Dracula Reviews

...it's clear that the movie simply doesn't hold up terribly well all these years later.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Lugosi's seminal performance and the striking opening act are what distinguish Browning's version of the classic tale.

Full Review | Original Score: 70/100

A perfect example of the worst traits of Hollywood films in the early sound era.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10

Stark, cold, and deeply sensual, "Dracula's" atmosphere and intention is rooted in a fear of unknown lust and desire from which there can be no escape. To view "Dracula" is to be bitten by the vampire's desperate attack.

Full Review | Original Score: A

A classic despite numerous flaws.

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An exciting melodrama, not as good as it ought to be but a cut above the ordinary trapdoor-and-winding-sheet type of mystery film.

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A sublimated ghost story related with all surface seriousness and above all with a remarkably effective background of creepy atmosphere.

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All time horror classic starring Lugosi; still creepy as blazes.

| Original Score: 5/5

Bela Lugosi gives the performance of his life in a role that might have been written just for him. Highly atmospheric throughout, this remains a milestone in horror movie history.

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The atmospheric opening is the best part -- moody and full of sinister potential. After that, it's stilted drawing-room talk, variably acted, except for the cultish over-the-top dementia of Dwight Frye.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The opening scenes, set in Dracula's castle, are magnificent -- grave, stately, and severe. But the film becomes unbearably static once the action moves to England.

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Not by any means the masterpiece of fond memory or reputation, although the first twenty minutes are astonishingly fluid and brilliantly shot by Karl Freund.

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Once you get into the rhythms of the film, you'll discover a masterpiece.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

there is a reason why Bela ended up in Ed Wood movies

| Original Score: 2.5/4

[The music] contributes to Tod Browning's marvellous tone of restrained horror and stylish after-life.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

It haunted no one as much as dear Bela...

| Original Score: 5/5

After Lugosi, all vampire performances are doomed to be compared against him as either homage or departure.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Dracula takes place within the confines of the parlors and drawing rooms of London society, which bears a striking resemblance to Americana circa 1931.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

Bathed in an atmosphere of nightmare, dread and otherworldliness that is unlike anything else in American horror cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

With Mr. Browning's imaginative direction and Mr. Lugosi's makeup and weird gestures, this picture succeeds to some extent in its grand guignol intentions.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5