Vampirific Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2014)

The story takes place in England, the era is 1462 and Prince Vlad/Dracula (played by Gary Oldman) has returned from war, having won the night attack battle against the Turks - to find that his wife committed suicide after a false report of his death. Enraged by this, Vlad renounces the Lord and vows that he will rise from the grave to avenge her. In a fit of rage, he stabs the cross and drinks the blood from it.
Flash forward to 1897, where Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) takes in Dracula as a client to R.M Renfield, who has become insane and was sent to a mental asylum run by Dr. Jack Seward'. Now, here's a little bit of an interesting fact for you - there is a real life condition known as Renfield's Syndrome which is the obsession with drinking blood, such as getting excitement for the taste of it or getting turned on by it.
Jonathan travels to Romania to arrange Vlad's estate acquisition in London, including Carfax Abbey and he meets the count himself, who discovers a picture of Harker's fiancée Mina (Winona Ryder aka Lydia Deitz) and believes her to be a reincarnation of his late wife. Dracula leaves Jonathan to be seduced by his many brides. Damn are those brides sexy as hell.
Dracula takes on the form of a wolf-like creature when he arrives in London, amid a fierce thunderstorm and then uses his hypnotic powers to seduce, entrance and knock up Lucy Westenra who Mina Harker is staying with her while her fiancé Jonathan is over in Transylvania. He then bites her.
Over time, Lucy is slowly being turned into a vampire as indicated by her deteriorating health and her change in behavior, which prompts Mina's old suitors Quincey Morris and Dr Sedward along with her old fiancée Arthur Holmwood to call Dr Abraham Van Helsing, played by Anthony Hopkins. Who recognizes her as a victim of a vampire attack.
One of the many things I love about this particular movie is how much attention it pays to classic vampire lore, as although most vampires are typically seen with the ability to transform into a bat - in classic vampire lore it is indicated that vampires can also turn into wolves, smoke/mist, or sometimes swarms of insects. It's even implied that if an improperly disposed of werewolf were to die, he/she would actually come back as a vampire. Hmmm...that kind of explains why that keeps happening to Eliza and her two 'other halves'.
In the daylight, Drac appears in his more youthful and handsome appearance and charms Mina. And handsome is right. The funny thing was I thought that was Johnny Depp at first before I knew it was Gary Oldman. Even though this movie came out before Johnny Depp became known for his roles in movies like Edward Scissorhands. Young Drac looks quite yummy if I do say so myself.it's not hard to see where Russell Brand stole...oops, I mean 'borrowed' his look from.
They receive word from Jonathan who has escaped from the castle and recovered at a covenant, Mina travels to Transylvania to marry Drac. In his fury, Drac turns Lucy into a vampire. Lucy is killed out of mercy by Dr Abraham Van Helsing, Arthur Holmwood, Dr Sedward, and Quincey Morris the following night.
I am not going to go over the rest of the plot because well this movie is too good for me to spoil, plus everyone has already seen this movie and they are familiar with it already. I mean who isn't familiar with the tale of Dracula? No one? Exactly!
Bram Stoker's Dracula is in my opinion one of the most elegant monster movies i've ever seen, everything about it is just so visually stunning, classy, and well made. I love the sets, I love the props, I love the costumes, I love the musical score, I love the acting and I adore the makeup fx. No wonder this movie won a few Academy Awards, it deserved them for being such a marvelous piece of work.
Sure, some people have made fun of this movie because they thought the acting was too over-the-top and have even made fun of Keanu's 'English accent' , but that doesn't stop me from enjoying it. It's one of my personal favorite vampire movies and always will be.
Last but not least...I ADORE this movie's ending theme 'Love Song For A Vampire' by Annie Lennox, it's so sad but also moving and an overall beautiful piece. The lyrics are very moving as well, well written and full of emotion.