Best Version of Dracula

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2011)

I strongly feel that THIS is the best Dracula film ever made. Unfortunately Bram Stoker's Dracula is highly under-rated and over looked today by what I would consider contemporary snobbery resulting in a divisiveness of any film lacking in the over-saturation of obvious and unrealistic computer effects and the fashion of mocking such actors as Keanu Reeves.
No other version of Dracula has come this close to following the original novel by Bram Stoker. This film is the most faithful adaptation of Dracula to date and it also gives depth and personality to Dracula that no previous version had before.
There are some changes from the original novel but it does not hinder the story but rather enhances it. In this film Dracula and Mina were in love with each other and Dracula is more or less redeemed through love, and other than that embellishment is, to date, the most faithful film adaptation of the Dracula novel by Bram Stoker. This film is beautiful and very Faustian. But don't think that romantic and humanistic redemption makes this like the sappy, sparkly vampires you see in the undeserving of mention- Twilight. Dracula, in this version of the story, can still be frightening, sinister, seductive, manipulative and intimidating and yet masterfully balanced with sympathy, compassion and romance for the character. For this reason I have to say it has the best portrayed Dracula in... well... ever.