The last time I watch BS Dracula (I really didn't mean it to sound like that, I really did mean Bram Stoker's, funny how that works out though), I was amazed at how short it seemed. It really is quite underrated among the majority of horror fans. Just because of a few mainstream actors. Forgetting of course that the only thing that made Winona Ryder mainstream before BSD was Mermaids. This film sure as hell stands up to Interview with the Vampire and makes it crumble (could that film be more mainstream? And at the time, BSD's stars commanded maybe 5 million a piece ((yeah right, Anthony Hopkins probably cost 2.5 million at the most)) and IwtV's were at least 15m a piece for Cruise and Pitt and another 5m for Slater and at least 2.5m for Banderas).
Dracula '92 sacrificed a little of the typical blood 'n gore sub-g. for the sake of a different kind of horror that hadn't been seen in awhile, a more Phantom of the Opera/Beauty and the Beast-style freak/moster loves a princess/fair maiden plot. And though personally I thought the succubi were a bad cliche and looked a little fake, as did Keanu's head when he screamed in that closeup when Oldman was feeding the vampladies that baby (I was expecting him to pull a Scanners on us), the film had a lot to offer because it wasn't typical. It had some really cool camera angles when they were appropriate and some especially fast-moving photography in certain scenes (hard to claim this movie not memorable), a surprisingly attention-getting opening sequence that I think a scene in Sleepy Hollow (the "hessian mercenary" flashback) ripped-off, a climax where all the important elements of the film wrapped themselves up very well, a really excellent scene when Van Helsing and Lucy's suitors are hunting for Lucy: the undead after finding her burial place is out of sorts, and a romanticised sense of doom that you can feel- it's that tangible (examples: 1- the green fog that slowly spreads out over the place outside that cemetery where I think expect to see Dracula but don't and ends up creeping into the asylum and into Mina's bedroom, 2- the scene where Jonathan travels to the castle of Count Dracula both after he reads the letter in a turbulent carriage ride with a sort of chalky/smokey-black fog and brilliant blue lightning piercing the foreground without touching anyone in the foreground, and after he reads the letter as Lucy's writing it fades out of the dissolving shot of the Transylvanian map and we fade up into a wide shot of the carriage as the sun sets red then a shot inside the carriage and a closeup of the letter both as the sky outside turns pinkish-purple and Dracula's eyes fade in and out slowly as it covers every shot, 3- Dracula's body sails in the ship ((I'm not sure what town but it's in the middle of the film)) and A. Hopkins is narrating the ship's journey as we hear mens' screams on the ship and we see Dracula shifting around inside his crate in the most disturbing manner)
This is truly in the style of a great classic horror film, with some very modern touches that melds both kinds of horror films together well. This is a modern classic of a horror film, and deserves a lot more attention for it's quality. Though of course I'm not trying to change my vote, after all this is the quarter finals and both films are obviously excellent. I still think AWIL is the quintessential modern werewolf film.
