Dracula Published

[Jack Daw]

I've been a fan of the Universal and Hammer films for years, and also a few TV productions, but I admit to not having read the Stoker book. Which visual production comes closest to the novel?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I've been a fan of the Universal and Hammer films for years, and also a few TV productions, but I admit to not having read the Stoker book. Which visual production comes closest to the novel?

Probably the closest to the feel of Stoker's novel is F.W.Murnau's NOSFERATU filmed in Germany in 1922 and starring Max Schreck as the Count. Stoker's estate actually sued the producers over it. In 1979 Werner Hertzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre, starring Klaus Kinski as the vampire count, hit the silver screen. A superb remake of the 1922 original it puts Coppola's film in the dust bin (where, arguably, it belongs).

John Malkovich did a later version of the story, this time set around the filming of the 1922 version. Clever, and the sort of thing to see after you've seen the original film. It's not Bram Stoker's "Dracula", but is is an interesting take on the vampire genre.