Director: Tod Browning
Year: 1931
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
After he arrives in London, a group of friends finds the series of accidents to their group is the result of the mysterious stranger from Transylvania feeding on them with a set of supernatural powers and tries to save their corrupted associates under his spell.
Review:
This one wasn't too bad but had a few big flaws. This one is enjoyable with the grand opening here, making great use of the film's Gothic leanings in a spectacular scene that's quite chilling. The night-time carriage ride is good enough with the mysterious driver and creepy ride, but the real fun here comes from the closed-off scenes found in the crypt of the castle where the four of them come out of their coffins in their graves in absolutely fun scenes that are quite creepy and chilling as the setting adds to the eeriness.
Going right into the first meeting, where the absolutely grand Gothic castle that's littered with spider webs provide the source of a great visual gag and sets up the fantastic dinner scene and eventual corruption scene that's really fun. This also scores some fine points here in the build-up to his true revelation, getting the fine amount of bedroom stalking and reactions fully showing his intentions from the very beginning, making for a decent mystery here.
Otherwise, there are, a lot more flaws here that really lower this one down away from these positives. The biggest issue here is the rather bland, boring pace, which indeed comes from the origins of the film but instead comes off as stiff and way too talkative than it really needed to be. There's so little action here due to this rather irritated manner of talking or speaking out everything here rather than showing it as we don't even get the neck-bites or any true signs of vampirism on-screen other than what's told to us. In fact, so little of what happens here is told rather than shown this one could almost be seen as a romantic drama rather than a full-on horror effort, and it's really only the fact that he's a vampire which really causes this one to be reminded of a horror film.
The only other issue holding this one back is the fact that all this talking means Van Helsing has to continuously explain things to everyone involved for her protection rather than simply explaining everything at the beginning, especially since he knows not only the means of dealing with a vampire but also where he's hiding out. After he suspects this, it's several days of trying to keep her in check arguing, and his location for the hiding spot isn't a secret so it would've been easier to go into action rather than stay back and talk everything out. These here lower this one quite significantly.
Overview: **.5/5
A genuinely classic film but maybe a little overrated, this is still quite important in the history of the genre but still suffers somewhat from the technical limitations at the time almost more than anything. Those who can look past that or are fans of the approach taken here will have a lot to like here while most others who are turned off by these factors or just don't like this particular style should heed caution with this one.
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