Formspring Roundup

What is your favorite vampire movie that does not directly involve Dracula?
At first, I thought this would be a difficult one to answer, but it’s not. My fave non-Dracula vampire movie is “Shadow of the Vampire,” starring Willem Dafoe. It’s about the making of F.W. Murnau’s silent classic, “Nosferatu” (which is an awesome movie too, if you like silent flicks).
The premise is that Murnau was such a stickler for realism that he hired a real vampire (Dafoe) to be in his movie. Of course, having a real vampire on set leads to some problems.
It’s a really fun horror/comedy sort of flick.
What’s your favorite Dracula movie?
This is almost impossible to answer. There are so many different sorts of Dracula movies, ones I like (or dislike) for different reasons, that it’s really hard to pick just one.
– take Stoker’s brilliant book, seduce it with promises, and then murder it and chop it into tiny bits, most of which are lost (Francis Ford Coppola, I’m looking at you)
– star him but don’t even mention Stoker’s book (Hammer Horror ftw!)
– aren’t based on the book, but include references to it, usually reinterpreting it (Dracula 2000)
And so on.
For pure cheesy enjoyment, I love Dracula 2000. It’s silly and stupid, but Dracula is properly seductive, there are lots of hilarious one-liners (“Never, EVER fuck with an antiques dealer!”), and it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
My favorite loosely-based-on-the-book-but-not-pretending-otherwise one is probably Bela Lugosi’s. Lugosi is marvelous.
For artistry, give me Coppola’s. If I remember that it is, in fact, NOT (as it calls itself) “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” but is, in fact, “Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula,” it’s actually rather enjoyable. And oh, god, it’s gorgeous. The costumes! The sets! The actors! It takes the main points of Stoker’s book and reverses a lot of them (Mina did not love Dracula, okay? She was terrified of him. She was a virtuous Victorian woman, and was not all “Take me away from all of this!” kthxbai), but if I take lots of deep breaths, I don’t mind too much.
One of these days I should do a huge writeup on all the ways Coppola got Stoker’s story completely wrong. It would be epic.
And someone asked me about Square One Television and whether I watched it, but Formspring seems to have eaten the question and my answer. Fail.
I did watch Square One, and loved it. I was a big fan of Mathnet, but can’t remember much beyond that. I can, however, still sing most of the theme song.