trance when a vampire feeds on them and do not remember the moment, and a vampire can erase the bite marks it made by licking them. Every evening, their bodies consume a portion of their stored blood in order to rise from their daytime slumber - a vampire will enter an extended period of torpor if it does not have any blood.

Back to Tabletop RPG Games

Vampire: The Masquerade

2010-07-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

Vampire: The Masquerade is a role-playing game. Created by Mark Rein·Hagen, it was the first of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness live-action and role-playing games, based on the Storyteller System and centered around vampires in a modern gothic-punk world.

The game uses the cursed and immortal Vampiric condition as a backdrop to explore themes of morality, depravity, the human condition (or appreciation of the human condition in its absence), salvation, and personal horror. The gloomy version of the real world that the Vampires inhabit, called "The World of Darkness", forms an already bleak canvas against which the stories and struggles of characters are painted. The themes that the game seeks to address include retaining the character's sense of self, humanity, and sanity, as well as simply keeping from being crushed by the grim opposition of mortal and supernatural antagonists and, more poignantly, surviving the politics, treachery and often violent ambitions of their own kind.

Each Vampire belongs to a distinct clan or bloodline. These groupings share distinct characteristics, powers and curses. The Nosferatu, for example, all share the disciplines of Animalism, Obfuscate and Potence and the curse of disfiguring appearance. A bloodline is a distinct split from the main clans, as the curse of Caine is changed over time, representing new expressions of vampirism. Some bloodlines, such as the Gargoyles, are artificially created through applications of Thaumaturgy. The Caitiff are an exception to the rule, as they are considered clanless sharing no disciplines and curse, they are viewed as a disquieting sign of the coming armageddon.

Back to Tabletop RPG Games

Vampire PC and Console Games

2010-07-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption

Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption is a great-looking action-packed role-playing game based on the White Wolf pen-and-paper RPG. It's got a great premise and an ambitious design, but the game is mired by its repetitive and often frustrating combat, ill-fated design decisions, and forgettable characters and story. More>>

Vampire Hunters

Vampire Rain

Playing Splinter Cell with vampires isn't as cool in reality as it is on paper. Despite an absolutely fantastic concept that transforms Sam Fisher's spies and saboteurs into postmodern bloodsuckers called Nightwalkers, insta-death difficulty and confusing level design make Vampire Rain nearly unplayable. More>>

Back to the Games page

Dracula PC and Console Games

2010-07-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

Dracula: Origin

Dracula 3: Path of the Dragon

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles

Dracula Twins

Dracula Twins has you playing as the children of Dracula, Drac and his twin sis Dracana, on a quest to save their kidnapped father from the evil Dr. Lifelust.

Well, we say you should check out this demo that lets you check out the first seven levels of this side-scrolling action adventure game. More>>

Dracula - Undead Awakening

Back to the Games page

Tabletop RPG Games

2010-07-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

The Dresden Files Tabletop RPG
Characters in the world of the Dresden Files will face only the limits of your imagination. Players will be able to pick up the series characters and run games with them, or create their own characters — wizards, vampires, werewolves, faeries, holy knights, mafia dons, occult cops, ninja librarians, and more.

Vampire: The Masquerade
Vampire: The Masquerade is a role-playing game. Created by Mark Rein·Hagen, it was the first of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness live-action and role-playing games, based on the Storyteller System and centered around vampires in a modern gothic-punk world. More>>

Vampire: The Requiem
Vampire: The Requiem. It is a Modern Gothic Storytelling game, a roleplaying game that allows you to build chronicles that explore morality through the metaphor of vampirism. In Vampire, you “play the monster,” and what you do as that monster both makes for an interesting story and might even teach you a little about your own values and those of your fellows. More>>

Back to the Games page

The Dresden Files RPG

2010-07-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

The Dresden Files are a series of novels written by Jim Butcher, following the cases of Harry Dresden, modern-day Chicago’s only openly practicing wizard (and private eye). Harry spends much of his time strapped for cash, surrounded by friends and foes both fierce and dangerous, and does what he can to carve out a little corner of sanity in the world. Occasionally this has meant saving the world. But more often it’s just meant surviving long enough to get the check cashed at the bank.

Harry’s world is a dark place, shot through with silvery veins of hope. Mankind is prey here to all manner of nasty creatures from beyond the world, out of the other-place called the Nevernever. But mortal humans also hold that most precious right of all — the ability to choose their fates, truly and fully. And thankfully for all of us, some of them choose to fight back the darkness.

Would that it were so for the rest of humanity. Man, as a whole, is blind to the supernatural. It’s not because of some strange and profound magic. Worse. It’s because man uses that power of choice to its most insidious end: man chooses to ignore what he cannot understand. And so the dark forces of the Nevernever work their ways upon us all — and few, if any, will admit to themselves that it’s happening.

It’s not just the wizards of the White Council who have chosen to face down the worst the Nevernever has to offer. You’ll find them in all corners of Chicago, from all walks of life. The cops in Chicago P.D.’s Special Investigations may get the shaft on their beat, but they’re some of the few who carry a badge and know what to do when a demon tosses a dumpster at their heads. In the criminal underworld, Mafia don Gentleman Johnny Marcone walks the middle line — sometimes he’ll strike a deal with the forces of darkness, and other times he’ll empty an automatic rifle into it, depending on what’s good for business. And three Knights of the Cross take up the armor of faith to free the innocent from evil.

The Weird Sisters

The three beautiful vampires Harker encounters in Dracula’s castle are both his dream and his nightmare—indeed, they embody both the dream and the nightmare of the Victorian male imagination in general. The sisters represent what the Victorian ideal stipulates women should not be—voluptuous and sexually aggressive—thus making their beauty both a promise of sexual fulfillment and a curse. These women offer Harker more sexual gratification in two paragraphs than his fiancée Mina does during the course of the entire novel. However, this sexual proficiency threatens to undermine the foundations of a male-dominated society by compromising men’s ability to reason and maintain control. For this reason, the sexually aggressive women in the novel must be destroyed.

The Stake Driven Through Lucy’s Heart

Arthur Holmwood buries a stake deep in Lucy’s heart in order to kill the demon she has become and to return her to the state of purity and innocence he so values. The language with which Stoker describes this violent act is unmistakably sexual, and the stake is an unambiguous symbol for the penis. In this way, it is fitting that the blow comes from Lucy’s fiancé, Arthur Holmwood: Lucy is being punished not only for being a vampire, but also for being available to the vampire’s seduction—Dracula, we recall, only has the power to attack willing victims. When Holmwood slays the demonic Lucy, he returns her to the role of a legitimate, monogamous lover, which reinvests his fiancée with her initial Victorian virtue.

The Czarina Catherine

The Czarina Catherine is the name of the ship in which Dracula flees England and journeys back to his homeland. The name of ship is taken from the Russian empress who was notorious for her -promiscuity. This reference is particularly suggestive of the threat that hangs over Mina Harker’s head: should Van Helsing and his men fail, she will be transformed into the same creature of appetites as Lucy.

source SparkNotes

Dracula Motifs

2010-07-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

Blood

Blood functions in many ways in the novel. Its first mention, in Chapter III, comes when the count tells Harker that “blood is too precious a thing in these days of dishonorable peace; and the -glories of the great races are as a tale that is told.” The count proudly recounts his family history, relating blood to one’s ancestry—to the “great races” that have, in Dracula’s view, withered. The count foretells the coming of a war between lineages: between the East and the West, the ancient and the modern, and the evil and the good.

Later, the depictions of Dracula and his minions feeding on blood suggest the exchange of bodily fluids associated with sexual intercourse: Lucy is “drained” to the point of nearly passing out after the count penetrates her. The vampires’ drinking of blood echoes the Christian rite of Communion, but in a perverted sense. Rather than gain eternal spiritual life by consuming wine that has been blessed to symbolize Christ’s blood, Dracula drinks actual human blood in order to extend his physical—but quite soulless—life. The importance of blood in Christian mythology elevates the battle between Van Helsing’s warriors and the count to the significance of a holy war or crusade.

Science and Superstition

We notice the stamp of modernity almost immediately when the focus of the novel shifts to England. Dr. Seward records his diary on a phonograph, Mina Murray practices typewriting on a newfangled machine, and so on. Indeed, the whole of England seems willing to walk into a future of progress and advancement. While the peasants of Transylvania busily bless one another against the evil eye at their roadside shrines, Mr. Swales, the poor Englishman whom Lucy and Mina meet in the Whitby cemetery, has no patience for such unfounded superstitions as ghosts and monsters. The threat Dracula poses to London hinges, in large part, on the advance of modernity. Advances in science have caused the English to dismiss the reality of the very superstitions, such as Dracula, that seek to undo their society. Van Helsing bridges this divide: equipped with the unique knowledge of both the East and the West, he represents the best hope of understanding the incomprehensible and ridding the world of evil.

Christian Iconography

The icons of Christian, and particularly Catholic, worship appear throughout the novel with great frequency. In the early chapters, the peasants of Eastern Europe offer Jonathan Harker crucifixes to steel him against the malevolence that awaits him. Later, Van Helsing arrives armed with crosses and Communion wafers. The frequency with which Stoker returns to these images frames Van Helsing’s mission as an explicitly religious one. He is, as he says near the end of the novel, nothing less than a “minister of God’s own wish.”

Read further Dracula Symbols

source SparkNotes

Dracula Themes

2010-07-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

Victorian Age by nati

The Consequences of Modernity

Early in the novel, as Harker becomes uncomfortable with his lodgings and his host at Castle Dracula, he notes that “unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere ‘modernity’ cannot kill.” Here, Harker voices one of the central concerns of the Victorian era. The end of the nineteenth century brought drastic developments that forced English society to question the systems of belief that had governed it for centuries. Darwin’s theory of evolution, for instance, called the validity of long-held sacred religious doctrines into question. Likewise, the Industrial Revolution brought profound economic and social change to the previously agrarian England.

Though Stoker begins his novel in a ruined castle—a traditional Gothic setting—he soon moves the action to Victorian London, where the advancements of modernity are largely responsible for the ease with which the count preys upon English society. When Lucy falls victim to Dracula’s spell, neither Mina nor Dr. Seward—both devotees of modern advancements—are equipped even to guess at the cause of Lucy’s predicament. Only Van Helsing, whose facility with modern medical techniques is tempered with open-mindedness about ancient legends and non-Western folk remedies, comes close to understanding Lucy’s affliction.

In Chapter XVII, when Van Helsing warns Seward that “to rid the earth of this terrible monster we must have all the knowledge and all the help which we can get,” he literally means all the knowledge. Van Helsing works not only to understand modern Western methods, but to incorporate the ancient and foreign schools of thought that the modern West dismisses. “It is the fault of our science,” he says, “that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.” Here, Van Helsing points to the dire consequences of subscribing only to contemporary currents of thought. Without an understanding of history—indeed, without different understandings of history—the world is left terribly vulnerable when history inevitably repeats itself.

The Threat of Female Sexual Expression

Most critics agree that Dracula is, as much as anything else, a novel that indulges the Victorian male imagination, particularly regarding the topic of female sexuality. In Victorian England, women’s sexual behavior was dictated by society’s extremely rigid expectations. A Victorian woman effectively had only two options: she was either a virgin—a model of purity and innocence—or else she was a wife and mother. If she was neither of these, she was considered a whore, and thus of no consequence to society.

By the time Dracula lands in England and begins to work his evil magic on Lucy Westenra, we understand that the impending battle between good and evil will hinge upon female sexuality. Both Lucy and Mina are less like real people than two-dimensional embodiments of virtues that have, over the ages, been coded as female. Both women are chaste, pure, innocent of the world’s evils, and devoted to their men. But Dracula threatens to turn the two women into their opposites, into women noted for their voluptuousness—a word Stoker turns to again and again—and unapologetically open sexual desire.

Dracula succeeds in transforming Lucy, and once she becomes a raving vampire vixen, Van Helsing’s men see no other option than to destroy her, in order to return her to a purer, more socially respectable state. After Lucy’s transformation, the men keep a careful eye on Mina, worried they will lose yet another model of Victorian womanhood to the dark side. The men are so intensely invested in the women’s sexual behavior because they are afraid of associating with the socially scorned. In fact, the men fear for nothing less than their own safety. Late in the novel, Dracula mocks Van Helsing’s crew, saying, “Your girls that you all love are mine already; and through them you and others shall yet be mine.” Here, the count voices a male fantasy that has existed since Adam and Eve were turned out of Eden: namely, that women’s ungovernable desires leave men poised for a costly fall from grace.

The Promise of Christian Salvation

The folk legends and traditions Van Helsing draws upon suggest that the most effective weapons in combating supernatural evil are symbols of unearthly good. Indeed, in the fight against Dracula, these symbols of good take the form of the icons of Christian faith, such as the crucifix. The novel is so invested in the strength and power of these Christian symbols that it reads, at times, like a propagandistic Christian promise of salvation.

Dracula, practically as old as religion itself, stands as a satanic figure, most obviously in his appearance—pointed ears, fangs, and flaming eyes—but also in his consumption of blood. Dracula’s bloodthirstiness is a perversion of Christian ritual, as it extends his physical life but cuts him off from any form of spiritual existence. Those who fall under the count’s spell, including Lucy Westenra and the three “weird sisters,” find themselves cursed with physical life that is eternal but soulless. Stoker takes pains to emphasize the consequences of these women’s destruction.

Though they have preyed on helpless children and have sought to bring others into their awful brood, each of the women meets a death that conforms to the Christian promise of salvation. The undead Lucy, for instance, is transformed by her second death into a vision of “unequalled sweetness and purity,” and her soul is returned to her, as is a “holy calm” that “was to reign for ever.” Even the face of Dracula himself assumes “a look of peace, such as [Mina] never could have imagined might have rested there.” Stoker presents a particularly liberal vision of salvation in his implication that the saved need not necessarily be believers. In Dracula, all of the dead are granted the unparalleled peace of salvation—only the “Un-Dead” are barred from it.

Read further Dracula Motifs

source SparkNotes

Dracula Plot Overview

2010-07-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

Lucy Westenra by

Carmilla-Mircalla

Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, travels to Castle Dracula in the Eastern European country of Transylvania to conclude a real estate transaction with a nobleman named Count Dracula. As Harker wends his way through the picturesque countryside, the local peasants warn him about his destination, giving him crucifixes and other charms against evil and uttering strange words that Harker later translates into “vampire.”

Frightened but no less determined, Harker meets the count’s carriage as planned. The journey to the castle is harrowing, and the carriage is nearly attacked by angry wolves along the way. Upon arriving at the crumbling old castle, Harker finds that the elderly Dracula is a well educated and hospitable gentleman. After only a few days, however, Harker realizes that he is effectively a prisoner in the castle.

The more Harker investigates the nature of his confinement, the more uneasy he becomes. He realizes that the count possesses supernatural powers and diabolical ambitions. One evening, Harker is nearly attacked by three beautiful and seductive female vampires, but the count staves them off, telling the vampires that Harker belongs to him. Fearing for his life, Harker attempts to escape from the castle by climbing down the walls.

Meanwhile, in England, Harker’s fiancée, Mina Murray, corresponds with her friend Lucy Westenra. Lucy has received marriage proposals from three men—Dr. John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, and an American named Quincey Morris. Though saddened by the fact that she must reject two of these suitors, Lucy accepts Holmwood’s proposal.

Mina visits Lucy at the seaside town of Whitby. A Russian ship is wrecked on the shore near the town with all its crew missing and its captain dead. The only sign of life aboard is a large dog that bounds ashore and disappears into the countryside; the only cargo is a set of fifty boxes of earth shipped from Castle Dracula. Not long after, Lucy suddenly begins sleepwalking. One night, Mina finds Lucy in the town cemetery and believes she sees a dark form with glowing red eyes bending over Lucy. Lucy becomes pale and ill, and she bears two tiny red marks at her throat, for which -neither Dr. Seward nor Mina can account. Unable to arrive at a satisfactory diagnosis, Dr. Seward sends for his old mentor, Professor Van Helsing.

