Count Dracula in popular culture


The character of Count Dracula from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, has remained popular over the years, and many films have used the Count as a villain, while others have named him in their titles, such as Dracula's Daughter, The Brides of Dracula, and Dracula's Dog. Dracula has enjoyed enormous popularity since its publication and has spawned an extraordinary vampire subculture in the second half of the 20th century. More than 200 films have been made that feature Count Dracula, a number second only to Sherlock Holmes. At the center of this subculture is the legend of Transylvania, which has become almost synonymous with vampires.
Most adaptations do not include all the major characters from the novel. The Count is usually present, and Jonathan and Mina Harker, Dr. Seward, Professor Van Helsing, and Renfield usually appear as well. The characters of Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra are occasionally combined into a single female role. Jonathan Harker and Renfield are also sometimes reversed or combined. Quincey Morris and Arthur Holmwood are often omitted or, occasionally, combined into one character.

Films

Film adaptations of the novel

There are reports of a 1920 Soviet silent film Drakula, based on Stoker's novel. The film would have predated the lost 1921 Hungarian film Dracula's Death, and is thus claimed to be the first film adaption of Dracula. Nothing regarding this film is known to survive; there are no known production stills, and there is very little information about this film available. Most sources agree that the existence of this film is questionable because no details appear to have survived, and its existence is not verifiable.

Universal Studios productions of Dracula

The Universal Studios horror films made Dracula a household name by starring him as a villain in a number of movies, including several where he met other monsters The Universal Studios films in which Dracula appeared were:
  1. Dracula
  2. Dracula's Daughter
  3. Son of Dracula
  4. House of Frankenstein
  5. House of Dracula
  6. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
  7. Dracula

    Hammer Films productions of Dracula

Horror of Dracula was followed by a long series of Dracula films, usually featuring Lee as the Count.
The Hammer films in which Dracula appeared were:
  1. Dracula ; released in the U.S. as Horror of Dracula
  2. The Brides of Dracula
  3. Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
  4. Taste the Blood of Dracula
  5. Scars of Dracula
  6. Dracula A.D. 1972
  7. The Satanic Rites of Dracula ; released in the U.S. as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride
  8. The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires ; variously released as The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula and Dracula and the 7 Golden Vampires
Though Dracula is pronounced as dead in The Brides of Dracula, he is resurrected for Dracula: Prince of Darkness, before being killed off again. This formula is followed in each succeeding film apart from the last, The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires.

