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This list has been updated to include Bill SkarsgardsCount Orlok fromNosferatu.
Every adaptation of the novel has to wrestle with that dichotomy.
Weve put together a high-stakes assembly of some of Draculas good, bad, and just okay screen appearances.
I bid you … welcome … to this list.
Thomas Doherty,The Invitation(2022)
Ready or NotmeetsGet OutmeetsHarry & Meghan.
Even with a piercing stare, hes wholly unconvincing as both a romantic lead and an evil mastermind.
Unfortunately, this clunky, awkwardly shot B-movie from the Warhol Factory is hardly a showcase for his talents.
Palance is more brutish than sinister, and his rigidity makes it hard to buy his lovesick motivation.
Maybe its the cliched script; maybe its the oh-so-2012 inclusion of Sexy and I Know It.
Unfortunately, the good aspects of Cages Dracula are smothered by, well, Cage himself.
Villarias brings far more vaudeville to the role, with exaggerated pantomimes and long, melodramatic pauses.
If theres such a thing as a vampire supremacist, it may be this count.
(Is it any surprise that this show was created by theSherlockteam?)
Hes the most boyfriend-y of the Draculas on this list, which makes his menace only more terrifying.
Here, Schreck isactuallya vampire, hired by megalomaniacal director F.W.
Allen Swift,Mad Monster Party?
Even by the high standards of Rankin-Bass, Draculas design is impeccable.
His batty levity is elevated by his svelte silhouette, wise-cracking dialogue, and whimsical puppet physicality.
I am an appetite, he declares to his trembling victim.
Notably, hes one of the few Draculas without the ubiquitous accent, as there is no spoken dialogue.
This is a dramatically different, deeply sympatheticDraculathat embraces ballets penchant for gothic tragedy.
It helps that this is the most fashion-forward count, with his stylish 1890s-by-way-of-the-1990s wardrobe and dramatic color palette.
(Or should that bebatchelor?)
Max Schreck,Nosferatu(1922)
3.
Bela Lugosi,Dracula(1931),Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein(1948)
Call us purists.
Anyone who has ever played a vampire has had to contend with Lugosis towering shadow.
Lugosis ominous presence marries Draculas animal aggression to his sophisticated mental prowess.
Both horrifyingly monstrous and devastatingly human, this count mesmerizes the audience as much as he does his prey.