Suffering from brain fever, Harker reappears in the city of Buda-Pest. Mina goes to join him. Van Helsing arrives in Whitby, and, after his initial examination of Lucy, orders that her chambers be covered with garlic—a traditional charm against vampires. For a time, this effort seems to stave off Lucy’s illness. She begins to recover, but her mother, unaware of the garlic’s power, unwittingly removes the odiferous plants from the room, leaving Lucy vulnerable to further attack.

Seward and Van Helsing spend several days trying to revive Lucy, performing four blood transfusions. Their efforts ultimately come to nothing. One night, the men momentarily let down their guard, and a wolf breaks into the Westenra house. The shock gives Lucy’s mother a fatal heart attack, and the wolf attacks Lucy, killing her.

After Lucy’s death, Van Helsing leads Holmwood, Seward, and Quincey Morris to her tomb. Van Helsing convinces the other men that Lucy belongs to the “Un-Dead”—in other words, she has been transformed into a vampire like Dracula. The men remain unconvinced until they see Lucy preying on a defenseless child, which convinces them that she must be destroyed. They agree to follow the ritual of vampire slaying to ensure that Lucy’s soul will return to eternal rest. While the undead Lucy sleeps, Holmwood plunges a stake through her heart. The men then cut off her head and stuff her mouth with garlic. After this deed is done, they pledge to destroy Dracula himself.

Now married, Mina and Jonathan return to England and join forces with the others. Mina helps Van Helsing collect the various diary and journal entries that Harker, Seward, and the others have written, attempting to piece together a narrative that will lead them to the count. Learning all they can of Dracula’s affairs, Van Helsing and his band track down the boxes of earth that the count uses as a sanctuary during the night from Dracula’s castle. Their efforts seem to be going well, but then one of Dr. Seward’s mental patients, Renfield, lets Dracula into the asylum where the others are staying, allowing the count to prey upon Mina.

As Mina begins the slow change into a vampire, the men sterilize the boxes of earth, forcing Dracula to flee to the safety of his native Transylvania. The men pursue the count, dividing their forces and tracking him across land and sea. Van Helsing takes Mina with him, and they cleanse Castle Dracula by killing the three female vampires and sealing the entrances with sacred objects. The others catch up with the count just as he is about to reach his castle, and Jonathan and Quincey use knives to destroy him.

source SparkNotes

Dracula Context

2010-07-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

Bram Stoker

Bram Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1847. The son of a civil servant, Stoker was a sickly child. Stoker’s mother, a charity worker and writer, spent a good deal of time entertaining her son with fantastic tales. Stoker went on to study math at Trinity College and graduated in 1867, at which time he joined the Irish civil service. He also worked as a freelance journalist and drama critic, which enabled him to meet the legendary stage actor Henry Irving. The two men became lifelong friends, and Stoker managed Irving’s theater from 1878 until Irving’s death in 1905. Stoker married an aspiring actress, Florence Balcombe, and the couple had one son, Noel, who was born in 1879. Stoker moved to London in order to oversee Irving’s theater, and he fell into the city’s literary circles, which included figures such as Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Stoker’s early fiction is not of particularly high quality. He wrote short stories for children and then a first novel, The Snake’s Pass (1890), which was unsuccessful. Stoker’s fortunes changed in 1897 with the publication of Dracula, which still stands as his greatest -literary achievement. Although the novel was not an immediate popular success, it has been in print continuously since its first publication and has inspired countless films and other literary works. Stoker continued to write until his death in 1912, producing several adventure novels, including The Jewel of Seven Stars ( 1904) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).

Vampire legends have been a part of popular folklore in many parts of the world since ancient times. Throughout the Middle Ages and even into the modern era, reports of corpses rising from the dead with supernatural powers achieved widespread credence. The Dracula family, which Stoker’s count describes with pride in the early chapters of the novel, is based on a real fifteenth-century family. Its most famous member, Vlad Dracula—or Vlad the Impaler, as he was commonly known—enjoyed a bloody career that rivaled that of his fictional counterpart. The Prince of Wallachia, Vlad was a brilliant and notoriously savage general who impaled his enemies on long spikes. The prince also had a reputation for murdering beggars, forcing women to eat their babies, and nailing the turbans of disrespectful ambassadors to their heads. While Stoker’s Count Dracula is supposed to be a descendant of Vlad, and not the prince himself, Stoker clearly makes the count resemble his fearsome ancestor. This historical allusion gives Dracula a semblance of truth, and, as the Author’s Note and the coda make clear, Stoker wants to suggest that the documents assembled in the novel are real.

Stoker also relies heavily on the conventions of Gothic fiction, a genre that was extremely popular in the early nineteenth century. Gothic fiction traditionally includes elements such as gloomy castles, sublime landscapes, and innocent maidens threatened by ineffable evil. Stoker modernizes this tradition in his novel, however, moving from the conventional setting of Dracula’s ruined castle into the bustle of modern England. As Stoker portrays the collision of two disparate worlds—the count’s ancient Transylvania and the protagonist’s modern London—he lays bare many of the anxieties that characterized his age: the repercussions of scientific advancement, the consequences of abandoning traditional beliefs, and the dangers of female sexuality. To this day, Dracula remains a fascinating study of popular attitudes toward sex, religion, and science at the end of the nineteenth century.

source SparkNotes

Count Dracula's Biography

2010-07-20T08:27:00.000-07:00

Dracula by Thunderlips

Count Dracula (his first name is never given in the novel) is a centuries-old vampire, sorcerer and Transylvanian nobleman, who claims to be a Székely descended from Attila the Hun. He inhabits a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass. Contrary to the vampires of Eastern European folklore, which are portrayed as repulsive, corpse-like creatures, Dracula can exude a veneer of aristocratic charm which masks his unfathomable evil.

Details of his early life are obscure, but it seems that Dracula studied the black arts at the academy of Scholomance in the Carpathian Mountains, overlooking the town of Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt) and became proficient in alchemy and magic. Taking up arms, as befitting his rank and status as a Voivode, he led troops against the Turks across the Danube.

Dead and buried in a great tomb in the chapel of his castle, Dracula returns from death as a vampire and lives for several centuries in his castle with three beautiful female vampires, who lay similarly entombed in the chapel beside him. His relations with these so-called "Brides of Dracula" are intimate, and two of them seem to bear a possible family resemblance though whether they be his lovers, sisters, daughters or an incestuous combination of these, as some have conjectured, is not made clear in the narrative.

As the novel begins in the late 19th century, Dracula acts on a long contemplated plan for world domination, and infiltrates London to begin his reign of terror. He summons Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer. Dracula at first charms Harker with his cordiality and historical knowledge and even rescues him from the clutches of his three bloodthirsty brides. In truth, however, Dracula wishes to keep Harker alive just long enough for his legal transaction to finish and to learn as much as possible about England.

Dracula leaves his castle and boards a Russian ship, the Demeter, taking along with him boxes of Transylvanian soil, which he needs in order to regain his strength. During the voyage to Whitby, a coastal town in northern England, he sustains himself on the ship's crew members. Only one body is later found, that of the captain, who is found tied up to the ship's helm. The captain's log is recovered and tells of strange events that had taken place during the ship's journey. Dracula leaves the ship in the form of a wolf.

Soon the Count is menacing Harker's devoted fiancée, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and her vivacious friend, Lucy Westenra. There is also a notable link between Dracula and Renfield, a patient in an insane asylum compelled to consume insects, spiders, birds, and other creatures — in ascending order of size — in order to absorb their "life force". Renfield acts as a kind of sensor, reacting to Dracula's proximity and supplying clues accordingly. Dracula begins to visit Lucy's bed chamber on a nightly basis, draining her of blood while simultaneously infecting her with the curse of vampirism. Not knowing the cause for Lucy's deterioration, her companions call upon the Dutch doctor Van Helsing, the former mentor of one of Lucy's suitors. Van Helsing soon deduces her condition's supernatural origins, but does not speak out. Despite an attempt at keeping the vampire at bay with garlic, Dracula entices Lucy out of her chamber late at night and drains her blood, killing her and transforming her into one of the undead.

Van Helsing and a group of men enter Lucy's crypt and kill her reanimated corpse. They later enter Dracula's residence at Carfax, destroying his boxes of earth, depriving the Count of his ability to rest. Dracula leaves England to return to his homeland, but not before biting Mina.

The final section of the novel details the heroes racing Dracula back to Transylvania, and in a climactic battle with Dracula's gypsy bodyguards, destroying him. Despite the popular image of Dracula having a stake driven through his heart, Mina's narrative describes his throat being sliced through by Jonathan Harker's kukri knife and his heart pierced by Quincey Morris's Bowie knife (Mina Harker's Journal, 6 November, Dracula Chapter 27).

source Wikipedia

Analysis of Lucy Westenra

2010-07-20T05:35:00.000-07:00

Lucy Westenra by

Carmilla-Mircalla

In many ways, Lucy is much like her dear friend Mina. She is a paragon of virtue and innocence, qualities that draw not one but three suitors to her. Lucy differs from her friend in one crucial aspect, however—she is sexualized. Lucy’s physical beauty captivates each of her suitors, and she displays a comfort or playfulness about her desirability that Mina never feels. In an early letter to Mina, Lucy laments, “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?”

Although she chastises herself for this “heresy,” her statement indicates that she has desires that cannot be met. Stoker amplifies this faint whisper of Lucy’s insatiability to a monstrous volume when he describes the undead Lucy as a wanton creature of ravenous sexual appetite. In this demonic state, Lucy stands as a dangerous threat to men and their tenuous self-control, and therefore, she must be destroyed. Lucy’s death returns her to a more harmless state, fixing a look of purity on her face that assures men that the world and its women are exactly as they should be.

source SparkNotes

Back to the characters list

Analysis of Mina Murray

2010-07-20T05:19:00.000-07:00

Mina Murray by Carmilla-Mircalla

Mina Murray is the ultimate Victorian woman. Van Helsing’s praise of Mina testifies to the fact that she is indeed the embodiment of the virtues of the age. She is “one of God’s women, fashioned by His own hand to show us men and other women that there is a heaven where we can enter, and that its light can be here on earth. So true, so sweet, so noble. . . .” Mina stands as the model of domestic propriety, an assistant schoolmistress who dutifully studies newfangled machines like the typewriter so as to be useful to her husband. Unlike Lucy, she is not most noteworthy for her physical beauty, which spares Mina her friend’s fate of being transformed into a voluptuous she-devil.

Mina’s sexuality remains enigmatic throughout the whole of Dracula. Though she marries, she never gives voice to anything resembling a sexual desire or impulse, which enables her to retain her purity. Indeed, the entire second half of the novel concerns the issue of Mina’s purity. Stoker creates suspense about whether Mina, like Lucy, will be lost. Given that Dracula means to use women to access the men of England, Mina’s loss could have terrifying repercussions.

We might expect that Mina, who sympathizes with the boldly progressive “New Women” of England, would be doomed to suffer Lucy’s fate as punishment for her progressiveness. But Stoker instead fashions Mina into a goddess of conservative male fantasy. Though resourceful and intelligent enough to conduct the research that leads Van Helsing’s crew to the count, Mina is far from a “New Woman” herself. Rather, she is a dutiful wife and mother, and her successes are always in the service of men. Mina’s moral perfection remains as stainless, in the end, as her forehead.

source SparkNotes
Back to the characters list

Analysis of Van Helsing

2010-07-20T05:06:00.000-07:00


Van Helsing by Carmilla-Mircalla

Old Professor Van Helsing is an experienced, competent man, but due to the unfortunately unskilled manner in which Stoker renders Van Helsing’s speech, he often comes across as somewhat bumbling. Nevertheless, Van Helsing emerges as a well-matched adversary to the count, and he is initially the only character who possesses a mind open enough to contemplate and address Dracula’s particular brand of evil.

A doctor, philosopher, and metaphysician, Van Helsing arrives on the scene versed not only in the modern methods of Western medicine, but with an unparalleled knowledge of superstitions and folk remedies. He straddles two distinct worlds, the old and the new: the first marked by fearful respect for tradition, the second by ever-progressing modernity. Unlike his former pupil, Dr. Seward, whose obsession with modern techniques blinds him to the real nature of Lucy’s sickness, Van Helsing not only diagnoses the young girl’s affliction correctly, but offers her the only opportunity for a cure.

Like many of the other characters, Van Helsing is relatively static, as he undergoes no great change or development throughout the course of the novel. Having helped rid the Earth of the count’s evil, he departs as he arrived: morally righteous and religiously committed. Van Helsing views his pursuit of Dracula with an air of grandiosity. He envisions his band as “ministers of God’s own wish,” and assures his comrades that “we go out as the old knights of the Cross to redeem more.” Hyperbole aside, Stoker portrays Van Helsing as the embodiment of unswerving good, the hero he recruits “to set the world free.”

source SparkNotes
Back to the characters list

Analysis of Count Dracula

2010-07-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

Dracula by

Carmilla-Mircalla

Late in the novel, when Dracula escapes from Van Helsing and company at his Piccadilly house, the count declares, “My revenge is just begun!” It is not immediately clear for what offense Dracula must obtain revenge, but the most convincing answer comes in the opening chapters, when Dracula relates the proud but disappointing history of his family. In Chapter III, he speaks of the “brave races who fought as the lion fights, for lordship.” The count notes the power his people once held, but laments the fact that the “warlike days are over.”

Although he retains his lordship in Transylvania, the world around him has changed and grown significantly—the “glories” of days gone by now belong to other families and other races. Indeed, when the count discusses “the crowded streets of your mighty London,” we sense that he lusts for power and conquest: “I long . . . to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is. But alas!” In this light, Dracula becomes not simply a creature of fathomless evil. Rather, he is a somewhat sympathetic and more human creation, determined to regain his family’s lost power and subject the world to his own dark, brutal vision.

source SparkNotes
Back to the characters list

Mina Murray by

Carmilla-Mircalla

Mina Murray - Jonathan Harker’s fiancée. Mina is a practical young woman who works as a schoolmistress. Eventually victimized by Dracula herself, Mina is also the best friend of the count’s first victim in the novel, Lucy Westenra. Mina is in many ways the heroine of the novel, embodying purity, innocence, and Christian faith—virtues she maintains despite her suffering at the vampire’s hands. She is intelligent and resourceful, and her research leads Van Helsing’s men to Castle Dracula.

Read an in-depth analysis of Mina Murray.

Lucy Westenra by

Carmilla-Mircalla

Lucy Westenra - Mina’s best friend and an attractive, vivacious young woman. The first character in the novel to fall under Dracula’s spell, Lucy becomes a vampire, which compromises her much-praised chastity and virtue, and banishes her soul from the promise of eternal rest. Determined that such an end is unfit for an English lady of Lucy’s caliber, Van Helsing’s crew hunts down the demon she has become and kills it, following the rituals of vampire slaying, and thus restoring Lucy’s soul to her body and to heaven.

Read an in-depth analysis of Lucy Westenra.

John Seward by

Carmilla-Mircalla

Arthur Holmwood by

Carmilla-Mircalla

Quincey Morris by

Carmilla-Mircalla

Ranfield by

Carmilla-Mircalla

Mrs. Westenra - Lucy’s mother. A brittle woman of failing health, Mrs. Westenra inadvertently sabotages her daughter’s safety by interfering with Van Helsing’s folk remedies. She dies of shock when a wolf leaps through Lucy’s bedroom window.

source SparkNotes
Read more about the novel.

