The Worst Dracula Films

[Phantom Stranger]

Vampirella(1996)

Rock legend Roger Daltrey plays Vlad of Draculon (aka Dracula) in this truly awful made for cable tv movie based on the classic comic book.Talisa Soto plays the title character. It's an embarrassment to all concerned.

[Count_Zirock]

Vampirella(1996)

Rock legend Roger Daltrey plays Vlad of Draculon (aka Dracula) in this truly awful made for cable tv movie based on the classic comic book.Talisa Soto plays the title character. It's an embarrassment to all concerned.

Yup, it was utter crap.

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[CreepysFan]

 Wish the originally planned Hammer 'Vampirella' had seen production in`78, the Talisa Soto version we got later just made me angry.

[CreepysFan]

Does the new Dracula TV show count as a "Worst Dracula Film"? (Never get that hour back!)

 

That's one hour of life I gratefully chose not to throw away.  Was watching 'Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things' at that time.

[Count_Zirock]

Wish the originally planned Hammer 'Vampirella' had seen production in`78, the Talisa Soto version we got later just made me angry.

As well it should, because once it was made, Harris Comics couldn't get anyone interested in a decent Vampirella film. Maybe the revived Hammer Films could tackle it?

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[BaronLatos35]

Likewise I haven't seen most of the posted films, thankfully I guess.

I have been a Drac fan since I saw Lugoisi define it for me.

I did see some of Dracula 3000 and promptly changed the channel.

Dracula in that Van Helsing movie was past lame, including his fake pimp nail.

Satanic is saved (sort of) by Cushing but it has to be one of the worst deaths for Drac. The alternate title is the best part of this movie.

[Fester]

I feel fortunate that I have not seen any of those movies.

Lugosi is THE count Dracula. 'Nobody else workin' that gig shall I watch.

Just like Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman.
Just like Christopher Reeve as Supes.
Just like Shatner as Kirk.
Just like Harrison Ford as Solo or Carrie as princess Leia.
Just like someone other than Carloff to play Frankie.

There is no one else for those roles.
cheers 

By that logic, Adam West is the only man who should ever play Batman.
Um, Ok. . . I see what you mean.

Seriously: If you're cutting your options to only watching the original actors, you are really missing out. 

There are good remakes and or reinterpretations of roles. This is out of the genre, but Jeff Bridges was a much better Rooster Cogburn than John Wayne. One could act and the other could play John Wayne  

Christopher Lee's interpretation of Dracula, to me is as interesting as Lugosi's.  In fact, I found Carlos Villerias' Dracula quite amazing.  Glen Strange was a fine a Frankenstein's Monster as Karloff, and Oliver Reed did a rather convincing and sympathetic Wolf Man.  Christopher Reeve was an OK Superman, but George Reeves was better, IMHO

There is also a lot of crap out there.  However, that is part of the game here.  Seeking something we like and which speaks to us.  Locating those diamonds in all the crap makes the gems seem all the more shiny.  But then, something can be said for the crap movies too.  There is a certain charm in low budget, B movies.

Oh, and my nominees for bad Dracula movies?
How about the original Bram Stoker's Dracula(1973)?  Script by Richard Matheson and directed by Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis.  With Jack Palance in the title role.
Its really pretty good--even if it was infested with Dark Shadows tropes.
Dracula (also Dracula's Curse)--an Italian 2 part TV-miniseries, directed by Roger Young. Starring Patrick Bergen as an updated Vladislav Tepes.
And my favorite: Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002)directed by Guy Maddin, (CBC) as a dance film! The Royal Winnipeg Ballet adapted Bram Stoker's novel.  Dracula played by Zhang Wei-Qiang.  Chinese Dracula and interpretive dance--what's not to love?

[Phantom Stranger]

"Dracula And Son" (1976)
-Christopher Lee

French comedy that apparently was heavily re-edited when released in America. My memories of this film are pretty vague, I only saw it once, but what I do remember is not good. Sadly, another Lee film on the list.

