Product Description

Jonathan Harker, a student of vampires, ventures to Dracula's castle and attacks him. The revengeful vampire leaves his dark abode to prey on the family of his attacker's fiancee. The only man able to protect Harker and his fiancee is Dr. Van Helsing, a friend of Harker's. As a fellow-student of vampires, he's determined to destroy Dracula.

DVD Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Theatrical Trailer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18181 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2002-10-01
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .19 pounds
• Running time: 82 minutes

Features

• Jonathan Harker, a student of vampires, ventures to Dracula's castle and attacks him. The revengeful vampire leaves his dark abode to prey on the family of his attacker's fiancee. The only man able to protect Harker and his fiancee is Dr. Van Helsing, a friend of Harker's. As a fellow-student of vampires, he's determined to destroy Dracula.Running Time: 82 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: H

Amazon.com
After Hammer Studios' tremendous success with The Curse of Frankenstein, they struck a deal to adapt Universal's catalog of classics and set their sights first on Dracula. Christopher Lee removes the monstrous makeup from the earlier film and makes his entrance as an elegant, confident, altogether seductive Dracula, a frightening figure of flashing eyes and erotic allure. Peter Cushing, with his hawklike profile and piercing eyes, turns his rationalist intensity to Van Helsing: man of science as crusading vampire hunter. Director Terence Fisher and screenwriter Jimmy Sangster make a few changes to Bram Stoker's tale; gone are Renfield, Transylvania, howling wolves, and transformations into bats. The Count is an old-world aristocrat firmly ensconced in a castle in England and Van Helsing a crusading vampire hunter who plots his demise with an elaborate plan. This is the first film to really mine the erotic appeal of vampires: Dracula seduces Mina and Lucy like a devil tempting good to the dark side through sex--more suggestive than explicit, but daring for 1958. Lee is electric as the ferocious Count, despite his limited screen time, and Cushing turns Van Helsing into a virtual swashbuckler of a hero, leaping and diving through the climax like an aging action hero. Cushing reprises his role in The Brides of Dracula, while Lee absented himself from the series until 1966's Dracula: Prince of Darkness. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

A True Hammer & Stake Affair.
The film "Dracula" (1958) (Aka "Horror of Dracula" in the USA) was a turning point in vampire's movies.
The use of Technicolor and profusion of blood shed produced a shock to audiences when released
At that time I was one of the teenagers that crowded the theater. What an experience! Since the starting titles with blood dripping over Dracula's name until the last scene we were enthralled with fear & horror!
At the present times general public is used to much more gore and violence, but this film still make your hair stand straight!

British director Terence Fisher is able to instill true Stoker's spirit to the film; it is a subtle combination of suspense and Grand Guignol. That "touch" was lost in successive new versions and resurrections the dreadful Count.
But in this particular first release Christopher Dracula Lee & Peter Van Helsing Cushing are at their peak.

The story in this particular adaptation of Stoker's book is as follows: Jonathan Harker is sent by Dr. Van Helsing to Dracula's Castle in order to destroy the hideous vampire.
That fate is easier to plan than accomplish as the unfortunate Harker will learn.
After defeating this attack the Count starts an all out revenge aimed to Harker's fiancée and her sister.
To stop him there is only one person: Dr. van Helsing. The film chronicles this confrontation.

Christopher Lee with his eyes full of tiny red veins and enormous fangs rends a paradigmatic characterization. Peter Cushing as Dr. van Helsing is at the same height.


This is an unforgettable horror movie. It is highly recommended for fans of the genre.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

Fine Dracula film with excellent Lee and Cushing
Horror of Dracula, Christopher Lee's first performance as The Count, is surely among the finest versions of Bram Stoker's classic tale. Lee has amazing presence and style as Dracula and his is certainly one of the definitive portrayals of the classic character. Having just seen both this film and Tod Browning's classic 1931 Dracula film in close proximity, I am eager to compare and contrast them.

Browning's film is older and grittier and it benefits greatly from this. The raw, black and white photography gives it an incredibly eerie, creepy atmosphere which is missing from Horror of Dracula. Browning's film bore the influence of German Expressionism, particularly F.W. Murnau's classic Nosferatu. This sense of atmosphere, along with Bela Lugosi's knockout performance as the Count is what makes the 1931 Dracula great.

Hammer Films' Horror of Dracula from 1958 was filmed in Technicolor and has no trace of that German-Expressionist creepiness. However, Horror of Dracula has many advantages over the earlier film. For one thing, the performances are far better. Peter Cushing is perhaps the greatest Van Helsing ever, and Christopher Lee's Dracula is excellent. Horror of Dracula moves by faster and feels like a more cohesive whole, not to mention that the ending is far better than the ending of Browning's film.

Horror of Dracula is an incredibly solid variation on the story. Keeping in mind that it was made in the late '50s, I think most viewers will be satisfied. It's more enjoyable than the 1931 Dracula, but far less atmospheric. The performances of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee propel this fine film. I just wish that Christopher Lee was given more screen time. His Dracula appeared onscreen significantly less than Bela Lugosi's. He doesn't even speak at all in the second half of the film. Lee's powerful voice is one that demands to be heard.

The DVD is nice, but could be better. The picture quality is great for a 45-year-old film. However, the disc is seriously lacking in supplemental material. Christopher Lee is an extraordinary man to listen to, and any commentary track with him is worth listening to. Lee did a commentary for the forgettable Hammer film The Devil Rides Out, but none for the classic Horror of Dracula???? At the price point that Warner is selling this DVD at, there should at least be some decent extra features. However, extras or no, this film is indispensable for horror fans.

One of the best Hammer AND overall Dracula films
First, like pretty much any "adaptation" of Bram Stoker's novel to the screen, this film has little to do with Stoker's "Dracula" novel. It DOES have more in common with it than either the famous Bela Lugosi version or the abomniable, offensively titled "Bram Stoker's Dracula" with Gary Oldman.

Others have already mentioned that this film is a piece of cinematic history... and 45 years after its release, it remains an exciting item to pop in the VCR when you're looking for a chlling, adventuresome diversion.

"The Horror of Dracula" starts out looking like a straight adaptation, but ten minutes in, it takes a hard left when its revealed that Jonathan Harker has come to Castle Dracula not as a hapless victim but as an agent of vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing and that Harker is fully aware of Dracula's true nature. But it all works, because when Van Helsing appears on screen (played by the late, great Peter Cushing), we get a different interperation of him than offered in Stoker's novel, and a different spin on vampirism as well. The film then proceeds to present Dracula claiming Mina and Lucy as victims, like in the novel, but for a different reason--revenge for Harker and Van Helsing being pains in the rear. In the end, the Count is brought low by his own schemes AND a rather neat little bit of action by Cushing/Van Helsing.

What is particularly remarkable about this film is that, although it strays far from Stoker's story, Christopher Lee's portrayal of Dracula (as well as the way he is handled in the script) is far truer to Stoker and the overall tone of the novel than any other version. He's not the incongriously eveningwear-sporting-but-decaying-castle-dwelling Lugosi, nor is he the pathetic whiner from Oldman's version... no, the Lee Dracula is a blood-thirsty monster who preys on the life and emotions of the living. He is a strange and alien fearsome outsider, just as Stoker portrayed.