Count Dracula's powers and limitations

2010-07-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

cover of Classic Illustrated

Count Dracula's powers

he is potentially immortal
he drinks the blood of others to survive
he has the strength of twenty men
he can shape-shift into the form of a wolf or a bat
he can appear as mist or elemental dust
he has no reflection in a mirror
he casts no shadow
he has hypnotic power over his victims
he can turn victims into vampires

Count Dracula's limitations

he may not enter a household unless he is invited in
he loses his supernatural powers during daylight hours
he must sleep on the soil of his native land
he can cross running water only at the slack or the flood of the tide
he is repelled by garlic and holy symbols (crucifix, holy water)
he can be destroyed by driving a stake through his heart and decapitating him

Dracula Fiction vs Reality

2010-07-20T03:58:00.000-07:00

Nobody knows why Bram Stoker chose this fifteenth century Romanian prince as a model for his fictional character. Some scholars have proposed that Stoker had a friendly relationship with a Hungarian professor from the University of Budapest, Arminius Vambery (Hermann Vamberger) , and it is likely that this man gave Stoker some information about Vlad Tepes Dracula. Moreover, the fact that Dr. Abraham Van Helsing mentions his "friend Arminius" in the 1897 novel as the source of his knowledge on Vlad seems to support this hypothesis.

It has to be mentioned that the only real link between the historical Dracula (1431-1476) and the modern literary myth of the vampire is in fact the 1897 novel; inspired by folkloric sources, historic references and some of his own life experiences Stoker created his disputed character. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that Vlad Dracula's political detractors - mainly German Saxons - made use of the other meaning of the Romanian word "Dracul" - "Devil" - in order to blacken the prince's reputation.

There are not many similarities between the book character and the historical one. The only resemblance you can find is the thirst of blood. It is said that during the six-year reign of Vlad III ( 1456 - 1462 ), "Vlad the Impaler" he have killed from 20,000 to 40,000 European civilians (political rivals, criminals, and anyone else he considered "useless to humanity") and over 100,000 Turkish Muslims, mainly by using his favorite method of impaling them on a sharp pole.

Dracula's preferred method of torture and execution was impalement. For doing that, Dracula usually had a horse attached to each of the victim's legs and a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. To be sure that the victim wouldn’t die too rapidly from shock, the end of the stake (not being too sharp) was usually oiled. Normally the stake was inserted into the body through the buttocks and was often forced through the body until it emerged from the mouth. However, there were many instances where victims were impaled through other bodily orifices or through the abdomen or chest. Infants were sometimes impaled on the stake forced through their mothers' chests. The records indicate that victims were sometimes impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake and that Dracula often had the stakes arranged in various geometric patterns (the most common pattern was a ring of concentric circles).

But the impalement wasn’t his only method of torture. The list of tortures employed by this cruel prince reads like an inventory of hell's tools: nails in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off of noses and ears, scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to wild animals and boiling alive, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women). It seems that Dracula has been particularly concerned with female chastity. Maidens who lost their virginity, adulterous wives and unchaste widows were all targets of Dracula's cruelty. Such women often had their sexual organs cut out or their breasts cut off. They were also often impaled through the vagina on red-hot stakes that were forced through the body until they emerged from the mouth. One report tells of the execution of an unfaithful wife. Dracula had the woman's breasts cut off, and then she was skinned and impaled in a square in Tirgoviste with her skin lying on a nearby table.

Dracula at Project Gutenberg

2010-07-20T02:48:00.000-07:00

Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The project tries to make these as free as possible, in long-lasting, open formats that can be used on almost any computer.

Project Gutenberg claimed over 32,000 items in its collection. Project Gutenberg is affiliated with many projects that are independent organizations which share the same ideals, and have been given permission to use the Project Gutenberg trademark.

You can read more about Project Gutenberg on Wikipedia.
Of course, among all the great classics Project Gutenberg offers also Dracula by Bram Stoker in various formats. Download the Bram Stoker's Dracula novel for free as an ebook here or as an audiobook here.

Vampire Rain

2010-07-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

About the only good thing about this game is that it doesn't waste your time; it broadcasts its awfulness right from the very start. The campaign story tells the ludicrous tale of John Lloyd, member of a team of plucky commandos fighting a secret war against vampires that are somehow taking over America and will outnumber regular citizens with pulses in precisely 908 days (vampires must be really good at mailing in their census forms). It's never explained exactly how this is happening, though. Even though the game is loaded with nonstop cutscenes, virtually all of the leaden, comic-book exposition is devoted to the repetitive explanation of mundane mission goals. Average folks are still walking the streets at night without a care in the world, too, so it's tough to worry about the undead swarming in to take American jobs or whatever.. Read more on Gamespot>>

Vampire Hunters

2010-07-19T12:13:00.000-07:00

The city lies down to sleep while somewhere in the middle of an old dockyard a man's life fades away. The most skilled vampire hunter is dead. The night is damp and chilly as the investigation begins.
The main character in this tale is an adventurer who has been living in the company of the undead for years. The story starts to unfold as a mysterious murder, apparently without a motive, takes place on one of the dockyard's piers. None of the Nosferatu clans claims responsibility for the attack and what are even worse, strange things start to happen.

Vampire Hunters is a role-playing game with adventure-like elements that will charm the player with its dark atmosphere of old docks where a mysterious clan of vampires rages free.

Key Features
- Catchy storyline underlined by a thrilling dark atmosphere. The overall impression is augmented by an original game soundtrack creating a slightly horror mood.
- Advancement of the main character including level-ups, enhancements of skills and abilities.
- The possibility to create your own spells using the rune system
- ATBS (active time battle system, commonly used in many Asian RPG games including Final Fantasy series) adding dynamics to turn based combat as well as the possibility to use a lot of hits, blows, weapons and special combos
- A lot of adventure-like items and non-linear dialogue branching

Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption

2010-07-19T11:58:00.000-07:00

The graphics in Vampire are unmatched by those in any other computer role-playing game. You play the game from a third-person perspective, which is zoomed in fairly close and raised slightly above your main character. Up to three other characters will join you and follow as you travel around on foot across medieval Europe and beyond, and you can choose to directly control a different member of your party at any time. Vampire's fully 3D environments look remarkably realistic because of their stunning detail and moody, subtle lighting effects, which remain consistently impressive through all the game's many varied and interesting settings. As crusader-turned-vampire Christof, you'll travel through Prague and Venice and into fearsome catacombs or thereabouts. Later in the game, you'll find yourself in modern-day London and New York. All these cities, as well as all the outlying corridors and hallways you'll explore, are uniquely rendered to an extraordinary level of quality. Although you'll sometimes travel through such typical settings as abandoned mines and sewers over the course of Vampire, even these overused set pieces look good in the game. Some of the best of Vampire's environs include a hollowed-out, magical tree that's home to an ancient vampire clan; the decadent, gilded mansion of a vicious vampire lord; and the rain-soaked, neon-lit streets of London. Read more on Gamespot>>

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

2010-07-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines comes during a surprisingly dry year for PC role-playing games, which only amplifies the attention on the game. There's also a lot of focus on Bloodlines due to the fact that it's based on White Wolf's popular pen-and-paper role-playing game, and partly since it uses Valve's Source engine, the same engine behind Half-Life 2. And, for the most part, Bloodlines is an atmospheric role-playing game with a rich setting--though it's one beset with a clumsy combat system and some noticeable bugs. That's unfortunate, since the game clearly could have been better had its rough edges been ironed out.

You start Bloodlines by creating a vampire, which you'll do by conforming to the seven major vampire types found in the pen-and-paper game. The idea is that you can create a vampire suited to your style of play. The options range from sophisticated vampires that can talk their way past most situations, to burly vampires who like to intimidate people and pick fights, to demonic vampires who prefer to skulk in the shadows. And while you can select a gender for your vampire (which affects the kinds of characters you can seduce), you won't actually be able to customize your vampire's appearance, aside from the kind of clothes he or she wears. Read more at Gamespot>>

Dracula - Undead Awakening

2010-07-19T11:46:00.001-07:00

Dracula - Undead Awakening is a top-down shooter, with players controlling a vampire hunter who must combat hordes of undead enemies.

Dracula: Undead Awakening first arrived on the iPhone a little over a year ago. There it was called iDracula, and it impressed us thoroughly - as an homage to classic dual-stick arcade shooters like Robotron, it matched manic blasting action with a classic horror monster theme and offered an addictive, if not incredibly deep, action experience. Now, as a Nintendo download, its appeal is repeated -- but in two different ways.

Dracula shipped simultaneously to both WiiWare and DSiWare, the first time any game design's arrived on both services on the same day -- and while both versions are worthwhile, they're worthwhile for different reasons. Read more at IGN>>

Dracula: Origin

2010-07-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

Good storytelling never goes out of style. For proof, check out Dracula: Origin, a point-and-click reimagination of Bram Stoker's classic novel from Frogwares that delivers a gothic tale as atmospheric and chilling as a London fog. While you couldn't ask for a more done-to-death story, the treatment of this legendary material is both respectful and innovative, with familiar characters and scenes being mixed in with all-new escapades set across Europe and the Middle East. Too many pixel hunts and logic puzzles that occasionally stray into "good luck solving this without a walkthrough" territory cause a few problems, although these frustrations aren't enough to ruin a great Victorian spook story.

Dracula: Origin keeps the bare bones of the Stoker novel, but adds to it by branching out in a few places and changing the focus from drawing-room horror to something of a detective story. Vamp hunter Van Helsing moves to center stage from his supporting role in the novel, as the dour professor turns sleuth and ventures to London, Cairo, Vienna, and, of course, Transylvania on a one-man quest to save poor Mina Murray and stop Dracula's plans to resurrect the dead. The story unfolds like a mash-up of Stoker's Dracula, any number of Sherlock Holmes short stories, and the less weird tales of HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, with you playing vampire hunter, gumshoe, and intrepid researcher. Read more on Gamespot>>

Dracula Twins

2010-07-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

Dracula Twins has you playing as the children of Dracula, Drac and his twin sis Dracana, on a quest to save their kidnapped father from the evil Dr. Lifelust.

Well, we say you should check out this demo that lets you check out the first seven levels of this side-scrolling action adventure game.

Dracula 3: Path of the Dragon

2010-07-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

Developer Kheops Studio sticks to the ancient adventure-gaming formula that it has specialized in with previous releases such as Return to Mysterious Island and Voyage, and spins a dull yarn in which you research the biggest bloodsucker of them all in 1920s Transylvania. Busywork puzzles and stone-age visuals further drain the rest of the creeps out of this supposedly scary saga, which unfolds more like an uninspired detective story than an ominous encounter with a legendary monster.

The plot isn't what you would expect from a Dracula-inspired game, although you can't characterize that as a good thing. For a change, you don't play Van Helsing or any of his descendants. Instead, you take the role of Father Arno Moriani, a priest sent to Transylvania by his bosses at the Vatican to investigate a recently deceased Romanian doctor who has been declared a candidate for canonization. The good father soon finds out that the doctor held some odd views regarding a number of strange deaths in the village, and he finds his assignment quickly changed from sainthood vetting to disproving the existence of vampires. So you spend most of your time undertaking scientific research and questioning professors, not tracking down Dracula and his pointy-toothed pals. More time is spent with test tubes than with stakes, and you don't actually encounter any vampires until the very end of the game.

Another novelty involves moving the setting from the stereotypical Victorian age to the 1920s, when Romania was still reeling from the devastation caused by World War I. This doesn't make for many differences when it comes to gameplay, although shifting the game into the 20th century does allow for more-varied artwork involving semimodern touches such as telephones, trains, electric lights, and chemistry equipment. However, the overall visual quality is fairly poor, despite good use of shadows and fog effects to create a spooky mood. Most scenes are grainy, and character models are afflicted with slow-motion movement tics that makes it seem like everybody you meet is underwater. Voice samples often sound vaguely slurred in a rather similar fashion, lending a surreal vibe to many conversations that actually enhances the eerie nature of your investigations.

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles

2010-07-19T10:27:00.000-07:00

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP collects two (or three, depending on how you look at it) separate installments of Konami's Castlevania series together on a single disc. The formerly Japanese-exclusive Dracula X: Rondo of Blood represents two of the three games on the disc. You can play this old-school classic in its remade form, which features 3D graphics and newly recorded music and voice acting. Alternately, you can play it just as PC Engine CD-ROM owners experienced it back in 1993, with its original music and 2D graphics, as well as your choice of the original Japanese dialogue or a new English translation. The third game on the disc is a rendition of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night that boasts some miscellaneous improvements over the PlayStation and Xbox 360 versions you might already be familiar with.

Rondo of Blood was the last level-based Castlevania produced before Konami shifted gears to the interconnected rooms found in recent installments. In it, you control either Richter Belmont, a vampire hunter armed with a whip, or Maria Renard, a young girl that tosses doves at her enemies, and guide your chosen hero through side-scrolling levels populated with bottomless pits, surprise traps, and loads of creepy monsters. Both characters have a no-nonsense repertoire of moves: they can walk, jump, and unleash an attack directly ahead, as well as make use of various projectile subweapons. Richter has more health than Maria, but he walks more slowly and his backflip-style double jump is tougher to use. Conversely, Maria's speed and traditional front-flip double jump make her easier to use, but her miserly stamina means she's dead meat in two or three hits. At the end of each level, you'll match skills against a boss based on a familiar horror villain, such as a werewolf, the headless horseman, or Dracula. Read more on Gamespot >>

Dracula New Movies

2010-07-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (1992)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (the movie) is a 1992 horror-romance thriller produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars Gary Oldman as Count Dracula and Winona Ryder as Mina Harker, Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, and Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker. More>>

Stephen Sommers' Van Helsing (2004)
Van Helsing is a 2004 American action/horror film about vigilante monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing, written, produced, and directed by Stephen Sommers. The film stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale. The film opened on May 7, 2004. More>>

Music

2010-07-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

Biotech - Vlad Tepes Dracula - from the album "Transylvanium"

Biotech - Vald Tepes Dracula

2010-07-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

The Chronology of the life of Vlad the Impaler

2010-07-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

1431 - the birth of Vlad, Vlad the Devil's second son, and the future king Vlad the Impaler;

1442-1448 - Young Vlad is sent hostage to the Otoman Empire;

1448 - Vlad the Impaler occupies for a short while Wallachia's throne;

1448-1456 - Vlad the Impaler as a fugitive in Moldova and Transylvania;

1456 - with help from Transylvania, Vlad the Impaler occupies Wallachia's throne;

1457 - Vlad the Impaler aids his cousin Stephan the Great to occupy Moldova's throne;

1459 (spring) - Vlad the Impaler forbids Transylvanian traders to stop purchasing goods from directly from the producers while while trading with Wallachian traders is restricted to the border trading places;

1459 (prior to the 23rd of April) - the killing of a group of hostile boyars;

1460 (post-22nd of April) - Vlad the Impaler overruns the county of Barsa and pillages a number of settlements as reprisals for the support offered to his rival to the throne, Dan;

1460, the 1st of October - Vlad the Impaler comes to an agreement with the city of Brasov that the rest of Transylvanian inhabitants contribute with 4000 soldiers in the fight against the Ottomans;

1462, the 11th of February - Vlad the Impaler seeks Matyas Corvinus' - the Hungarian king - help in the fight against the Ottomans;

1462 (June-September) - Vlad the Impaler's wars against the Ottomans;

1462 (prior to the 26th of November) - Vlad the Impaler is arrested at the request of Matyas Corvinus, near to the Dambovita Castle, imprisoned for about two months in the Bran Castle and then moved to the Visegrad Castle where he will stay for the next 12 years;

1476, the 26th of November - Vlad the Impaler becomes king of Wallachia for the second time;

the end of 1476 - Vlad the Impaler is killed by the Ottomans with the help of traitor boyars.