[Count_Zirock]

Oh, and my nominees for bad Dracula movies?
How about the original Bram Stoker's Dracula(1973)?  Script by Richard Matheson and directed by Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis.  With Jack Palance in the title role.
Its really pretty good--even if it was infested with Dark Shadows tropes.
Dracula (also Dracula's Curse)--an Italian 2 part TV-miniseries, directed by Roger Young. Starring Patrick Bergen as an updated Vladislav Tepes.
And my favorite: Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002)directed by Guy Maddin, (CBC) as a dance film! The Royal Winnipeg Ballet adapted Bram Stoker's novel.  Dracula played by Zhang Wei-Qiang.  Chinese Dracula and interpretive dance--what's not to love?

Now, I've got to take exception to Dan Curtis' "Dracula." That's actually a pretty good film, which holds up well after 40 years. Dracula was the only role that really disturbed Jack Palance, so much so that he refused to ever play it again, even though he was asked. Matheson was the first author to marry the factual elements of Vlad Dracula to the fictional Count Dracula (the book "In Search of Dracula", by Raymond T. McNally & Radu Florescu, having been published in 1972), and add in the theme of reincarnated love (Lucy, not Mina, in this case). The only real exception I take with Curtis' version is the omission of Renfield; otherwise, it's a highly entertaining take on the story.
"Dracula's Curse" and "Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary" I've yet to watch.

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[Fester]

Well, it has been years since I last saw the Palance/Curtis version of Dracula.  And as I was 18 when I first saw it, my recollections are probably (read: no doubt) somewhat distorted.  As I remember the movie, they dropped Renfield out entirely; killed off Jonathan Harker; and had some Dark Shadows-esque storyline of Dracula, like Barnabas, searching for his reincarnated lost love who just happens to be Harker's fiancee.

As I respect Count_Zirock's taste in movies, I'll have to revisit it.

[Count_Zirock]

Well, it has been years since I last saw the Palance/Curtis version of Dracula.  And as I was 18 when I first saw it, my recollections are probably (read: no doubt) somewhat distorted.  As I remember the movie, they dropped Renfield out entirely; killed off Jonathan Harker; and had some Dark Shadows-esque storyline of Dracula, like Barnabas, searching for his reincarnated lost love who just happens to be Harker's fiancee.

As I respect Count_Zirock's taste in movies, I'll have to revisit it.

No, it was Lucy that was his reincarnated love. He kept calling her "Lucia," which is the Romanian version of the name. When she was destroyed, he targeted Mina out of revenge. Van Helsing was able to use this to his advantage, hypnotizing her and discovering Dracula's retreat to Transylvania.

Harker's vampirism and destruction was lifted from "Horror of Dracula," almost verbatim.

You can get a DVD of both "Dracula" and Curtis' earlier "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" (also starring Palance, with awesome make-up by Dick Smith) for around $15.

Thanks for the vote of confidence in my taste--despite my love for "Star Wars"!

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[Fester]

Well I was a know-it-all 18 year old when I first saw it.  And the intervening decades have distorted more than a few brain cells.
Thanks for the recommendation! I'll look up that double feature.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence in my taste--despite my love for "Star Wars"!"


Well, I have many fond memories of that movie!
This was my favorite scene--I remember it well!

[Haunted hearse]

I feel fortunate that I have not seen any of those movies.

Lugosi is THE count Dracula. 'Nobody else workin' that gig shall I watch.
Just like someone other than Carloff to play Frankie.

There is no one else for those roles.
cheers 

I'm sorry, but as good as Carloff may have been, I'ld still perfer to see Karloff in the role!

[Zackuth]

Back in the late 70's I saw Old Dracula at the movies.  Dracula was played David Niven. The plot was that Dracula's wife's skin color changed from white to black and Dracula tried to find who she bit so he could change her skin color back.  It was supposed to be a comedy but I didn't laugh too much.

[Count_Zirock]

Back in the late 70's I saw Old Dracula at the movies.  Dracula was played David Niven. The plot was that Dracula's wife's skin color changed from white to black and Dracula tried to find who she bit so he could change her skin color back.  It was supposed to be a comedy but I didn't laugh too much.

Not a high point in Niven's career, certainly. I vaguely remember seeing it on TV.

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