OVP: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Film: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Stars: Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Richard E. Grant, Cary Elwes, Billy Campbell, Sadie Frost, Tom Waits

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Oscar History: 4 nominations/3 wins (Best Art Direction, Costume*, Sound Editing*, Makeup*) 

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-90's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

More than any other film monster, the vampire seems to be always a part of the horror & romance genres on the big-screen.  From Nosferatu to Edward Cullen, vampires have taken up the cinematic imagination for over a century.  But no fictional bloodsucker has gotten quite the press of Count Dracula, Bram Stoker's singular creation based on Vlad the Impaler.  Francis Ford Coppola, as a followup to his Best Picture-nominated (but critically-mixed) The Godfather, Part III decided to go in a totally different direction by taking up a romanticized version of Stoker's novel.  In the process, he gave one of the most Oscar-winning horror films of all-time (three statues in his corner, the same amount that would be won by Coppola's magnum opus The Godfather), and a film that is still parodied on television today, especially for the makeup it uses on Gary Oldman.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film starts with us seeing Vlad the Impaler (Oldman) lose his beloved Elisabeta (Ryder) to suicide after she's informed he is dead.  He blasphemes himself in front of a Priest (Hopkins), and turns himself into a vampire by drinking blood pouring from an alter (he's had a day).  Centuries later, Vlad is now known as Dracula, and is meeting Jonathan Harker (Reeves), a young solicitor who is going to help finish a business transaction started by his former colleague Renfield (Waits), who is now insane.  He meets Dracula, and Dracula summons his wives to trap (and presumably kill) Jonathan, so that Vlad can go to London to seduce Mina (also Ryder), whom he believes to be the reincarnated soul of his lost Elisabeta.  While in London, he also seduces Lucy (Frost), whom he turns into a vampire.  Before Lucy is lost & beheaded, her fiancé (Elwes) calls up Professor Van Helsing (also Hopkins) to cure her, and while he doesn't cure Lucy (she dies and is beheaded), he does save Mina.  Mina is turned into Dracula's bride while they are having sex, but she is eventually saved when Jonathan, Lucy's fiancé, and Van Helsing go to kill Dracula.  Mina finishes the job, and reunites Vlad & Elisabeta in heaven, with her vampirism gone now that she has destroyed the man who turned her.

I think the first thing that you should know about Bram Stoker's Dracula is that there's not a lot of humor in this...and it probably needed some.  Oldman is going for 11 here, and that's not the worst approach for an iconic villain, but it does get hammy, as does the dialogue itself.  The movie also miscasts Reeves, who cannot do a proper English accent (something I suspect he'd own up to), and quite frankly neither can Ryder.  The year before she would win her first of two Oscar nominations for another maligned English-accent role...her Bay Area accent is, well, pretty prominent.  I don't mind a lot of overstuffed plotting & acting, as that's kind of the calling card for horror movies (and lord knows the near constant sex was welcome...you gotta love a movie with a bunch of people constantly on the verge of an orgasm), but Ryder & Reeves are bad enough that I just...I struggled.

That said, I admired the look of the movie.  I get why this was doused in Academy Awards.  The sound work is strong (I love how you heard the spilling of blood...the film is into its bodily fluids), and the sets are fantastic.  The scrumptious gardens, Lucy's elaborate (and ridiculous) white coffin, the horny drawing rooms-the movie is a portrait in every way, and that extends to the oil painting cinematography.  The costumes as well, particularly Sadie Frost's post-vampire look, are on-point.  Best of the bunch is the makeup.  I'm not entirely sure what Gary Oldman's gorgon-mutant look is accomplishing by having him look like a freak during the nighttime as Dracula, but, well, it stands out, and looks realistic-within-the-movie.  I think it works-horror movies are about making moments, and this does.