>>Historical Background >>

Classic Dracula Movies

2010-07-07T05:58:00.001-07:00

Dracula (1931)

The year was 1931. Universal Studios had originally planned a big budget film, more along the lines of 1923's The Hunchback of Notre Dame and 1925's The Phantom of the Opera, but the Great Depression squelched those plans. Lon Chaney, the Man of a Thousand Faces, and master of extreme characterization, was onboard to star in Dracula. More»

Mark of the Vampire (1935)

Lon Chaney, the “man of a thousand faces,” contributed two of these to his legendary, apparently lost silent, London After Midnight (1927), about Scotland Yard’s unraveling of a posh murder. Hypnosis is used to make the suspected criminal re-enact his crime; the victim’s doppelganger is also employed in the plot. More»

Dracula's Daughter (1936)

Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

2010-06-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

Count Dracula is dead and his killer, Professor Von Helsing (Edward Van Sloan), is charged by Scotland Yard with his murder. Von Helsing seeks aid from his former pupil, the psychiatrist Jeffery Garth (Otto Kruger), who’s scientific mind simply cannot be led to believe in vampires. Meanwhile, Dracula’s corpse is stolen and cremated by his daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden). She believed that the death of her father would restore her to life, but is disappointed to discover that is not the case. Desperate for release, she looks to Jeffery for help in battling her urges to feed, becoming smitten with him in the process. In her way is Jeffery’s secretary, Janet (Marguerite Churchill), who rivals for Jeffery’s affections and may drive Zaleska to succumb to her vampire ways.

Though I’m not overly fond of it, the original “Dracula” had a number of elements that makes it re-watchable. Dracula is monstrous in his own way, employing a number of ghastly supernatural powers such as shape-shifting and what-not. The set-design is beautifully gothic and the film has an excellent creepy tone to it. “Dracula’s Daughter”, on the other hand, is very much a more subdued and cost-efficient take on the story, ditching just about all of the vampire’s supernatural abilities and shifting the setting to dull and dreary then-modern London. It scarcely has an edge of horror to it at all, like Director Lambert Hillyer is determined to put the audience to sleep.

“Dracula’s Daughter” is loosely based on Bram Stoker’s short story, “Dracula’s Guest”. And by “loosely”, I mean that the only thing tying to the two together is that they both feature female vampires as the antagonist (the villainess in “Dracula’s Guest” was named “Countess Dolingen”, by the way). To claim it as an adaptation of the story is pretty disingenuous. The story wasn’t that great anyway, as it was just a chapter of Stoker’s “Dracula” novel, excised because he felt it was unnecessary to the plot and published after his death.

I hear quite a bit of praise for Gloria Holden’s performance as Countess Zaleska, though for the life of me I can’t see what’s so special about it. She certainly has a…unique appearance, but her actual performance was pretty forgettable. I found Marguerite Churchill’s feisty Janet to be much more entertaining. No, I think the only reason people praise Holden’s performance is because it was dripping with lesbian overtones. Zaleska uses her hypnotic ring (yes, ring, not gaze) to subdue young women into her power, then makes suggestive advances toward them. There’s even a brief scenes where she attempts to kiss an unconscious Janet, lying on a couch. This was 1936, people. Pretty big deal, back then.

But really, that’s all people seem to remember “Dracula’s Daughter” for. The lesbians. Everything else is incredibly dull. The protagonist, Jeffery, is entertaining in his love-hate relationship with Janet, but his “I refuse to believe in vampires” shtick goes on for way too long. And the means by which he comes to his senses is idiotic; Countess Zaleska simply refuses to look into a mirror. Yeah, that’s all the proof anybody should ever need to drive them from science to spirituality.

Meanwhile, the only returning character from the first film, Professor Von Helsing, spends the bulk of the flick in jail and scarcely joins in on any of the action (what little action there is). Bela Lugosi does not make an actual appearance in the movie, but he permitted Universal to make a plaster replica of his likeness to use as a prop (it can be seen in the coffin where Von Helsing kills him and in his funeral pyre). You only see the replica briefly, but it looks surprisingly convincing.

Of all of the Universal Classic Monster series, the Dracula franchise suffered from some of the worst and most boring sequels. To make matters worse, fans often hail “Dracula’s Daughter” as being the best of the lot.

Plot

Dracula's Daughter begins a few moments after Dracula ends. Count Dracula has just been destroyed by Professor Von Helsing (Edward Van Sloan). Von Helsing is taken by police to Scotland Yard, where he explains that he indeed did destroy Count Dracula, but because he had already been dead for over 500 years, it cannot be considered murder. Instead of hiring a lawyer, he enlists the aid of a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), who was once one of his star students. Meanwhile, Dracula's daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden), with the aid of her manservant, Sandor (Irving Pichel), steals Dracula’s body from Scotland Yard and ritualistically burns it, hoping to break her curse of vampirism. However, Sandor soon makes her realize that her thirst for blood has not been quenched and that all that is in her eyes is "Death". The Countess resumes her hunting, mesmerizing her victims with her exotic jeweled ring. After a chance meeting with Dr. Garth at a society party, the Countess asks him to help her overcome the influence she feels from beyond the grave. The doctor advises her to defeat her cravings by confronting them and the Countess becomes hopeful that her will plus Dr. Garth's science will be strong enough to overcome Dracula's malevolence.

The Countess sends Sandor to fetch her a model to paint; he returns with Lili (Nan Grey). Countess Zaleska initially resists her urges but succumbs and attacks Lili. Although the girl survives the attack, when Dr. Garth tries to hypnotize her to learn what happened, she suffers heart failure and dies. As the Countess comes to accept that a cure is not possible — and the doctor discovers the truth about her condition — she lures him to Transylvania by kidnapping Janet (Marguerite Churchill), the woman he loves. She intends to transform him into a vampire to be her eternal companion; Dr. Garth agrees to exchange his life for Janet's. Before he can be transformed, Countess Zaleska is destroyed when Sandor shoots her through the heart with an arrow as revenge for her breaking her promise to make him immortal. He takes aim at Dr. Garth but is shot dead by a policeman.

Cast

Otto Kruger as Dr. Jeffrey Garth

Gloria Holden as Countess Marya Zaleska - Dracula's Daughter

Marguerite Churchill as Janet

Edward Van Sloan as Professor Von Helsing

Gilbert Emery as Sir Basil Humphrey, Scotland Yard

Irving Pichel as Sandor

Halliwell Hobbes as Hawkins

Billy Bevan as Albert

Nan Grey as Lili

Hedda Hopper as Lady Esme Hammond

Claud Allister as Sir Aubrey

Edgar Norton as Hobbs

E. E. Clive as Sergeant Wilkes

Mark of the Vampire (1935)

2010-06-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

Browning’s sound-era remake, The Mark of the Vampire, is a truly terrifying horror film, but also an elegant, twisting mystery, a witty spoof of the vampire genre, and a lovely theatrical postmodernist exercise. Although bare-bones abbreviated (the version we have is twenty minutes shorter than the preview version), it is an intermittently brilliant film.

For some, the plot is something of a cheat; but this is not the case. Just as the doctor’s explanation at the end of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) is insufficient to explain the depth of horror of all we have witnessed at the Bates Motel, Professor Zelen’s explanation of all the doings at Sir Karell Borotyn’s London mansion is insufficient to erase the film’s impression of supernatural horror. The film “plays fair,” by showing us the plot to trap the murderer, who is human and alive, not a vampire, rather than springing this on us only at the end; but the ham actor playing Count Mora, the alleged vampire: this chap that we see at the end: is he really the Count Mora who earlier appears in “human”-form after a bat flies in through a window, towards the camera, in a gust of fog? How might an actor in a threadbare traveling troupe have created this illusion? Just when does the “plot” kick in?

Mark of the Vampire (also known as Vampires of Prague) is a 1935 horror film, starring Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Béla Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, and Jean Hersholt and directed by Tod Browning. It is a talkie remake of Browning's 1927 silent London After Midnight with the characters' names and some circumstances changed.

Mark of the Vampire was originally 75 minutes, but was cut back to 60 minutes by MGM. Reportedly this was due to incestuous overtones - then unacceptable by the standards of the Production Code - between Count Mora (played by Lugosi) and his daughter. However, the audio commentary on the DVD makes no mention of incest but suggests that much of what was cut was comic material, particularly surrounding the maid.

Cast

Lionel Barrymore as Professor Zelen

Elizabeth Allan as Irena Borotyn

Béla Lugosi as Count Mora

Lionel Atwill as Inspector Neumann

Jean Hersholt as Baron Otto von Zinden

Henry Wadsworth as Fedor Vincente

Donald Meek as Dr. J. Doskil

Carroll Borland as Luna

Ivan Simpson as Jan

Franklyn Ardell as Chauffeur

Leila Bennett as Maria

June Gittelson as Annie

Holmes Herbert as Sir Karell Borotyn

Michael Visaroff as Innkeeper

James Bradbury Jr as Third Vampire

Egon Brecher as Coroner

Jessie Ralph as Midwife (scenes deleted)

Plot summary

Sir Karell Borotyn (Holmes Herbert) is found murdered in his own house, with two tiny pinpoint wounds on his neck. The attending doctor Dr. Doskil (Donald Meek) and Sir Karell's friend Baron Otto (Jean Hersholt) are convinced that responsible for the murder is a vampire, specifically Count Mora (Béla Lugosi) and his daughter Luna (Carroll Borland), while the Prague police inspector (Lionel Atwill) refuses to believe. Now his daughter Irena (Elizabeth Allan) is the count’s next target. Enter Professor Zelen (Lionel Barrymore), an expert on vampires and the occult, who’s sent in to prevent her death. At the same time, secrets are revealed surrounding the circumstances of Sir Karell’s death.

Dracula (1931)

2010-06-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

It seemed the whole room was filled with mist. Then I saw two red eyes glaring at me, approaching quickly, giving way to a livid face contorted in the gravest mask of terror.

"For god's sake, hide me!" Zombos cried.

"Daddos, where are you daddos? You've got a dance question." Zombos Jr was getting closer.

"Playing High School Musical the DVD Board Game, I see," I said, applying more steam to the corpse plants. I had been enjoying the warm, pleasant quiet of the solarium, attending to my botanical chores. Warm, pleasant, moments never last, do they?

"I don't know why Zimba ever got him that hellish game," Zombos cried, as he frantically looked about the room for a hiding place.

"Try behind the bench over there," I pointed. For a man his age, he did move fast when given sufficient reason. Perhaps I shouldn't mention that I recommended the game to Zimba. It did make such a wonderful Christmas gift for Zombos Jr, though; the little fellow simply can't get enough of it.

Zombos Jr came running into the room. "Did you see my daddos?"

Before I could answer, Zombos sneezed loud enough to wake the dead.

"There you are!" He gleefully ran to Zombos and hustled him out of the room. Zombos let out a moan of despair that followed them all the way up the stairs and down the hall to the playroom.

Wait a minute; I mistakenly told him to hide behind the bench next to the orchids. Silly me, the man is terribly allergic to them. How could I have forgotten?

Glenor the maid came in with a small package. "This came for you," she said.

"Finally! My 75th Anniversary Edition DVD of Dracula. Thank you very much." I opened the box. With Zombos preoccupied, the library would be the best place to watch it. I ran up the stairs, popped it into the player, and settled back to enjoy the timeless performances of Bela Lugosi, Dwight Frye, and Edward Van Sloan, in the first American supernatural horror film.

Chaney succumbed to a throat hemorrhage before filming could begin, leaving director and creative partner, Tod Browning, disappointed and disheartened. Other names were bandied about to replace him, including Conrad Veidt, but only one person was born to play the role of the undead count: Bela Lugosi. Say what you will about the shortcomings of Browning's film, it is Lugosi's performance as the aristocratic count of corrupting evil that has defined the sartorial look, voice, and mannerisms of Bram Stoker's Dracula ever since. Lugosi is Dracula, down to his hypnotic stare, sensual cape swirl, and suave, upper-class maliciousness.

Amazingly, Lugosi, who had starred in the smash play, Dracula, by Deane, and later Balderston, had to fight fang and nail for the film part. The expatriate Hungarian actor whose singular, syllabic voice was both a blessing for playing the blood-thirsty count, and a curse for most of his other roles, took less pay then his fellow actors to garner the role that would forever typecast him. Yet, it is his performance that has provided horrorheads everywhere with undying dreams of immortality, and punsters with a Google's worth of Lugosi-like enunciations.

Lugosi took Dracula seriously, even though Browning may not have. Film historians and fans have written much, and debated much, on the film's static camera direction, long silences, dialog-weighted slow pacing after we leave Transylvania, and stifling adherence to the play's confining drawing-room set-pieces, but Lugosi's performance makes it all worthwhile. In every one of his films, from B-movie to Poverty Row quickie, he never acted down to the material. And while the Spanish version of Dracula, included in this edition, may be technically superior to Browning's version, the wide-eyed, overly melodramatic acting of Carlos Villarias as Conde Dracula makes it mostly unwatchable.

The film begins with what would become the signature gothic atmosphere of Universal horror films; frightened villagers, dreary mist-shrouded landscapes, and expansive interior sets awash with ominous shadows and portents of the unnatural.

Poor Renfield doesn't know what he's in for as he heads to Castle Dracula to deliver the lease for Carfax Abbey to its new owner, Count Dracula — on Walpurgis Night, no less. Ignoring the pleas of the villagers to not go, he hops in the coach to make a midnight rendezvous with another coach that will take him to the castle.

The rendezvous with the count's coach, in the mist-shrouded dark, is foreboding. Renfield barely gets his feet on the ground before the frightened driver who brought him throws his luggage down, and whips his horses into a gallop to get out of there. Dracula, of course, is the driver of the waiting black coach, pulled by black horses. David Skal points out, in his enlightening commentary, how the scene as written differs from how it was filmed, leading to a script-logic error. As written, Dracula has his face covered, so that only his piercing eyes can be seen by Renfield. As shot, Dracula's face is not hidden. Renfield can plainly see his face; but at the castle he doesn't realize his mysterious host was also the silent coachman.

When Renfield arrives, the count greets him in the great hall of the castle. As Renfield reluctantly walks toward the great stone staircase, while Dracula slowly descends it, both are framed, and dwarfed, by the decaying surroundings and desolation. The censors wouldn't allow rats to be shown, so Browning chose armadillos instead to liven up the scene. The art direction by Charles D. Hall, combined with the cinematography of Karl Freund, is eerie and ground-breaking here. Hall would go on to helm the memorable art direction in Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, while Freund continued his atmospheric, brooding camera work in Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Mummy.

The howling of wolves prompts Dracula to wax poetic as he implores Renfield to "Listen to them. The children of the night. What music they make." Renfield, not quite sure what to make of all this, follows the count, who effortlessly passes through a large spider web that crosses the stairs. At this point, I'd be running down the stairs, but Renfield shirks it off, and uses his walking stick to open a path through the web. He continues to follow his creepy host to a more comfortable room, cheerily lit by a crackling fireplace.

Before you can say " I don't drink...wine," Renfield is drugged, tapped, and turned into a raving lunatic that loves to eat flies and fat juicy spiders for their life's fluid. In an energetic performance that would typecast him for future horror films, Dwight Frye brings the pain, pathos, and sinful pleasure of Dracula's questionable "gift" of immortality to vivid life. His near feverish ravings contrast sharply with Lugosi's studied, methodical performance, and set the tone for the mad doctor's assistant in subsequent films.

Unfortunately, the film loses its momentum when Dracula and Renfield sail to London aboard the Vesta. As Skal points out, the shooting script had scenes involving Lugosi baring fangs and attacking the Vesta's crew like some all-you-can-eat seafood smorgasbord. On film, the budget and censors must have stepped in and, along with Browning's disinterest, the Vesta voyage is short, and full of herky-jerky stock footage from a previous silent film. Except for a superbly framed shot showing Renfield laughing and glaring up from the ship's cargo hold as he is discovered, the voyage is not the highpoint it should have been.

