Dracula - 1931

   Dracula is a 1931's horror film directed by Tod Browning. It was based in the 1924 play by Hamilton Deane, which was obviously written based on the novel written by Bram Stoker. Bela Lugosi, a Hungarian-American actor, got the job to play count Dracula in the movie, after being talent-spotted from the Broadway version of the book, for the new Hollywood talkies.

  Unlike the book, the 1930's movie isn't set in the 1800's, but by the looks of the costumes, it is set in late 1920's, around the same time the movie was produced. The style of acting also reflects this time. Hollywood talkies, became popular in the early 1930's, but most of the actors and the filmmakers weren't used to sound films, making the performance style more like in the silent films. The director was also more known for his silent films, which probably affected the style of the movie greatly. Movements and emotions of the actors were often elaborate, especially with Bela Lugosi, who portrayed the confident and composed count Dracula.
  It is true, that the movie used its silence to its advantage, creating quite daunting moments within in it. Silence is definitely something we can use in our performance. A lot of times sounds are used to speak of danger, but during our group discussion Max pointed out, that perhaps silence could be an interesting way for us to tell of future threat. Like in many old movies, there is a static sound throughout the film, which I really enjoyed and felt, that had a certain unsettling mood and created tension in me.




Something that I really took notice during the film, was how much the eyes were emphasized during the film. Many times, when they drew a close-up on count Dracula, they directed the light to his eyes. Also, when telling about being attacked by a stranger, Mina Harker describes her attackers eyes been "blazing red" almost in an obsessive manner. Later on in the film, when she has started to show clear signs of becoming a vampire herself, the close-ups and cinematography is heavily focused on her eyes. I especially enjoyed the bit where she is walking trough a forest and the light shine between the shadows created by the trees catches her eyes.



Even though they weren't the biggest characters in the film, having no lines, the brides of Dracula were on of the most eerie figures in the movie. Living in the old ruin-like castle, every time the brides would appear, they moved like ghosts in a perfect line. At these points the lighting seemed to change a bit softer as well, not so many shadows and contrasts, but fog creating this phantom-like appearance for the brides. Probably the fact that they never said anything made these three women seem even scarier. I really like the fact that the movie didn't feel the need to hurry with these silences, but let the audience be apart of the suspense of each moment and feelings of the characters.
   The set and costumes help to create the atmosphere as well. Dracula, vampire brides, and the villagers all seemed to dress somewhat old-fashioned, compared to the more modern English characters, like Mina, Lucy and Renfield(at the start). This seems tell something about Transylvania, how it is too isolated from the other world for Dracula to be found and slayed from. The castle Dracula recites in, is very old and seem almost abandoned, because of the dust and spider-web spread around every room. In the castle, everything seems out of proportion, doors tall and heavy and even the fireplace seems like it was build by giants. But when the location changes from Transylvania to England, the setting changes to extravagant house, with big garden. I didn't notice anything too special about this, just that it was a rich family's living space. Still, all the bedroom windows were fairly large, giving the possibility for shots of Dracula as a bat, preying on his victims in the night.




Even though there was plenty of people that died during the movie, rarely was the actual death or bodies shown. This was an interesting choice that the makers of the movie made in my opinion, that allowed us to decide, how gruesome the deaths actually were. The only downside of this was, that when they eventually killed Dracula, the death was left somewhat anti-climactic, and I hoped this would have been an bigger and more eventful part in the film.


Over all, I found this movie very fascinating and inspiring. There are a lot of tricks and styles we can use in creating this on the stage, like trying to reenact Dracula not been able be seen in mirrors, appearing of Dracula unnoticed.   I am not sure, how exactly some of these could be done, but I am sure as a group we can find out a way.