The horror of Dracula is about a vampire (count Dracula) who preys on victims for their blood as so he can feed himself. Throughout the film many try to stop him such as Jonathon Harker at the beginning of the film who attacks Dracula. Jonathon falls short of the strength to kill Dracula and so pays by the fact that Dracula goes to a nearby city where he preys on Jonathon Harker’s fiancés family. The only man who can put a stop to Count Dracula is Dr. Van Helsing, who will put a stop to Count Dracula at what ever the cost, the two are then locked in a battle till death.
The horror of Dracula fits into the horror genre by the way it follows the specific codes and conventions for this genre. The horror of Dracula does this by its use of sound, props, setting and cinematography. Sound is used to great effect in the horror of Dracula to communicate to the audience that it belongs in the horror genre. The audience can tell that this is a horror as dark deep music is used to suggest danger is close. The sound used is a sort of drumming music that is used throughout the horror of Dracula to keep the audience of the edge of there seat as they know that something scary is about to happen when the music kicks in. Props have been used to indicate to the audience that this is a horror as things such as blood, stakes and coffins have been used to give off traces that it is one of the famous gothic horrors that belong to the hammer horror studios. Once again theme of horror has been communicated through the use of setting. We can see this through the setting as the setting used is a castle in the middle that is sectioned off from the rest of the villages around it, the castle is in a place where no one can hear you and no one can help you, this communicates to the audience that not only is it a spooky place, but you wouldn’t want to get stuck there by yourself. Finally the cinematography also contributes to these traces that this film belongs to the horror genre as close-ups have mostly been used to get the facial expressions of characters to scare the audience and to petrify them.
What makes Dracula so horrific is the character himself, the close up of his facial expressions are what mostly scare me when watching this film as it is very frightening with the blood running down his chin from his teeth, its enough to send a chill up my spine like the picture below.
- the eyes also scare me as they are blod shot and frightening. Dracula's eyes here are also bold and pure black which makes me want to look away from him
- his teeth also scare me as they are larger than any humans teeth and the fact they have blood on them makes me feel uneasy as i know that hes been feasting in his prey (victim)
- also his face in general scares me by the way he is at the moment. Dacula looks as if he actually enjoys it so much and that he thrives on sucking the blood out of his victims necks
For me when watching this film the only thing that does scare me is the music and Dracula. The music scares me because it builds tension and suspense, as i dont know whats coming it scares me as i think something will pop out and make me jump but it always calms down in the end. Dracula scares me by the way he looks and his facial expressions he uses. His facial expressions scare me as there just so uneasy and un natural and they make me want to look away from the screen by the way he looks. also when he goes to prey on his victims, his face just looks so horrific and makes me want to look away.
The film was received well by the audience as they made comments such as ‘Terence Fisher's DRACULA is the best vampire film of all time. No other picture combines the right amounts of horror, humour, action, and eroticism’. Also other comments such as ‘I'm not a big fan of horror films but I was very impressed with this one, titled Horror Of Dracula’. ‘An outstanding film on all accounts! This is far and away a better vampire(Dracula) film then the Universal film because of its action and pace, its acting, and its rich musical score and lush cinematography’. However as much as there are many good reviews on the film Horror of Dracula there are also a few bad ones amongst the pile such as this one ‘Don't quite understand the popularity of this one – I found it 82 of the longest minutes of my life’.
These are some of the key scenes within the film that i think are most important to the anrrative and to the audience.
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