While the ponderous drawing-room scenes slow the action, the intimate confrontations between Dracula and Van Helsing, and Renfield's more colorful moments between his raving insanity and pitiable remorse, give a gravity to the proceedings that holds our attention.

Lugosi and Sloan play their cat and mouse game with intensity and precision. In the Spanish version of the film, Dracula clumsily uses a walking-stick to smash the mirror box that betrays him, diluting this powerful scene with theatrics. In the American version, Van Helsing brings Dracula intimately close to view it. Momentarily falling into Van Helsing's trap, Dracula smashes the mirror box to the ground while jumping back. Van Helsing calmly strokes his chin, as if he were conducting an experiment as Lugosi's feral glare turns to an apology to his hosts. He gives Van Helsing a compliment for his wisdom, even though he's not lived a single lifetime, as he leaves.

Renfield's vexing ability to roam freely around Dr. Seward's house, livening up scenes that would otherwise be dialog-heavy, helps to keep the story moving. Frye moves Renfield between bouts of ecstasy and damnation as he obediently, and at times unwillingly, helps Dracula get to Mina. His description of the thousands of rats with red eyes, shown to him by Dracula as a future reward, would have been an incredible visual if the censors and technology allowed it.

The commentaries by David Skal and Steven Haberman provide a fascinating and eye-opening viewing experience. I've seen Dracula a few times over the years, but never noticed the continuity errors, or that large piece of cardboard placed next to the lamp in Mina's room. Both commentators differ in their opinions as to why that cardboard is there, but it is a testament to Lugosi's riveting performance that it remains unnoticed in the background. Comparisons of scenes in the shooting script to those actually put on film, indicate what the film might have been if budget, censors, and Tod Browning had been up to it.

Speaking of Tod Browning, the current consensus among critics is that he didn't direct much of the film. That task was left to Karl Freund, whose talents as a cinematographer were exceptional, but whose talents as a director were not adequate to the task at hand. I wonder also what kind of film Dracula would have been with Lon Chaney playing the parts of the undead count and his astute, unwavering nemesis Van Helsing. Would Chaney have used his incredible make-up talents to fashion a more horrific Dracula than Max Shrek's Nosferatu? If so, would he have been as effective as Lugosi's more socially mobile, suave and seductive presence?

The ending, whittled away by overly zealous censors and Browning's lack of direction, is a sedate affair with Van Helsing pounding a stake into Dracula's heart offscreen. Mina's scream, and Dracula's death moans have been restored in this version.

The many wonderful extras in this two-disc edition include the new audio commentary by screenwriter Steve Haberman, and new documentaries; Lugosi: The Dark Prince, and Universal Horror. Another new feature is the Monster Tracks, which pop-up text notes that play as the film is running, providing tasty tidbits of information on the production and actors. Extras returning from previous editions are David Skal's interesting commentary and Road to Dracula documentary, the Spanish version of Dracula, which was filmed concurrently with the American version using the same sets, and the Philip Glass instrumental scoring for the film.

The film itself is sharper than previous versions, and more details can be seen. While no longer scary — given today's jaded and desensitized audiences, not much is — Dracula remains an iconic and historic film in the pantheon of horror cinema due to its creative art direction, and the immortal performances by Bela Lugosi, Dwight Frye, and Edward Van Sloan.

Cast
Béla Lugosi as Count Dracula
Helen Chandler as Mina Harker
David Manners as John Harker
Dwight Frye as Renfield
Edward Van Sloan as Abraham Van Helsing
Herbert Bunston as Doctor Jack Seward
Frances Dade as Lucy Weston
Joan Standing as Nurse Briggs (in an error on the opening credits, she is misidentified as "Maid")
Charles K. Gerrard as Martin, Renfield's attendant
Uncredited roles include:
Michael Visaroff as Innkeeper
Carla Laemmle as Coach passenger
Wyndham Standing as Surgeon
Dorothy Tree as one of Dracula's three wives

The more notable Dracula movies

2010-06-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

Dracula is the most popular horror movie character of all time. According to Guinness Attraction, Dracula is featured in 161 movies, as contrasted with the 2nd most popular horror movie character of all time, Frankenstein, who is only in 115 movies. So we thought it would be fun to make a list of some of the more notable Dracula movies ever made.

1.The Death of Dracula – 1921 – A Hungarian film version of Dracula, The Death of Dracula was the first adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel.

2.Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror – 1922 – This was an unofficial film version of Stoker’s novel, so they changed the name of the character to Count Orlok.

3.Dracula – 1931 – Directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the count.

4.Dracula – 1931 – A Spanish version of the Tod Browning film with a different cast that was filmed on the same sets.

5.Mark of the Vampire – 1935 – This wasn’t really a sequel to Universal’s Dracula, but it might as well have been. Bela Lugosi stars as Count Mora in this film from MGM that was also directed by Tod Browning.

6.Dracula’s Daughter – 1936 – This really was a sequel to the 1931 Dracula, and it features Gloria Holden as the titular Dracula’s daughter.

7.Son of Dracula – 1943 – This one starred Lon Chaney Jr. as Dracula, and it’s set in the American South.

8.The Return of the Vampire – 1944 – Bela Lugosi plays Armand Tesla, but he might as well have everyone call him Dracula, because he’s essentially the same character.

9.House of Frankenstein – 1944 – This was the first movie to feature the Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein all in the same film. John Carradine portrays Dracula in this one.

10.House of Dracula – 1945 – A direct sequel to House of Frankenstein, again featuring the big three – Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein.

11.Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein – 1948 – Bela Lugosi reprises his role as Count Dracula for this silly B-grade comedy.

12.Dracula Istanbul’da – 1953 – A Turkish movie production of Dracula.

13.The Blood of Dracula – 1957 – After the success of I Was a Teenage Werewolf, producer Herman Cohen tried to duplicate that success with an “I was a teenage Dracula” movie.

14.Horror of Dracula – 1958 – The first of the Hammer Studios Dracula films, starring Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing.

15.The Return of Dracula – 1958 – A B-movie version of Dracula that’s well thought of. Francis Lederer plays the Count.

16.Brides of Dracula – 1960 – The 2nd Hammer Dracula movie, but this one doesn’t have Christopher Lee. (But it does feature Peter Cushing as Van Helsing again.)

17.Dracula, Prince of Darkness – 1966 – Features Christopher Lee’s return as Count Dracula, and Peter Cushing again portrays Van Helsing.

18.Billy the Kid VS Dracula – 1966 – An Old West Dracula storyline where the Count battles Billy the Kid. John Carradine reprises his role as the Count.

19.The Fearless Vampire Killers – 1967 – This is another of those “not-really-a-Dracula” movies, this one directed by Roman Polanski. It’s a spoof of the Hammer Dracula movies, and the vampire has a different name, but come on. We all know he’s Dracula.

20.Dracula Has Risen From the Grave – 1968 – The 3rd film to feature Christopher Lee as Dracula.

21.Blood of Dracula’s Castle – 1969 – Count Dracula has a wife in this one, and their butler is played by John Carradine, who had portrayed Dracula himself seveal times.

22.Jonathan – 1969 – A German retelling of the Dracula story

23.Taste the Blood of Dracula – 1970 – More Christopher Lee Dracula goodness from Hammer. But this time without Peter Cushing

24.Scars of Dracula – 1970 – Another Christopher Lee Dracula film from Hammer, again without Peter Cushing.

25.Countess Dracula – 1970 – This is another Hammer film, but it’s unrelated to the other Hammer Dracula films.

26.Jess Franco’s Count Dracula - 1973 – Stars Christopher Lee as Dracula, but it’s completely unrelated to the Hammer Dracula movies. This is one of the most faithful adaptations of the novel available.

27.Vampyros Lesbos – 1970 – Count Dracula isn’t in the movie, but one of his descendants is. This is Jess Franco’s followup to Count Dracula.

28.Dracula VS Frankenstein – 1971 – A really low budget B-movie set in California. You do get to see Dracula battle Frankenstein though.

29.Dracula A.D. 1972 – 1972 – Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, together again, this time retelling the Dracula story in a modern setting.

30.Dracula’s Great Love – 1972 – Paul Naschy as Dracula in this Spanish-language film. The plot has no resemblance to the original novel.

31.Blacula – 1972 – A “blaxploitation” retelling of the vampire classic.

32.Scream, Blacula, Scream! – 1973 – A sequel to 1972’s Blacula.

33.The Satanic Rites of Dracula – 1973 – Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing appear together again as Dracula and Van Helsing.

34.The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula – 1973 – This was the last of the Hammer Dracula movies. This one features Peter Cushing again, but this time without Christopher Lee.

35.Blood For Dracula – 1974 – An incredibly over the top version of Dracula produced by Andy Warhol. Udo Kier’s performance will leave you speechless, but not necessarily in a good way.

36.Dan Curtis’ Dracula – 1974 – Stars Jack Palance as Dracula. (He was the inspiration for the Marvel Comics version of the character, so great minds must think alike.)

37.Dracula, Father and Son – 1976 – A French spoof of Dracula movies starring Christopher Lee. A comedy.

38.Count Dracula – 1977 – This is a BBC miniseries, with 150 minutes of Dracula goodness. In spite of its low budget, it’s remarkably faithful to the original novel.

39.Zoltan, Hound of Dracula – 1978 – Dracula’s dog is the villain in this one, and the main character is a psychiatrist.

40.Dracula – 1979 – Frank Langella portrays another version of Dracula, this time as an extraordinarily sexual and attractive predator. Also stars Lawrence Olivier and Donald Pleasance. (This was another Universal Dracula movie, although it’s not related to the earlier films.)

41.Love at First Bite – 1979 – George Hamilton plays Dracula in this comedy spoof of other Dracula films. The disco scene is great.

42.Nosferatu the Vampyre – 1979 – A Werner Herzog remake of the 1922 Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror, starring Klaus Kinski as Count Orlock.

43.Monster Squad – 1987 – A cheesy, fun kids’ movie with some genuinely scary moments (for the kids at least). Duncan Regehr makes a great Dracula.

44.Bram Stoker’s Dracula – 1992 – A lavish production starring Gary Oldman as Dracula. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

45.Ed Wood – 1994 – Not really a Dracula movie, but Bela Lugosi is a prominent character in the film, and the performances are terrific. Martin Landau won a Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal of Lugosi.

46.Dracula, Dead and Loving It – 1995 – Stars Leslie Nielsen as Dracula. Obviously a spoof/parody.

47.Dracula 2000 – A Wes Craven produced update of the original Dracula novel. Christopher Plummer is excellent as Van Helsing, and Jeri Ryan is terrifically hot. Gerard Butler makes a pretty cool Dracula too.

48.Shadow of the Vampire – 2000 – Not really a Dracula movie, but a fictional retelling of the making of Nosferatu. The premise is that Max Schreck really was a vampire.

49.Dracula, Pages from a Virgin’s Diary – 2002 – Guy Maddin’s ballet version of Dracula. Incredible.

50.Dracula II – 2003 – A sequel to Wes Craven’s Dracula 2000.

51.Dracula 3, Legacy – 2004 – The third in the series of Dracula movies that Wes Craven produced. Rutger Hauer plays Dracula in this one.

52.Blade: Trinity – 2004 – Dracula is called “Drake” throughout the movie, but he’s a pretty important character. (Albeit not the main character. Wesley Snipes’ Blade is still the star of the show.)

53.Dracula 3000 – 2004 – Basically Dracula in space. Stars Erika Eleniak.

54.Van Helsing – 2004 – The unmistakable appeal of having the Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein appear together is exploited again in this action movie starring Hugh Jackman as Van Helsing. Another Universal film.

55.Batman VS Dracula – 2005 – A full length animated movie pitting the Dark Knight against the original creature of the night.

Did Bram Stoker base his Dracula upon the historical Dracula?

2010-06-10T04:57:00.000-07:00

Although it is widely assumed, even among scholars, that Bram Stoker based his novel upon the historical figure of Vlad Tepes, there is at least one prominent scholar who challenges this assumption. Her name is Elizabeth Miller, a professor with the Department of English at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her primary argument is that Bram Stoker kept meticulous notes of his references in creating Dracula, and none of the references contain specific information about the life and/or atrocities of Vlad Tepes.

There is fairly strong evidence the two Draculas are connected. Arguments in favor of this position include the following:

The fictional Dracula and the historical Dracula share the same name. There can be no doubt that Bram Stoker based his character upon some reference to Vlad Dracula.

Stoker researched various sources prior to writing the novel, including the Library at Whitby and literature from the British Museum. It is entirely possible that his readings on Balkan history would have included information about Vlad Tepes.

Stoker was the friend of a Hungarian professor from Budapest, named Arminius Vambery, who he met personally on several occasions and who may have given him information about the historical Dracula.

Some of the text of Stoker’s novel provides direct correlations between the fictional Dracula and Vlad Tepes (e.g., the fighting off of the Turks--also, the physical description of Dracula in the novel is very similar to the traditional image of Vlad Tepes.).

Other references in the novel may also be related to the historical Dracula. For example, the driving of a stake through the vampire’s heart may be related to Vlad’s use of impalement; Renfield’s fixation with insects and small animals may have found inspiration in Vlad’s penchant for torturing small animals during his period of imprisonment; and Dracula’s loathing of holy objects may relate to Vlad’s renunciation of the Orthodox Church.

Professor Miller counters each of these arguments. In particular she notes the only reference provided by Stoker in his notes that contains any information about Vlad Tepes is a book by William Wilkinson entitled An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (1820), which Stoker borrowed from the Whitby Public Library in 1890 while there on vacation. The book contains a few brief references to a "Voivode Dracula" (never referred to as Vlad) who crossed the Danube and attacked Turkish troops. Also, what seems to have attracted Stoker was a footnote in which Wilkinson states "Dracula in Wallachian language means Devil." Stoker apparently supplemented this with scraps of Romanian history from other sources. Professor Miller argues that The Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia is the only known source for Stoker’s information on the historical Dracula, and that everything else is mere speculation.

As far as Stoker’s acquaintance with the Hungarian professor Vambrey, Miller notes that the record only documents two meetings between the two individuals, and there is no evidence that Vambrey ever spoke of Vlad Tepes, vampires or Transylvania during their visits.

As far as any likeness between the historical Vlad Dracula and descriptions provided in the novel, professor Miller notes that it is most likely Stoker drew his description of Count Dracula from earlier villains in Gothic literature, or even from his own employer, Henry Irving.

In conclusion, Miller makes an assumption of her own: In the novel Stoker provides thorough historical detail obtained from his various references. Had he known about the atrocities of Vald Tepes, Miller argues, surely he would have included such information in his novel.

The Life of Vlad Tepes - Dracula (1431-1476)

2010-06-10T04:46:00.000-07:00

Vlad III, known as Vlad Tepes - Dracula, was born in November or December of 1431 in the Transylvanian city of Sighisoara. At the time his father, Vlad II (Vlad Dracul), was living in exile in Transylvania. The house where he was born is still standing. It was located in a prosperous neighborhood surrounded by the homes of Saxon and Magyar merchants and the townhouses of the nobility.

Little is known about the early years of Vlad III’s life. He had an older brother, Mircea, and a younger brother, Radu the Handsome. His early education was left in the hands of his mother, a Transylvanian noblewoman, and her family. His real education began in 1436 after his father succeeded in claiming the Wallachian throne by killing his Danesti rival. His training was typical to that of the sons of nobility throughout Europe. His first tutor in his apprenticeship to knighthood was an elderly boyar who had fought against the Turks at the battle of Nicolopolis. Vlad learned all the skills of war and peace that were deemed necessary for a Christian knight.