Past Horror Month Reviews

1920's: The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera

1930's: The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Mad Love, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London

1940's: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Cat People, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Invisible Woman, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Phantom of the Opera, She-Wolf of London, Son of Dracula, The Uninvited, The Wolf Man

1950's: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space, Revenge of the Creature

1960's: The Devil Rides Out, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead,Village of the Damned

1970's: The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Don't Look Now, Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, The Omen, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, When a Stranger Calls, The Wicker Man

1980's: Child's Play, The Evil Dead, The Fly, Friday the 13th, Gremlins, Hellraiser, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, The Thing

1990's-Present: Arachnophobia, The Blair Witch Project, Candyman, Scream

OVP: Frankenweenie (2012)

Film: Frankenweenie (2012)
Stars: Charlie Tahan, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Winona Ryder, Martin Landau, Conchata Ferrell
Director: Tim Burton
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Animated Feature)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Tim Burton has fallen on hard times creatively-yes, everyone in the world seemingly saw his look down the rabbit hole, but that doesn't make it a good movie.  In fact, it's hard to fathom that the man who made the dreadful Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake also was responsible for the blissful Nightmare Before Christmas.  Happily, he still occasionally graces the world of animation, and so we got the fun, if fairly simple, Frankenweenie.

The film, shot in a beautiful black-and-white, is about a young boy named Victor (just one of many allusions to the Mary Shelley novel and the James Whale films) whose beloved dog has died from being hit by a car.  Not one to take mortality lying down, Victor is struck by an idea during a wildly manic lecture by his science teacher (brilliantly voiced by Burton treasure Martin Landau).  He decides to bring back his aptly-named dog Sparky with a combination of lightning and household appliances.  The sequence is probably the best part of the movie-eerily filled with old monster movie magic and lots of fun (but not excessive) Burton touches, of course the dog comes back to life, patched together with pillow sheets and handy sewing work on the tail.

Of course, this being the Frankenstein story, Sparky doesn't stay a secret for long, and in a quest to win the science fair, Victor's many classmates blackmail and scheme there ways into bringing back pets of their own, though they end up being true monsters rather than the adorable Sparky.  Since this is a children's movie, we learn that it is love that caused Sparky to be able to be sweet and stay alive, but don't let that sugary anecdote make you think that the film doesn't have a dark-and-twisted side.  While Burton doesn't seem capable of manifesting that macabre into his live-action films, instead relying on grand and ornate set pieces and costumes to make up the difference, his animated films still have that sense of dement.

I will throw in a caveat right here about the dement-I'm not normally a good gage of what children should watch or not (this isn't a Movie Mom blog), but I will say that the four-year-olds sitting in front of me were loudly sobbing both times that Sparky died, so parents should proceed with caution.

Burton relies on many of his regulars in the vocal cast, though oddly his most-used favorites of late, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, are nowhere to be found.  O'Hara, Short, Ryder, Landau, and Ferrell have all been in Burton's films prior to this, and they quickly adapt well to the tone of his film.  I've already mentioned Landau, playing the over-the-top science teacher, as a highlight, and while O'Hara voices a number of characters, the best by far is the character simply named "Weird Girl," who has an unhealthy obsession with her cat, and its feces alleged psychic ability (it sounds weird, and it is, but it works in the film's grossest sight gag).  This is their third film together, and once again Ryder is cast as the goth, good-natured but odd girl, and though she's fine, it's not exactly out-of-the-box casting-before she even spoke I could tell that this character would be played by Ryder.

The film gets a teensy bit repetitive in the final third of the film, and the sappy/sweet ending had an internal war over whether it was charming or saccharine, but overall this is a film I'd recommend.  Though its box office has been weak, it's got the sort of delicious animation the Academy goes for, particularly in a five-wide field, though I do hope that it doesn't come at the expense of the similarly-themed, but better Paranorman.  Paranorman may not have had as flashy of animation, but its story was solid, and its characters will stick longer with you.  Either way, though, both are fun ways to spend Halloween viewing, and its always good to see Burton striving for excellence once again.

And now, over to you-what'd you think of Frankenweenie?  Where does it rank in Burton's lengthy filmography?  And between Frankenweenie, Paranorman, and the similarly themed Hotel Transylvania, do you have a favorite?