like the book in fast forward.

Rating: Null/10 (7 June 2005)

As good as this film is it disappoints me because of all the things they leave out. It's almost like they read the book then thought 'Okay this time skip half the chapters' The trouble with skipping so much of the finer points of the book is that we get a disjointed film. It feels as though it's rushing through a story that has to be told slowly. Every detail in the book is there for a reason. The film however just throws the main points at us. For example: The film makes no mention of the many hours Lucy and Mina sit on an old bench in Whitby. In fact the bench outside the abbey on the cliff is completely removed from the film. The book details a beautiful scene where Lucy sleepwalks to the bench where her and her close friend spent many happy hours. Mina follows out into the dark night in search of her friend. high upon a darkened cliff where the small bench where she has sat on many occasions she see's her friend being apparently molested by a darkened dread filled figure. Mina loses sight for only a second and when she looks again the figure has apparently vanished. In the film we get Lucy sleepwalking into her garden and having sexual intercourse with a wolfman.
Another disappointment was that a lot of what Johnathan Harker goes through at Dracula's castle is cut out. They glide over the first 30% of the book and just throw topless women at us instead.
It's a shame that they didn't just film what was in the book and set it out just as the book does. The book is in diary format this would translate very easily onto a screen. Each diary entry being a scene.
I would say that this is yet another case of "The book is better than the movie"
Paul Fletcher