In 1444, at the age of thirteen, young Vlad and his brother Radu were sent to Adrianople as hostages, to appease the Sultan. He remained there until 1448, at which time he was released by the Turks, who supported him as their candidate for the Wallachian throne. Vlad’s younger brother apparently chose to remain in Turkey, where he had grown up. (Radu is later supported by the Turks as a candidate for the Wallachian throne, in opposition to his own brother, Vlad.)

As previously noted, Vlad III’s initial reign was quite short (two months), and it was not until 1456, under the support of Hunyadi and the Kingdom of Hungary that he returned to the throne. He established Tirgoviste as his capitol city, and began to build his castle some distance away in the mountains near the Arges River. Most of the atrocities associated with Vlad III took place during this time.

>>Atrocities of Vlad Tepes - Dracula>>

Atrocities of Vlad Tepes - Dracula

2010-06-10T04:35:00.000-07:00

More than anything else the historical Dracula is known for his inhuman cruelty. Impalement was Vlad III’s preferred method of torture and execution. Impalement was and is one of the most gruesome ways of dying imaginable, as it was typically slow and painful.

Vlad usually had a horse attached to each of the victim’s legs and a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was usually oiled and care was taken that the stake not be too sharp, else the victim might die too rapidly from shock. Normally the stake was inserted into the body through the buttocks and was often forced through the body until it emerged from the mouth. However, there were many instances where victims were impaled through other body orifices or through the abdomen or chest. Infants were sometimes impaled on the stake forced through their mother’s chests. The records indicate that victims were sometimes impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake.

Vlad Tepes often had the stakes arranged in various geometric patterns. The most common pattern was a ring of concentric circles in the outskirts of a city that was his target. The height of the spear indicated the rank of the victim. The decaying corpses were often left up for months. It was once reported that an invading Turkish army turned back in fright when it encountered thousands of rotting corpses impaled on the banks of the Danube. In 1461 Mohammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, a man not noted for his squeamishness, returned to Constantinople after being sickened by the sight of twenty thousand impaled Turkish prisoners outside of the city of Tirgoviste. This gruesome sight is remembered in history as "the Forest of the Impaled."

Thousands were often impaled at a single time. Ten thousand were impaled in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu in 1460. In 1459, on St. Bartholomew’s Day, Vlad III had thirty thousand of the merchants and boyars of the Transylvanian city of Brasov impaled. One of the most famous woodcuts of the period shows Vlad Dracula feasting amongst a forest of stakes and their grisly burdens outside Brasov while a nearby executioner cuts apart other victims.

Although impalement was Vlad Dracula’s favorite method of torture, it was by no means his only method. The list of tortures employed by this cruel prince reads like an inventory of hell’s tools: nails in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off of noses and ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women), scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to wild animals, and burning alive.

No one was immune to Vlad’s attentions. His victims included women and children, peasants and great lords, ambassadors from foreign powers and merchants. However, the vast majority of his victims came from the merchants and boyars of Transylvania and his own Wallachia.

Many have attempted to justify Vlad Dracula’s actions on the basis of nascent nationalism and political necessity. Many of the merchants in Transylvania and Wallachia were German Saxons who were seen as parasites, preying upon Romanian natives of Wallachia. The wealthy land owning boyars exerted their own often capricious and unfaithful influence over the reigning princes. Vlad’s own father and older brother were murdered by unfaithful boyars. However, many of Vlad Dracula’s victims were also Wallachians, and few deny that he derived a perverted pleasure from his actions.

Vlad Dracula began his reign of terror almost as soon as he came to power. His first significant act of cruelty may have been motivated by a desire for revenge as well as a need to solidify his power. Early in his main reign he gave a feast for his boyars and their families to celebrate Easter. Vlad was well aware that many of these same nobles were part of the conspiracy that led to his father’s assassination and the burying alive of his elder brother, Mircea. Many had also played a role in the overthrow of numerous Wallachian princes. During the feast Vlad asked his noble guests how many princes had ruled during their lifetimes. All of the nobles present had outlived several princes. None had seen less then seven reigns. Vlad immediately had all the assembled nobles arrested. The older boyars and their families were impaled on the spot. The younger and healthier nobles and their families were marched north from Tirgoviste to the ruins of his castle in the mountains above the Arges River. The enslaved boyars and their families were forced to labor for months rebuilding the old castle with materials from a nearby ruin. According to the reports they labored until the clothes fell off their bodies and then were forced to continue working naked. Very few survived this ordeal.

Throughout his reign Vlad continued to systematically eradicate the old boyar class of Wallachia. Apparently Vlad was determined that his own power be on a modern and thoroughly secure footing. In the place of the executed boyars Vlad promoted new men from among the free peasantry and middle class; men who would be loyal only to their prince.

Vlad Tepes’ atrocities against the people of Wallachia were usually attempts to enforce his own moral code upon his country. He appears to have been particularly concerned with female chastity. Maidens who lost their virginity, adulterous wives and unchaste widows were all targets of Vlad’s cruelty. Such women often had their sexual organs cut out or their breasts cut off, and were often impaled through the vagina on red-hot stakes. One report tells of the execution of an unfaithful wife. Vlad had the woman’s breasts cut off, then she was skinned and impaled in a square in Tirgoviste with her skin lying on a nearby table. Vlad also insisted that his people be honest and hard working. Merchants who cheated their customers were likely to find themselves mounted on a stake beside common thieves.

>>Dracula related Anecdotes>>

The End of Vlad Tepes - Dracula

2010-06-10T04:26:00.000-07:00

Although Vlad III Dracula experienced some success in fending off the Turks, his accomplishments were relatively short-lived. He received little support from his titular overlord, Matthius Corvinus, King of Hungary (son of John Hunyadi) and Wallachian resources were too limited to achieve any lasting success against the powerful Turks.

The Turks finally succeeded in forcing Vlad to flee to Transylvania in 1462. Reportedly, his first wife committed suicide by leaping from the towers of Vlad’s castle into the waters of the Arges River rather than surrender to the Turks. Vlad escaped through a secret passage and fled across the mountains into Transylvania and appealed to Matthias Corvinus for aid. The king immediately had Vlad arrested and imprisoned in a royal tower.

There is some debate as to the exact length of Vlad’s confinement. The Russian pamphlets indicate that he was a prisoner from 1462 until 1474. However, during this period he was able to gradually win his way back into the graces of Matthias Corvinus and ultimately met and married a member of the royal family (possibly the sister of Corvinus) and fathered two sons. It is unlikely that a prisoner would be allowed to marry a member of the royal family. As the eldest son was about 10 years old at the point Vlad regained the Wallachian throne in 1476, his release probably occurred around 1466.

Note: The Russian narrative, normally very favorable to Vlad, indicates that even in captivity he could not give up his favorite past-time; he often captured birds and mice and proceeded to torture and mutilate them. Some were beheaded or tarred-and-feathered and released. Most were impaled on tiny spears.

Another possible reason for Vlad’s rehabilitation was that the new successor to the Wallachian throne, Vlad’s own brother, Radu the Handsome, had instituted a very pro-Turkish policy. The Hungarian king may have viewed Dracula as a possible candidate to retake the throne. The fact that Vlad renounced the Orthodox faith and adopted Catholicism was also surely meant to appease his Hungarian captor.

In 1476 Vlad was again ready to make a bid for power. Vlad Dracula and Prince Stephen Bathory of Transylvania invaded Wallachia with a mixed contingent of forces. Vlad’s brother, Radu, had by then already died and was replaced by Basarab the Old, a member of the Danesti clan. At the approach of Vlad’s army Basarab and his cohorts fled. However, shortly after retaking the throne, Prince Bathory and most of Vlad’s forces returned to Transylvania, leaving Vlad in a vulnerable position. Before he was able to gather support, a large Turkish army entered Wallachia. Vlad was forced to march and meet the Turks with less than four thousand men.

Vlad Dracula was killed in battle against the Turks near the town of Bucharest in December of 1476. Some reports indicate that he was assassinated by disloyal Wallachian boyars just as he was about to sweep the Turks from the field. Other accounts have him falling in defeat, surrounded by the ranks of his loyal Moldavian bodyguard. Still other reports claim that Vlad, at the moment of victory, was accidentally struck down by one of his own men. The one undisputed fact is that ultimately his body was decapitated by the Turks and his head sent to Constantinople where the sultan had it displayed on a stake as proof that the horrible Impaler was finally dead. He was reportedly buried at Snagov, an island monastery located near Bucharest.

Dracula - Historical Evidence

2010-06-10T04:08:00.000-07:00

In evaluating the accounts of Vlad Dracula it is important to realize that much of the information comes from sources that may not be entirely accurate. With each of the three main sources there is reason to believe that the information provided may be influenced by local, mainly political, prejudices. The three main sources are as follows: (1) Pamphlets published in Germany shortly after Vlad’s death, (2) pamphlets published in Russia shortly after the German pamphlets, and (3) Romanian oral tradition.

German Pamphlets

At the time of Vlad Dracula’s death Matthias Corvinus of Hungary was seeking to bolster his own reputation in the Holy Roman Empire and may have intended the early pamphlets as justification of his less than vigorous support of his vassal. It must also be remembered that German merchants were often the victims of Vlad Dracula’s cruelty. The pamphlets thus painted Vlad Dracula as an inhuman monster who terrorized the land and butchered innocents with sadistic glee.

The pamphlets were also a form of mass entertainment in a society where the printing press was just coming into widespread use. The pamphlets were reprinted numerous times over the thirty or so years following Vlad’s death—strong proof of their popularity.

Russian Pamphlets

At the time of Vlad III the princes of Moscow were just beginning to build the basis of what would become the autocracy of the czars. Just like Vlad III, they were having considerable problems with the disloyal, often troublesome boyars. In Russia, Vlad Dracula was thus presented as a cruel but just prince whose actions were intended to benefit the greater good of his people.

Romanian Oral Tradition

Legends and tales concerning Vlad the Impaler have remained a part of folklore among the Romanian peasantry. These tales have been passed down from generation to generation for five hundred years. As one might imagine, through constant retelling they have become somewhat garbled and confused and are gradually being forgotten by the younger generations. However, they still provide valuable information about Vlad Dracula and his relationship with his people.

Vlad Dracula is remembered as a just prince who defended his people from foreigners, whether those foreigners were Turkish invaders or German merchants. He is also remembered as a champion of the common man against the oppression of the boyars. A central part of the verbal tradition is Vlad’s insistence on honesty in his effort to eliminate crime and immoral behavior from the region. However, despite the more positive interpretation of his life, Vlad Dracula is still remembered as an exceptionally cruel and often capricious ruler.

Despite the differences between these various sources, there are common strains that run among them. The German and Russian pamphlets, in particular, agree remarkably as to many specifics of Vlad Dracula’s deeds. This level of agreement has led many historians to conclude that much of the information must at least to some extent be true.

Dracula related Anecdotes

2010-06-10T04:00:00.000-07:00

There are about nine anecdotes that are almost universal in the Vlad Dracula literature. They include the following:

The Golden Cup

Vlad Dracula was known throughout his land for his fierce insistence on honesty and order. Thieves seldom dared practice their trade within his domain, for they knew that the stake awaited any who were caught. Vlad was so confident in the effectiveness of his law that he laced a golden cup on display in the central square of Tirgoviste. The cup was never stolen and remained entirely unmolested throughout Vlad Dracula’s reign.

The Burning of the Sick and Poor

Vlad Dracula was very concerned that all his subjects work and contribute to the common welfare. He once notice that the poor, vagrants, beggars and cripples had become very numerous in his land. Consequently, he issued an invitation to all the poor and sick in Wallachia to come to Tirgoviste for a great feast, claiming that no one should go hungry in his land. As the poor and crippled arrived in the city they were ushered into a great hall where a fabulous feast was prepared for them. The guests ate and drank late into the night. Vlad himself then made an appearance and asked them, "What else do you desire? Do you want to be without cares, lacking nothing in this world?" When they responded positively Vlad ordered the hall boarded up and set on fire. None escaped the flames. Vlad explained his action to the boyars by claiming that he did this "in order that they represent no further burden to other men, and that no one will be poor in my realm."

The Foreign Ambassadors

Although there are some discrepancies between the German and Russian pamphlets in the interpretation of this story, they agree to the following: Two ambassadors of a foreign power visited Vlad’s court at Tirgoviste. When in the presence of the prince, they refused to remove their hats. Vlad ordered that the hats be nailed to their heads, such that they should never have to remove them again.

Note: The nailing of hats to the heads of those who displeased a monarch was not an unknown act in eastern Europe and by the princes of Moscow.

The Foreign Merchant

A merchant from a foreign land visited Tirgoviste. Aware of the reputation of Vlad Dracula’s land for honesty, he left a treasure-laden cart unguarded in the street over night. Upon returning to his wagon in the morning, the merchant was shocked to find 160 golden ducats missing. Then the merchant complained of his loss to the prince, Vlad assured him that his money would be returned. Vlad Dracula then issued a proclamation to the city—find the thief and return the money or the city will be destroyed. During the night he ordered that 160 ducats plus one extra be taken from his own treasury and placed in the merchant’s cart. On returning to his cart the next morning and counting his money the merchant discovered the extra ducat. The merchant returned to Vlad and reported that his money had indeed been returned plus an extra ducat. Meanwhile the thief had been captured and turned over to the prince’s guards along with the stolen money. Vlad ordered the thief impaled and informed the merchant that if he had not reported the extra ducat he would have been impaled alongside the thief.

The Lazy Woman

Vlad once noticed a man working in the fields while wearing a caftan (shirt) that he adjudged to be too short in length. The prince stopped and asked to see the man’s wife. When the woman was brought before him he asked her how she spent her days. The poor, frightened woman stated that she spent her days washing, baking and sewing. The prince pointed out her husband’s short caftan as evidence of her laziness and dishonesty and ordered her impaled, despite her husband’s protestations that he was well satisfied with his wife. Vlad then ordered another woman to marry the peasant but admonished her to work hard or she would suffer the same fate.

The Nobleman with the Keen Sense of Smell

On St. Bartholomew’s Day in 1459 Vlad Dracula caused thirty thousand of the merchants and nobles of the Transylvanian city of Brasov to be impaled. In order that he might better enjoy the results of his orders, the prince commanded that his table be set up and that his boyars join him for a feast amongst the forest of impaled corpses. While dining, Vlad noticed that one of his boyars was holding his nose in an effort to alleviate the terrible smell of clotting blood and emptied bowels. Vlad then ordered the sensitive nobleman impaled on a stake higher than all the rest so that he might be above the stench.

Vlad Dracula’s Mistress

Vlad Dracula once had a mistress that lived in a house in the back streets of Tirgoviste. This woman apparently loved the prince to distraction and was always anxious to please him. Vlad was often moody and depressed and the woman made every effort to lighten her lover’s burdens. Once, when he was particularly depressed, the woman dared tell him the lie that she was with child. Vlad had the woman examined by the bath matrons. When informed that the woman was lying, Vlad drew his knife and cut her open from the groin to her breast, leaving her to die in agony.

The Polish Nobleman

Benedict de Boithor, a Polish nobleman in the service of the King of Hungary, visited Vlad Dracula at Tirgoviste in September of 1458. At dinner one evening Vlad ordered a golden spear brought and set up directly in front of the royal envoy. Vlad then asked the envoy if he knew why this spear had been set up. Benedict replied that he imagined some boyar had offended the prince and that Vlad intended to honor him. Vlad responded that the spear had, in fact, been set up in honor of his noble, Polish guest. The Pole then responded that if he had done anything to deserve death that Vlad should do as he thought best. Vlad Dracula was greatly pleased by this answer, showered him with gifts, and declared that had he answered in any other manner he would have been immediately impaled.

