Francis Ford Coppola sinks his teeth into a horror classic and comes up with a modern gothic thriller bearing historical weight in 1992's BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA.
Working with screenwriter James V. Hart, Coppola holds pretty close to the source material while bathing it in every visual trick up his sleeve.
Gary Oldman gives one of his best performances as Count Dracula. The opening prologue shows us his origins as Vlad the Impaler (as brutal as it sounds) as he loses the love of his life, forsakes God and becomes the undead.
Flash forward to Britain, where Dracula has purchased a castle and begins his influence over the citizens of London.
Winona Ryder is very good as Mina, who bears a striking resemblance to Dracula's love Elisabeta (also played briefly by Ryder). Mina and her best friend Lucy are soon under the spell of our legendary vampire.
Mina's fiance, Jonathan Harker is the attorney assisting Dracula in purchasing his London castle and the scenes in which we first see Dracula meeting Jonathan in Transylvania are among the film's best. Oldman is creepy, haunting and unrecognizable as the ancient undead. Oldman's movements in these scenes, secretly licking a straight razor with Harker's blood, entering the room with a shadow behind him that has a mind of it's own, cackling a sinister laugh, are all disturbing in the best possible way for a horror film.
Coppola uses every ancient special effect, matte painting, model and camera trick in the book to give the film a classic look with a modern flair.
Wojciech Kilar's music score is powerful and scary. Great supporting performances by Tom Waits, Billy Campbell and Cary Elwes add to the film, but two actors threaten to derail the film.
Keanu Reeves as Harker is all wrong, with a inconsistent English accent, flat acting and an expression like he just wondered in from "Bill & Ted's Transylvania Adventure".
The usually excellent Anthony Hopkins turns in a manic, over-the-top interpretation of Professor Van Helsing. His maniacal laughter and strange emotional disconnect seem like a mash up of Jim Carrey and Rooster Cogburn, Vampire Hunter.
Overall though, the film survives these two performances and rises into the ranks of the best horror films of the past 50 years.
Oldman alone lands this film an A.
He is fantastic in every scene. Whether he is old, young, warrior or giant demon bat, Oldman IS Dracula.
Commenti