Why Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and The Wolfman (2010) are companion Gothic Masterpieces
What makes a great Gothic Horror movie? Far more talented writers than I have answered what the genre of Gothic Horror entails, so I will not address this question. What I will address though, is what I consider to be two movies that are masterpieces of Gothic Horror: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and The Wolfman (2010). When viewed in succession over the course of a day or so, these two movies serve as companion bookends, tethered by two magnificent, crazed, electric, theatrical performances by Sir Anthony Hopkins.
When I reflect on the Gothic Horror movies of my youth, films like Frankenstein (1931), Dracula (1931), both the Bela Lugosi version and the early Hammer films starring the indomitable Sir Christopher Lee (1958 – 1973), The Invisible Man (1933), and of course The Wolf Man (1941) spring to mind in vivid detail. These films all invoke a sense of dread, terror, and most of all, atmosphere. Overcast skies, darkened forests teeming with danger, swirling mists flowing along the ground, and immense, foreboding castles that seem to call out to unwary victims, offering a false sense of safety, security, but ultimately sealing their doom.
As a Horror connoisseur, these elements speak to me, immediately identifying the film as Gothic Horror. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) is the ultimate expression of Gothic Horror on film, expanding and pushing into the form like no other movie of the 20th century. The luxurious sets, costumes, cinematography, sumptuous and sweeping musical score, and energetic, operatic direction by Academy Award-winning Director Francis Ford Coppola, coalesce into a feast of Gothic Horror (and Romance). But the movie does not shy away from Horror in that blood flows in earnest and often, in bright red technicolor!
The Wolfman (2010) starring Benicio Del Toro, directed by Joe Johnston, while not on the same level of expertise as Coppola’s film, offers up many of these same delights. The opening scene, when Lawrence Talbot’s brother Ben pursues a mysterious creature or person through the woods, is a masterclass in atmosphere, and pure Gothic Horror at its finest with a bright shining, full moon (a full tilt nod to the Universal Horror films of the past in a beautiful dissolve), observing events with its cold obsidian eye. In this instance, the victim is raked from stem to stern by a savage creature with razor sharp claws, giving the audience the first glimpse of the horrors to come, foreshadowing events that will take place in full as the story progresses.
Now, before I go further, I must address the elephant in the room with regard to The Wolfman (2010). All of the movies I referenced above used practical effects to create the illusion and magic of these creatures existing in our world. Even Francis Coppola used practical effects, magician’s trickery, and old-fashioned techniques to bring Dracula’s world and actions to life in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). The single computer-generated effect being Dracula’s transformation from monster to young man after his death at the end of the film.
In The Wolfman (2010), unfortunately all the transformation scenes were conceived via CGI, instead of practical effects; and considering that the master who gave us the premier werewolf transformation scene in An American Werewolf in London worked on this film, it is a bitter pill to swallow. I truly believe many fans were not able to watch the movie with an objective and nuanced eye because of this. I know, because I was almost one of them. When I read that Rick Baker was going to deliver practical effects for a werewolf film I lost my mind because those of us who are fans KNEW this would be his finest moment yet! Sadly, it was not to be.
Then, something interesting happened.
I watched the film on DVD the next year and discovered the unrated version which added more nuance to the story, showed more of the Gothic atmosphere, and overall, allowed me to slip into the experience of the movie in a completely different way. Now, I was able to notice and appreciate the Gothic Horror elements and easter eggs laid out in generous fashion by Joe Johnston and team. After that first viewing, I watched the film every year, sometimes two or three times. The only other movie I watched that often: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).
(Quick history lesson: I worked part-time as a projectionist after I left the US Air Force, at the theatre I used to work at as a teenager. I was able to show the projected 70mm print of Coppola’s movie in all its glory and have never forgotten it! It was beautiful then, and impressive on Blue-ray, but nothing like watching it in 70mm!)
I continued to watch The Wolfman (2010) every year, comparing the Gothic Horror elements in both films: dread – check, terror – check, atmosphere – check. Each element common to Coppola’s masterpiece was also present in Johnston’s film. And of course, there was one unifying element; the great Sir Anthony Hopkins.
As Doctor Abraham Van Helsing, Hopkins seemed just on this side of madness, as if his unexplained knowledge (and encounters) with vampires left him teetering on the brink of sanity. The way he used his eyes to convey unimaginable terrors was amazing and subtle, even as he broke into various heights of melodrama. In his portrayal of Sir John Talbot, Hopkins channeled and submerged this manic energy into a feral, animalistic thing waiting to be unleashed. He was by turns, charming, cold, protective, and frightening. Unlike Van Helsing, Sir John was a dangerous man and predator, capable of slaughtering one of his own sons just in order to keep the bloodline of the beast alive.
The performances in the films were polar opposites, but each embraced the Gothic Horror aspects, magnifying and broadening them. I do not believe it was an accident that the producers approached Sir Anthony Hopkins about the role in The Wolfman (2010) because both Dracula and The Wolfman are Universal properties. His addition as an actor signaled a nostalgic factor that could work on audiences either consciously or unconsciously.
Despite the Wolfman v. Werewolf CGI fight in the last act, all the set pieces and scenes build on each other as we the audience understand that Lawrence Talbot, despite being an innocent man, is headed toward a dark and tragic destiny. But, even this final confrontation is necessary to fulfill the Gothic Horror tropes.
Which brings me back to Gothic Horror.
In both films, the name on the title, and to me, protagonists, Dracula and the Wolf Man, are tragic figures. Men who attempted to do right by their God, and their family, but who both paid the ultimate price as all protagonists do in Gothic Horror tales. If one steps back, and looks beyond the artifice of either piece, allowing oneself to sink into the experience, you may find what you are looking for.
Gothic Horror at its finest.
A search for a cure to a condition which cannot be cured, which leads to the death and destruction of others, and of the protagonist themselves. Like another doomed protagonist, Roderick Usher, in House of Usher by Roger Corman (1960), based on the 1839 short story The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe.
If this is not the definition of a Gothic Horror masterpiece, I don’t know what is.
— Kevin L. Williams