The Two Monks

There is some discrepancy in the telling of this anecdote. The various sources agree, however, as to the basic story. Two monks from a foreign land came to visit Vlad Dracula in his palace at Tirgoviste. Curious to see the reaction of the churchmen, Vlad showed them rows of impaled corpses in the courtyard. When asked their opinions, the first monk responded, "You are appointed by God to punish evil-doers." The other monk had the moral courage to condemn the cruel prince. In the version of the story most common in the German pamphlets, Vlad rewarded the sycophantic monk and impaled the honest one. In the version found in Russian pamphlets and in Romanian verbal tradition Vlad rewarded the honest monk for his integrity and courage and impaled the sycophant for his dishonesty.

>>The End of Vlad Tepes - Dracula >>

The Origins of the Vampire Myth

2010-06-10T03:43:00.000-07:00

It is certainly no coincidence that Bram Stoker chose the Balkans as the home of his famous vampire. The Balkans were still basically medieval even in Stoker’s time. They had only recently shaken off the Turkish yoke when Stoker started working on his novel and the superstitions of the Dark Ages were still prevalent.

The legend of the vampire was and still is deeply rooted in the Balkan region. There have always been vampire-like creatures in the mythologies of many cultures. However, the vampire, as he became known in Europe and hence America, largely originated in the Slavic and Greek lands of Eastern Europe.

A veritable epidemic of vampirism swept through Eastern Europe beginning in the late seventeenth century and continuing through the eighteenth century. The number of reported cases rose dramatically in Hungary and the Balkans. From the Balkans the plague spread westward into Germany, Italy, France, England and Spain. Travelers returning from the Balkans brought with them tales of the undead, igniting an interest in the vampire that has continued to this day.

Philosophers in the West began to study the phenomenon. It was during this period that Dom Augustin Calmet wrote his famous treatise on vampirism in Hungary. It was also during this period that authors and playwrights first began to explore the vampire myth. Stoker’s novel was merely the culminating work of a long series of works that were inspired by the reports coming from the region.

Historical Background

2010-06-10T03:13:00.000-07:00

To appreciate the story of Vlad III it is essential to understand the social and political forces of the region during the 15th century. In broad terms this is a story of the struggle to obtain control of Wallachia, a region of the Balkans (in present-day southern Romania) which lay directly between the two powerful forces of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.

For nearly one thousand years Constantinople had stood as the protecting outpost of the Byzantine or East Roman Empire, and blocked Islam’s access to Europe. The Ottomans nonetheless succeeded in penetrating deep into the Balkans during this time. With the fall of Constantinople in 1453 under Sultan Mohammed the Conqueror, all of Christendom was suddenly threatened by the armed might of the Ottoman Turks. The Hungarian Kingdom to the north and west of Wallachia, which reached its zenith during this same time, assumed the ancient mantle as defender of Christendom.

The rulers of Wallachia were thus forced to appease these two empires to maintain their survival, often forging alliances with one or the other, depending upon what served their self-interest at the time. Vlad III is best known by the Romanian people for his success in standing up to the encroaching Ottoman Turks and establishing relative independence and sovereignty (albeit for a relatively brief time).

Another factor influencing political life was the means of succession to the Wallachian throne. The throne was hereditary, but not by the law of primogeniture. The boyars (wealthy land-owning nobles) had the right to elect the voivode (prince) from among various eligible members of the royal family. This allowed for succession to the throne through violent means. Assassinations and other violent overthrows of reigning parties were thus rampant. In fact, both Vlad III and his father assassinated competitors to attain the throne of Wallachia.

Origin of the name Dracula >>

Origin of the name Dracula

2010-06-10T03:00:00.000-07:00

King Sigismund of Hungary, who became the Holy Roman Emperor in 1410, founded a secret fraternal order of knights called the Order of the Dragon to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. Its emblem was a dragon, wings extended, hanging on a cross. Vlad III’s father (Vlad II) was admitted to the Order around 1431 because of his bravery in fighting the Turks. From 1431 onward Vlad II wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of Wallachia, his coinage bore the dragon symbol.

The word for dragon in Romanian is "dragon", but a dragon was asociatet with a devilish creature and the word for devil in Romanina is "drac" and "ul" is the definitive article. Vlad III’s father thus came to be known as "Vlad Dracul," or "Vlad the dragon." Vlad III thus became Vlad Dracula, so to make distinction between him and his father.

Early Life of Vlad Tepes - Dracula (1431-1476)>>

Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (1992 movie)

2010-06-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

Bram Stoker's Dracula (the movie) is a 1992 horror-romance thriller produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It stars Gary Oldman as Count Dracula and Winona Ryder as Mina Harker in an ensemble cast, also featuring Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker, and Sadie Frost as Lucy Westenra in her first major film role. Dracula was greeted by a generally positive critical reception and was a box office hit. It also had a significant cultural impact, spawning a video game, a board game, a comic book adaptation, collectable cards and various action figures and model sets. The film's score was composed by Wojciech Kilar.

PLOT

In 1462, Vlad Dracula, a member of the Order of the Dragon, returns from a victory against the Turks to find his wife Elisabeta has committed suicide after hearing false reports of his death. Enraged at the notion of his wife being eternally damned as a suicide, Dracula desecrates his chapel and renounces God, declaring that he will rise from the grave to avenge Elisabeta with all the powers of darkness.

In 1897, law clerk Jonathan Harker takes over as a client for the Transylvanian Count Dracula from his colleague Renfield, who has gone insane. Jonathan travels to Transylvania to arrange the formalities of Dracula's real estate acquisition in London, including Carfax Abbey. Jonathan meets Dracula, a wrinkled, pale old man inhabiting a bizarre castle. During the signing of the papers, the Count discovers a picture of Harker's fiancée Mina, and is astonished to find that she is the reincarnation of his long dead wife. Dracula leaves Jonathan to be raped and drained of blood by his brides and sails to England with boxes of his native soil, taking up residence at Carfax Abbey. His arrival is foretold by the ravings of Renfield, now an inmate in Dr. John Seward's neighbouring lunatic asylum.

In London, Dracula emerges as a werewolf-like creature amid a fierce thunderstorm and hypnotically seduces, then bites, Lucy Westenra, with whom Mina is staying while Jonathan is in Transylvania. Lucy's deteriorating health and behavioral changes prompts Lucy's former love-interests Quincey Morris and Dr. Seward, along with her fiancée Arthur Holmwood to summon Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, who during a blood transfusion recognizes Lucy as the victim of a vampire.

Dracula, now young and handsome, meets and charms Mina. However, when Mina gets word from Jonathan, who has escaped the castle and recovered at a convent, she travels to Hungary to marry him. In his heartbroken fury, Dracula transforms Lucy into a vampire. Van Helsing, Holmwood, Seward and Morris kill Lucy to stop her undead suffering, and save her from eternal damnation.

Jonathan and Mina return to London. Jonathan and Van Helsing lead the others to Carfax Abbey, where they destroy the Count's boxes of soil. Dracula enters the asylum, where he kills Renfield for warning Mina of his presence, and visits Mina, who is staying in Seward's quarters while the others hunt Dracula. Dracula confesses that he murdered Lucy and has been terrorizing Mina's friends, but a confused and angry Mina admits that she still loves him. At her insistence Dracula begins to transform her into a vampire. The vampire hunters burst into the bedroom, with Dracula claiming Mina as his bride before escaping.

As Mina begins changing the same way Lucy had, Van Helsing hypnotizes her and learns via her connection with Dracula that he is sailing home in his last remaining box. The Hunters depart for the port of Varna to intercept him, but Dracula reads Mina's mind and evades them. The Hunters split up, with Van Helsing and Mina traveling to the Borgo Pass and the Castle, while the others try to stop the Gypsies transporting the Count.

At night, Van Helsing and Mina are approached by Dracula's brides. They frighten Mina at first, but she gives into their chanting and attempts to seduce Van Helsing. Before Mina can feed on his blood he rebuffs her with the Eucharist, leaving a mark of it on her forehead, and surrounds them with a ring of fire to protect them from the brides. In the morning, he infiltrates the castle and decapitates them. As sunset approaches, Dracula's carriage appears on the horizon, pursued by the hunters, and arrives at the castle. A fight between the hunters and gypsies ensues and at sunset Dracula bursts from his coffin. Harker slits his throat while a wounded Morris stabs him in the heart. As Dracula staggers, Mina rushes to his defense. Holmwood tries to attack but Van Helsing and Harker allow her to retreat with the Count, turning instead to Morris, who dies surrounded by his friends.

In the same chapel where he renounced God centuries earlier, Dracula lies dying, now in an ancient demonic form. He rebuffs Mina's attempts to pull the knife from his heart as he asks her to give him peace. They share a final kiss, as the candles adorning the chapel miraculously light in God's presence, and the hole in the cross heals itself. Mina shoves the knife through his heart. The mark on her forehead disappears as Dracula's curse is lifted, as well as Elisabeta's soul. She then decapitates him and gazes up at the fresco of Vlad and Elisabeta ascending to Heaven together.

Cast

•Gary Oldman as Count Dracula/Vlad III the Impaler

•Winona Ryder as Mina Murray-Harker/Elisabeta

•Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing

•Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker

•Richard E. Grant as Dr. Jack Seward

•Cary Elwes as Arthur Holmwood

•Billy Campbell as Quincey P. Morris

•Sadie Frost as Lucy Westenra

•Tom Waits as R. M. Renfield

•Monica Bellucci as Dracula's Bride

•Michaela Bercu as Dracula's Bride

•Florina Kendrick as Dracula's Bride

•Jay Robinson as Mr Hawkins

Reviews

Dracula received considerable attention upon release, being greeted with generally positive reviews from critics. Based on 44 reviews collected from notable publications by popular review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an overall approval rating of 82%.

Box office

The film was a notable box office hit, grossing $82,522,790 domestically and $133,339,902 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $215,862,692, making it the most commercially successful adaptation of the novel to date.

Awards and honors

The film won three Academy Awards, Best Costume Design (Eiko Ishioka), Best Sound Effects Editing (Tom C. McCarthy, David E. Stone) and Best Makeup (Greg Cannom, Michèle Burke, Matthew W. Mungle) and was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Thomas E. Sanders, Garrett Lewis).

(source Wikipedia)

Stephen Sommers' Van Helsing (2004)

2010-06-02T05:20:00.000-07:00

Van Helsing is a 2004 American action/horror film about vigilante monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing, written, produced, and directed by Stephen Sommers. The film stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale. The film opened on May 7, 2004.

The titular character was inspired by Abraham Van Helsing from Irish author Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Distributed by Universal Pictures, the film includes a number of monsters such as Count Dracula and the Frankenstein's monster in a way similar to the multi-monster movies that Universal produced in the 1940s, such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and House of Dracula.

PLOT

1887, Transylvania, Doctor Frankenstein (Samuel West) brings to life his Monster (Shuler Hensley) with the aid of his assistant Igor (Kevin J. O'Connor), and Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh). Dracula kills Frankenstein after revealing that he helped him only so he could use the Monster to bring his undead children to life. The Monster then escapes to a windmill, which is burnt down by a pursuing mob. The mob flees as Dracula and his brides, Verona (Silvia Colloca), Aleera (Elena Anaya) and Marishka (Josie Maran), mourn the loss of the Monster and their chance to bring their children to life.

One year later, the Knights of the Holy Order, stationed at the Vatican, dispatch Gabriel Van Helsing, who has amnesia, to kill Dracula. He is also tasked with preventing the last of the Valerious family from falling into purgatory; the family swore to kill Dracula nine generations ago and is unable to enter Heaven until they succeed. He is given a torn piece of paper with an insignia on it. He is joined by Carl (David Wenham), a friar who provides support and weapons.

Arriving in Transylvania,the two meet Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), who tells them her brother Velkan (Will Kemp) was recently killed by a werewolf. Van Helsing then saves her from Dracula's brides as they attack the village, ending with Van Helsing killing Marishka as the others escape. Anna then takes the pair back to her castle. Anna is determined to kill Dracula herself, but Van Helsing is unwilling for her to take the risk, knowing that she is the last of the Valerious family. When she resists, he gases her to sleep and puts her in her bed.

Later in the night, Anna awakens from her deep, dreamless sleep and encounters Velkan, now a werewolf himself. After Velkan flees, Van Helsing and Anna track him to Frankenstein's castle, only to find Dracula attempting to give life to his children using Velkan as a substitute for the Monster. Anna frees Velkan but he becomes a werewolf again. Dracula confronts Van Helsing, who recognizes him from his past.

While escaping, Van Helsing and Anna fall into a cave. There, they find Frankenstein's Monster alive. Van Helsing decides to take him to Rome so he can be protected. The brides and Velkan pursue the group as they flee in a carriage, but they use a decoy carriage full of explosives, which kills Verona. Velkan is killed by Van Helsing, but not before he is bitten by him; when the next full moon occurs, Van Helsing will become a werewolf. Anna is then captured by Aleera and taken to Budapest.

In Budapest, Van Helsing hides the Monster before he and Carl head off to save Anna. They manage to rescue her, but the Monster is captured. Van Helsing, Anna, and Carl return to Frankenstein's castle, where they find all the equipment has been removed. At Anna's castle, Carl explains that Dracula was the son of Anna's ancestor. Dracula was murdered, but not before making a Faustian Bargain, which gave him new life. Carl explains that although Anna's ancestor made the vow to kill Dracula, he couldn't kill his own son. Instead, he banished Dracula to an icy fortress from which he should not have been able to return, but the Devil gave him the power to shapeshift, which allowed him to escape. Van Helsing then finds a portal to Dracula's castle disguised as a wall map, completed using the paper that Van Helsing brought from Rome. They enter the portal, emerging on a cliff near Castle Dracula.

As the trio sees the Monster being lifted to the laboratory, he tells them that Dracula has a werewolf cure. Carl realizes that only a werewolf can kill Dracula and that he uses werewolves to do his bidding, but needs a cure in case they have the willpower to turn against him. Making his way to the laboratory, Van Helsing frees the Monster, then becomes a werewolf and is attacked by Dracula, who turns into a giant bat creature. Anna and Carl retrieve the cure but are attacked by Aleera and Igor, who are then killed.

Dracula reveals that Van Helsing is really Gabriel, the Left Hand of God - as well as the one who originally murdered him. He offers to restore Van Helsing's memories, but Van Helsing refuses as he bites into Dracula's throat, killing him and his offspring. Anna arrives with the cure and injects Van Helsing with it, only to be killed by him at the same time, much to his grief.

Van Helsing and Carl hold a quiet ceremony for Anna and cremate her as the Monster departs on a raft into the ocean, having been allowed a chance at life. As Anna's body burns, Van Helsing sees her and her family in Heaven, at peace thanks to Dracula's death. This sight cheers Van Helsing up as he and Carl depart for their next adventure.

Cast

Hugh Jackman as Gabriel Van Helsing

Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valerious

Richard Roxburgh as Count Dracula

David Wenham as Carl

Shuler Hensley as Frankenstein's monster

Elena Anaya as Aleera

Will Kemp as Velkan Valerious

Kevin J. O'Connor as Igor

Alun Armstrong as Cardinal Jinette

Silvia Colloca as Verona

Josie Maran as Marishka

Tom Fisher as Top Hat

Samuel West as Dr. Victor Frankenstein

Reception

The film opened at Number 1 in May 2004. Domestically, the film grossed $120,177,084. Worldwide, the film grossed $300,257,475. This amount was almost double the film's budget.[2] Despite this, critical reception was generally negative, and was classed by the website Rotten Tomatoes as "Rotten," with 23% of reviews counted as positive. However, it did pick up a generally positive, three-star review from Roger Ebert.

