2020 October Horror Challenge #20: "Dracula (1970)"

 

Ok, so this movie was made by Jess Franco, who if you don't know him, is known for making schlock, sleazy horror flicks in the 70s. Si when i read the description for this movie and it talked about being possibly the most true-to-the-book adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula," I was skeptical.  Ok, more than skeptical, because if you know me, I always complain that NONE of the movie adaptations are true to the book, and thereno way i was going to believe Jess Franci of all people had made a faithful adaptation of the book. Yeah right.

So this is the story of a young lawyer named Jonathan Harker who travels to Transylvania at the request of a wealthy client to deliver papers regarding a house the client is buying in London. Soon, Harker sees horrible things, and he comes to believe that the client, Count Dracula,  is evil. He escapes from the Count's castle and winds up in the care of a psychiatrist who doesn't believe his fantastic story. Soon Count Dracula is feeding on others though, and the psychiatrist, Dr. Van Helsing, is forced to admit that Count Dracula is an evil vampire who must be stopped.

Ok, I'll  admit it, this movie is more faithful to the book than any other adaptation,  and I've seen 'em all. The book is good, but it's structured weird, with a slow burn that rivals any other horror novel I've ever read, and lots of the action happens off camera, so the other adaptatuons throw that out in order to pack theirmovies with more action, but this one sticks a lot closer to the original story. I would never have thought Jess Franco was capable of making a movie without slathering it with fake blood and gratuitous nuditity, but he did it. I'll be damned.

Christopher Lee is great as Count Dracula, and Klaus Kinski is great as Van Helsing. It was fun watching them play off each other. All the actors do a great job with their roles, pulling off the most reserved adaptation of Dracula that I've ever seen without making it seem boring, which is really difficult to do. Color me impressed. I was expecting this to be a sxhlocky, sleazy piece of garbage (not that there's anything wrong with that) but it wound up being a lot better than I expected.