A refreshing sort of horror movie

Rating: 9/10 (9 June 2014)

Originally, the only reason I saw this movie was because it was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and was very skeptical about it at first. The movie is a pleasant surprise. There was more of an emphasis on acting and setting than violence and shock value that exists in most horror movies today. Also, the acting itself is very natural and the casting was well done. The best was Oldman as Dracula. He is the creepiest Dracula to date and strikes fear into your heart as you watch this movie. In this movie Dracula apparently has some seductive power and seduces Winona into falling in love with her. Oldman's performance is frightening and pulls you into a trance at the same time. Winona gives a brilliant performance as Mina a young, innocent woman who is engaged to be married to Jonathan who is a solicitor and is traveling to meet Count Dracula to arrange his real estate acquisition. Jonathan soon realizes that Count Dracula is very strange and sees some bizarre and unusual things. Coppola does a very good job directing and I hear that he stays very close with the source material, which would explain Bram Stoker's name on the title. Francis lets the character's draw you in and except for some weird stylized moments seems very authentic to the time period and I felt as if I was living in 1897.