Dracula essay by Jan Adkins

2010-01-10T05:33:00.000-08:00

FORGET EVERY HORROR MOVIE YOU EVER SAW. Real evil is much

scarier. Face to face with the historic Vlad Dracula, the Bela Lugosi character in

the classic movies would run crying to his mommy. So would the Wolfman,

Frankenstein’s monster, and probably Godzilla, if they had any sense.

Prince Vlad Dracula of Wallachia, born in 1431, was handsome, intelligent, well

educated, courageous, soft-spoken and patriotic. He was also one of history’s most

brutal mass murderers. Yet he is still called the “Savior of Romania.” Hero or villain?

This is the most disturbing lesson we can learn from meeting villains: sometimes they

are both.

Vlad was the second son of the warlord Dracul (Dracula means “the son of

Dracul”), prince of Wallachia. His father was a Knight of the Secret Society of the

Dragon, pledged to defend the Orthodox Christian Church for the Holy Roman

Emperor.

In the 1400’s, this meant battling the Turks. The fiery faith of Islam had

dominated great parts of Africa and Asia. This Turkish-led Ottoman Empire was now

chewing at the southeastern edge of Europe. It was led by Murmad II, a nephew of the

Islamic warrior emperor, Suleiman the Magnificent.

In 1437, Dracula’s father was caught between two brutal and powerful forces.

The Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund, and his German lords were nibbling at his

country from the north. Murmad was raiding his southern border. Weighing one

danger against another, Dracul joined Murmad. In 1438 Dracul roared through

neighboring Transylvania with his oldest son Mircea and Murmad’s troops, pillaging

and burning German merchant towns.

Dracul was trying to play on both teams, Holy Roman and Islamic, Sultan

Murmad didn’t trust him. He seized Dracul and his family and threw them into prison

until the warlord swore obedience. Murmad kept Dracul’s younger sons, Dracula and

Radu, as hostages.

As princely hostages, they were treated well and educated. Radu enjoyed the

comfortable Turkish life. Not Dracula. He was a quick learner but cold and defiant.

His teachers and guards feared him.

Their father, angry at being imprisoned, joined Sigismund’s war chief, John

Hunyadi, and attacked the Turks. How would you feel if you were Radu or Dracula,

knowing your father had abandoned you to torture or death?

Curiously, Murmad did not harm the boys. He had other plans.

Dracul and Mircea fought fiercely for Hunyadi but Hunyadi was suspicious of

the side-switching Dragon. In 1471 he trapped both of them in the dismal Wallachian

marshes. He murdered Dracul outright. Mircea was blinded with red-hot iron stakes,

then buried alive.

When Vlad Dracula heard of his father’s death his obligation as a hostage was

over. He escaped. Some say he simply walked away because his guards were too

afraid to stop him. He traveled north to the Moldavian Mountains and the palace of

King Bogdan for refuge. He became a close friend with Bogdan’s son, Prince

Stephan.

In 1451, King Bogdan was assassinated. Dracula had no prince to protect him.

It’s hard for us to understand but Dracula went to the strongest figure in his world: his

father’s murderer, John Hunyadi. Dracula asked to become his pupil. Impressed by

the young man’s boldness, Hunyadi accepted him. For five years, until Hunyadi died

of the Black Plague, Dracula learned military tactics, political maneuvering and the

duties of a prince. When his teacher died in 1456, he used the lessons well and

successfully swept away the warlord who had taken his father’s throne.

Once in power Prince Vlad Dracula of Wallachia faithfully helped Prince

Stephan to win back his father’s Moldavian throne.

Dracula ruled Wallachia with a strong hand but he was dangerously

unpredictable. He hated the rich German merchants and noble families – the boyars.

He held a great feast and asked his boyar guests how many rulers they had seen come

and go. Wanting to impress the young prince with their power they answered,

“dozens.”

“There will be only one ruler of Wallachia, now,” Vlad Dracula said mildly, and

ordered all of the boyars present – six hundred men and women – to be executed in a

way that became his cruel symbol: they were impaled. A gruesome death! A tall

wooden stake was sharpened, and its point thrust into the victim’s bottom. The stake

was set into the ground, then the victim was pulled down until the point pushed

through the upper body.

A grisly forest of stakes and their impaled victims expanded along the shoulders

of a ravine hear Dracula’s palace. Sometimes, Dracula would set his table to eat

among the decaying bodies of his victims. Once a visiting boyar chieftain wrinkled

his nose and asked, “How can you stand the smell?”

“You do not like it?” Dracula asked. The chieftain shook his head, No. “Then

you belong up there where the smell will not reach you,” the Prince said, and had him

impaled immediately as the dinner continued.

Dracula “cleaned up” his kingdom. He assembled a thousand or more beggars,

cripples, and diseased folk at a great Feast for the Poor. At the end of a hearty meal

their princely host asked them, “Would you like me to make you free of all earthly

troubles?”

“Yes, Lord Dracula!” they answered in a loud cheer. Dracula nodded and left

the hall. His soldiers sealed the doors and burned the hall to the ground.

Turkish ambassadors came from Murmad’s son, Mehmed II, to demand a tribute

in gold as a recognition of Mehmed’s power. Dracula commented that the emissaries

did not take off their turbans, while everyone else took off their hats in respect to him.

They replied proudly that they never removed their turbans to anyone. “Very well,”

Dracula said, “let it be so,” and ordered his soldiers to fasten their turbans to their

heads with iron nails before sending them back to Mehmed. Without the gold.

We would call Dracula a “law and order” ruler. A visiting merchant came to

Dracula one morning and said “While I was your guest at dinner last night, a thief

took 100 gold coins from my pack saddle.”

“This shall be made right,” the Prince promised. That hour he called the town

council to him: either produce the thief and the coins or the entire town would be

burned to the ground. The thief was quickly found. But Dracula added a single coin to

the bag of a hundred. As the thief was hoisted screaming onto his impaling stake in

the square, Vlad Dracula asked, “Is everything that is yours returned?”

“Yes, my lord,” the wise merchant replied, “but there is one coin more, one gold

piece that is not mine.”

Dracula took it with a cold smile; “It is good that you are an honest man. If you

had not mentioned this little coin,” he gestured with it to the dying agonies of the

impaled thief, “you would be writhing on the stake beside him at this moment.”

Ruthless cruelty did reduce the crime rate. Dracula had a golden cup placed at

the city fountain at Tirgoviste, so that any passer-by could drink from gold. It was

never stolen.

Murmad died, but his son Mehmed continued to harry the southern border and

he demanded another tribute – not only gold but 500 children. The Sultan’s most

feared and loyal warriors, the Janissaries, were children given in tribute, then raised as

Moslem soldiers. Dracula agreed. Mehmed, however, did not trust the dark prince and

sent two famous assassins, Hamza Pasha and Thomas Catavolinos to snare Dracula at

the meeting. The trap was ready. Dracula arrived – not with little children but with a

furious Wallachian army. Hamza Pasha and Catavolinos disappeared and more than

28,000 Turks were slaughtered as he pursued their fleeing forces all the way to the

Black Sea.

In fury, Sultan Mehmed mounted a great army and invaded Wallachia. He meant

to set up Dracula’s brother, now called Radu the Handsome, as the new Turkish ruler.

Dracula fought a vicious delaying action, waiting for a Christian army promised by

King Matthias of Hungary. Matthias betrayed him and sent no one.

Dracula’s retreat was bitter and harsh. He left nothing behind for the enemy.

Towns were burned, wells were poisoned, crops destroyed. Dracula snatched Turkish

stragglers and impaled them on the road. He sent murderers from prison and even

diseased Wallachians in Turkish disguise to mix with the invading army – one of the

earliest instances of “germ warfare.” It was a hard, hot march for Mehmed. The night

of June 17, 1462 is now called the Night of Terror. Dracula and his mounted troops

burst into the sleeping Turkish camp with unearthly howls, riding and cutting, striking

for the Sultan’s tent at the center. They killed over a thousand Turks and slashed a

bloody path that faltered within a stone’s throw of Mehmed’s head. Only a suicidal

counterattack by the Janissaries saved him. Dracula cut his way out and disappeared.

One of Dracula’s men was captured but would reveal nothing, even when he

was sawn in half. Did he refuse out of loyalty in the face of death and pain, or was his

fear of Dracula greater than his fear of death? This thought worried Mehmed as he

continued north.

The army arrived at Tirgoviste. Its buildings were smoldering, its shops bare, its

wells poisoned by dead animals, its golden cup finally gone. Nothing to eat, nothing

to drink. They pushed on a little farther. Then they found a place that robbed the

bravest Turk of his courage. A gorge just north of the city was banked on both sides

with a forest of stakes, each bearing the body of an impaled victim. Carpathian

vultures wheeled about them, ravens nested within their ribcages. A few were recently

impaled Turkish soldiers; most were boyars or Wallachian criminals. There were

more than 20,000 corpses in all. On two higher stakes, close to Sultan Mehmed’s

route of march, hung the rotting bodies of Hamza Pasha and Thomas Catovolinos.

The Sultan ordered a halt to the march and heavily fortified his camp with

ditches and walls that night. He whispered to his chief advisor, “This Dracula is

capable of a horror like this against his own people! What inhuman treatment awaits

us?” The next day, the Ottoman army turned back. In this way Wallachia was saved

from the Turks by Vlad Dracula’s ruthlessness.

In a few years, though, Vlad lost his throne to Radu, who made an alliance

between the Turks and the hated boyars. Dracula appealed to his friend Prince

Stephan for help. He was betrayed again; Stephan joined his enemies.

A great army surrounded Vlad Dracula in his castle on the Arges River.

Dracula’s wife, a beautiful Wallachian peasant woman, cried out that she would

sooner die in the river than become their prisoner. She bolted to the highest tower and

leaped to her death. That part of the river is now known as Riul Doamni, the

Princess’s River.

A heartsick Vlad escaped with a few lieutenants through a secret castle tunnel

into the wild Carpathian Mountains and across to Hungary where, once again, he was

betrayed.

King Matthias seized and imprisoned Vlad Dracula. The prince was too famous

as a Christian warrior against the Turks to kill or throw into a dungeon. The King

gave him a house in the town of Pest, where he was confined under guard until 1476,

when Mathhias had a use for him.

Fortune seemed to turn back toward Dracula. Matthias drove Radu from the

throne and Vlad Dracula the Impaler was once again the Prince of Wallachia. Prince

Stephan pledged his friendship again and, together, they began to attack the Turks.

This second reign lasted only a short year. During a night battle in 1477, a dozen

assassins ambushed Dracula. Doubtless, he fought like a cornered beast but Prince

Dracula was murdered. His head was taken to Mehmed so the Turkish ruler could at

last sleep easily, knowing that no opponent so fierce as Vlad the Impaler still existed.

Not then, and perhaps never since.

Vlad Dracula lived in a time when life was cheap and short. The Black Death that

killed John Hunyadi had also swept away nearly half the population of Europe. Any

sunrise could bring disease, a horde of ravaging soldiers, hunger or slavery. The loss

of life in those years may have seemed unimportant. They were hard times when

bitter people found it easy to abandon their morals and beliefs in order to protect

themselves or grasp a moment of pleasure at anyone’s expense.

Rulers sat uneasily on their thrones. They feared betrayal from every side. Vlad

was abandoned to the Turks by his father, betrayed by his best friend Stephan,

attacked by his younger brother Radu, and trapped like a wolf by King Matthias.

Perhaps his warrior soul was robbed of any belief in good. He replaced it with the

naked power of terror. He acted without mercy, afraid that kindness could be a signal

of weakness. Swift, terrible lessons, like impalement, might be remembered longer

than compassion. Was killing a few thousand Wallachians – even on the gruesome

stake – better than losing the kingdom? A few years later the Italian writer

Machiavelli would ask the same question: Which is more reliable? Loyalty or fear?

We can’t look back on 15th century deeds with 20th century eyes and understand

Vlad’s motives. Was he a hero? He saved his country from the Turks. He tried to free

his people from the boyars. He was brave. Even when every hand was against him, he

was faithful to his word.

The real Dracula was a man of learning and honor, not a blood-sucking fiend. But

this cannot excuse him. He was a true villain: strong, but not strong enough to keep

his compassion. He became crueler than his enemies. Did he save Wallachia? For a

few years he frightened the boyars and beat back the Turks but look at the terrible

price! How many years was it before his people could rebuild their villages, restore

their wells, replant their fields, forget the loss of their sons and daughters? How many

people – Wallachians, Turks, and boyars – died for Vlad Dracula’s idea of law and

order and for his fearsome reputation?

The fictional vampire Dracula in storybook tales killed a few high-class folks, set

up his own blood bank, and frightened some peasants. The real Dracula believed in an

old wicked lie, something far more gruesome and false than Bram Stoker’s vampire

tale: The End Justifies the Means. He believed that his “noble” goal was more

important than the cruelty he used to reach the goal. He was wrong.

It’s possible that force and perhaps even war are sometimes necessary to push

back evil. But we must always ask, “Whose evil, and at what price?” The loss of

sense and decency and compassion is always too much to pay.

A VAMPIRE is, in folklore, a powerful and violent creature of the night who sucks

blood from his victims, though you can keep him (or her) away with a necklace

of garlic. Some doctors believe this tale … or at least a part of it. It is possible

that vampire legends grew out of murders committed by real people with a rare

blood disease, porphyria. In the small, isolated villages in the Carpathian

Mountains of Transylvania, where many families are closely related, this

disease recurred every generation or so. The blood of porphyria sufferers will

not carry enough oxygen to their brains. They lose their reason, often

becoming violently insane. At the same time, they crave red meat and blood for

its oxygen-carrying properties. They have been known to rip into victims in a

fit of pain and drink their blood. Other symptoms complete the tie with

folklore: the skin of porphyrics becomes painfully sensitive to sunlight, so they

come out only after sundown; enzymes in garlic can cause them terrible pain; a

skin condition related to porphyria is excess hairiness on the face and limbs

and even the palms of the hands, which could also explain the werewolf

legends, too. Sleep well. Was that a growl in the closet?

Dracula

In Depth Analysis

The Vampire Diaries

Top Stories

Let Me In

Priest

Carmilla-Mircalla's Dracula Art Project

True Blood

Underworld 4

The Walking Dead TV series

30 Days of Night: Dark Days

Ireland

UK

Transylvania

Vampire: The Requiem

Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire PC and Console Games

Dracula PC and Console Games

Tabletop RPG Games

The Dresden Files RPG

Analysis of Renfield

Analysis of Quincey Morris

Analysis of Arthur Holmwood

Analysis of John Seward

Analysis of Jonathan Harker

Dracula Symbols

Dracula Motifs

Dracula Themes

Dracula Plot Overview

Dracula Context

Count Dracula's Biography

Analysis of Lucy Westenra

Analysis of Mina Murray

Analysis of Van Helsing

Analysis of Count Dracula

Dracula - Characters List

Count Dracula's powers and limitations

Dracula Fiction vs Reality

Dracula at Project Gutenberg

Vampire Rain

Vampire Hunters

Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Dracula - Undead Awakening

Dracula: Origin

Dracula Twins

Dracula 3: Path of the Dragon

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles

Dracula New Movies

Music

Biotech - Vald Tepes Dracula

The Chronology of the life of Vlad the Impaler

Classic Dracula Movies

Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

Mark of the Vampire (1935)

Dracula (1931)

The more notable Dracula movies

Did Bram Stoker base his Dracula upon the historical Dracula?

The Life of Vlad Tepes - Dracula (1431-1476)

Atrocities of Vlad Tepes - Dracula

The End of Vlad Tepes - Dracula

Dracula - Historical Evidence

Dracula related Anecdotes

The Origins of the Vampire Myth

Historical Background

Origin of the name Dracula

Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (1992 movie)

Stephen Sommers' Van Helsing (2004)

Dracula essay by Jan Adkins