Is 2024 Going to Provide a Dracula Movie Worthy of the Book?

Since being published at the end of the 19th century, Dracula by Bram Stoker has proven to be one of the most influential horror books of all time. While it has inspired numerous movies over the last century, many of them have disappointed fans of the book. Will 2024 see the release of a new Dracula movie that captures the magic created by the author?

from PxHere

Dracula as a Cultural Phenomenon

It’s interesting to see that the early reviews of this book were mixed, with some reviewers claiming that it was too frightening. Dracula was part of the gothic horror movement and anyone who reads the book after seeing movies or TV shows might be surprised by the style, as it’s written in the form of letters and newspaper stories with no central character emerging as the narrator.

Characters such as Count Dracula and Abraham Van Helsing have become synonymous with vampires and vampire hunters, although many other characters also appear in the book. For example, the Renfield movie in 2023 introduced us to the Count’s faithful servant, but not everyone was aware that Renfield was in the original story.

1960’s The Brides of Dracula largely ignores the Count and focuses instead on the three women who live in his castle and who appear in the book. Yet, the dozens of films based on the characters all take different aspects of the book rather than focusing on the full story. This has led to changes such as Van Helsing being portrayed as Dracula’s arch enemy who has traveled extensively to hunt him and other vampires. Yet, in the book Van Helsing only finds out that the County is a vampire at the same time we do.

The instantly recognizable characters have turned up in other parts of popular culture, from Dracula The Musical which premiered on Broadway in 2004 to art exhibitions and guided tours around Transylvania. Blood Suckers is listed as one of the recommended online slot games here. This slot by NetEnt features Dracula among the characters on the symbols that players try to form wins with. It’s not the only slot based on a horror story, with Frankenstein’s Monster and Immortal Romance among the other titles mentioned.

Dracula – A Love Tale

Famed director Luc Besson is working on a new movie called Dracula – A Love Tale that should be released later this year. Landry Jones is reported to be playing the Count, with Christoph Waltz also taking part. While it’s based on Bram Stoker’s book, it seems to be set to give us a deeper look at the vampire’s origins rather than sticking to the original story.

Early reports suggest that the movie will delve into the story of 15th-century Prince Vladimir. The title suggests a mixture of horror and romance, looking at the Prince’s relationship with his wife before she died and he is cursed by God. The story then jumps forward to London in the 19th-century, as Vladimir discovers a clone of his wife.

Nosferatu

Roger Eggers directs the next Dracula movie we can expect to see this year, with a December 25 release date penciled in for Nosferatu. Bill Skarsgård will play the vampire in the lead role with Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp also taking part in key roles.

Nosferatu is described as being an unauthorized and unofficial adaptation of the gothic horror book, so we can’t expect it to follow the classic plot too closely. Instead, it seems to be based on the obsessive relationship that builds up between the vampire and a woman that he becomes infatuated with. It entered the development stage in 2015 and filming was completed in Prague in 2023.

We’ll Continue to See Different Aspects of the Story

The focus on different parts of the story is one of the most fascinating things about the way that Dracula has entered mainstream popular culture. While many movies are faithful to the characters and the overall background, we can see how each director or writer enjoys building the action around the aspects that are of most interest to them.

Both of the Dracula-inspired movies to be released in 2024 seem set to carry on with this approach. We can look forward to seeing the Count and other classic characters, but both films seem set to explore the romantic side of Dracula’s life in a way that the book never showed us. We need to wait for the first reviews, but the fact that there is still so much interest in Dracula suggests that he’s not going to disappear any time soon.