Other productions 1957–1979

Drama

TV adaptations

Dracula has been adapted for TV several times, with some adaptations taking many liberties and others trying to stay faithful more or less to original source.
Dracula has even been adapted for children's literature and entertainment, serving as the basis for several vampire cartoon characters over the years, although in the interest of creating child-friendly characters, the vampiric nature of the character is often understated or not referenced at all.
A prequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Robert Statzer's To Love a Vampire, chronicles Dr. Abraham Van Helsing's days as a medical student, depicting his first confrontation with the occult during an encounter with Countess Elizabeth Bathory and her niece, Carmilla Karnstein. Originally published as a serial in the pages of Scary Monsters Magazine from March 2011 to June 2013, a revised version of To Love a Vampire was reprinted in paperback and Kindle editions in June 2018.
Makt Myrkranna by Bram Stoker and Valdimar Ásmundsson, is a rewritten Icelandic version of Stoker's novel, and also contains an original preface written by Stoker himself. First appeared in serial form in the newspaper Fjallkonan between January 1900 and March 1901, before being published in book form later the same year. New characters include detective called Barrington and a whole group of villainous aristocrats: Romanian Prince Koromesz, his sister, the beautiful Countess Ida Varkony; Margravine Caroma Rubiano, a medium; and Madame Saint Amand, an elegant young woman noted for taking a number of distinguished lovers.
A Swedish version from 1899, serialized in the country's newspapers Dagen and Aftonbladet under the title Mörkrets Makter which, just like the Icelandic title, means Powers of Darkness. The translations contains parts not present in neither Dracula or Makt Myrkranna and was translated by someone who used the pseudonym “A—e.”
Dracula has also inspired many literary tributes or parodies, including Stephen King's Salem's Lot, Kim Newman's Anno Dracula-which features a world where Dracula defeated Van Helsing's forces and took over England-, Fred Saberhagen's The Dracula Tape and its many sequels, Wendy Swanscombe's erotic parody Vamp, Dan Simmons' Children of the Night and Robin Spriggs' The Dracula Poems: A Poetic Encounter with the Lord of Vampires. The novel Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula; or, The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count by Loren D. Estleman features Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson becoming involved in the confrontation with Dracula, told as though the two were dealing with Dracula when he was not confronting Van Helsing's crew.
In The Diaries of the Family Dracul, a trilogy by Jeanne Kalogridis, Vlad's relationship with his mortal descendants is explored, as are the specific terms of his vampiric curse and his pact with the Romanian peasants who serve him. The novels are written in epistolary form and the story is intertwined with that of Stoker's novel, as well as events from the life of Vlad the Impaler, expanding on minor characters and details from the Dracula mythos and Romanian history and culture.
Elizabeth Kostova's 2005 novel The Historian follows several historians whose research has led them too close to Dracula as they hunt the vampire across Europe.
Meg Cabot's 2010 novel Insatiable has a main character named Meena Harper who has a relationship with Dracula's son, Lucien.
In the book series Vampire Hunter D, which takes place 10,000 years in the future, D's adversary Count Magnus discovers that D is the son of Dracula, who is referred to as "the Sacred Ancestor" in the series.
Freda Warrington's Dracula the Undead is an unofficial sequel to Dracula.
Will Hill's Department 19 is about Jamie Carpenter, a descendant of Henry Carpenter, Van Helsing's valet who saves Van Helsing's life multiple times. Department 19, is an organization started by the people from the original Dracula, and they fight vampires across the world.
Dacre Stoker, who is a great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, co-wrote with screenwriter Ian Holt a sequel to Dracula titled Dracula the Un-dead, which reveals that Dracula was not actually the true villain, but sought to eliminate the more dangerous Elizabeth Bathory, the storyline also revealing that Quincey Harker is actually the son of Mina and Dracula and ending with the death of all the characters while the sole survivor, Quincey, is last seen boarding the R.M.S. Titanic on her maiden voyage. Dacre Stoker claims that parts of the work are based on excised material from the original novel and Stoker's notes. In North America, the book was published by E.P. Dutton.
A Betrayal in Blood by Mark A. Latham takes an unconventional interpretation of the original novel when Sherlock Holmes is hired by his brother Mycroft to investigate Dracula's death. In the course of the novel, Holmes confirms that Dracula was not a vampire, but in reality his death was part of a complex plan orchestrated by Van Helsing; a former German agent, Van Helsing was acquainted with Dracula in their youth, but after Dracula had an affair with Van Helsing's wife that resulted in the birth of a son, the son was given up for adoption to become Arthur Holmwood and Dracula was told that he was dead. In the course of the novel, Holmes determines that Van Helsing set up various complex deceptions to create the illusion of Dracula as a vampire, killed Quincey Morris because he realized the truth, hired an actress to pose as the vampire Lucy to reinforce his deception and blackmailed Jonathan and Mina to assist him due to their role in the death of Jonathan's employer Mr. Hawkins, while Renfield was the solicitor who was actually sent to Dracula's castle and driven insane by Dracula's manner. At the conclusion of the novel, the Harkers have been arrested, Holmwood is psychologically broken and Van Helsing commits suicide to escape a trial after he is caught by Holmes and Watson.
Vlad: The Last Confession by Chris Humphreys mixes myth and historical facts. The novel retraces the life of the historical figure of Vlad III who inspired the Dracula legend. While the story is based on the historical 15th century ruler of Wallachia, it also draws inspiration from the vampire legends that surround the Wallachian Prince.
Gabrielle Estres’ novel Captive retraces the life of Vlad Țepeș, the Wallachian ruler who inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. The book combines historical facts and contemporary 15th century pamphlets with the vampire lore created by Stoker.
A version of Dracula appears first as a supporting character in the Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost, then in a more central role as the protagonist's love interest in the spin-off Night Prince series. He is depicted as a powerful master vampire who was turned by a vampire named Tenoch and has the ability to control fire and read human minds in addition to the abilities common to vampires.

Short stories

Dracula became a popular subject in music of different genres, from pop to hip hop, and gained a big prominence in rock and metal.
Vlad Ţepeş is one of the more mysterious elder vampires in '. An Autarkis of the Tzimisce Clan, he has been present at many of the major events in the World of Darkness. In the ' setting, he is the founder of the 'Ordo Dracul', a secretive organisation to which the player's characters may claim membership. Both games draw much from the novel Dracula and vampire legends in general.
In Conker's Bad Fur Day and its remake,, Dracula appears in the form of Count Batula, a parody of Gary Oldman's performance as Dracula in the 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula.
In the Castlevania series, Count Vlad Ţepeş Dracula, as he is known in the series, is the ultimate source of evil that the others must confront, after adventuring through Dracula's castle. The other aspect in relations to the Count is his son, Adrian Fahrenheit Ţepeş, commonly known as "Alucard", who has dedicated his life to ensure the survival of the human race and the preventing of his father's tyranny. In the Lords of Shadow reboot/spinoff series, Dracula was once a holy knight named Gabriel Belmont who was turned into a vampire and claimed overwhelming power in the first game's Reverie and Resurrection DLC's. The trilogy portrays Dracula in a more sympathetic light as he was used by others to do dark things. So far the Lords of Shadow series are the only games in the franchise where Dracula is featured as the main playable character. Dracula is also a boss in the 2018 fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, in which the Castlevania series was also prominently featured.
Now-defunct software company CRL produced a series of games in the 1980s featuring classic horror classics including Dracula. These were the first game titles in the U.K. to receive BBFC certification, normally reserved for films and videos. There were two adventure games, Dracula: Resurrection and The Last Sanctuary. Both took place after the novels end and continued Jonathan and Mina Harker's fight against the Count.
Count Dracula appears in Sierra Entertainment's Kings Quest II, which was released in 1985. The hero of the game, King Graham, has to face Dracula in order to get the last of three magical keys and kills the vampire by driving a stake through his heart. However, Dracula or another vampire similar in appearance to him is in attendance at King Graham's wedding ceremony at the end of the game along with many of his other friends and enemies.
Dracula: Resurrection, ', Dracula 3 - The Path of the Dragon, ' and ' form a series of adventure games published by Microids. They were published in 2011, 2012, 2011, 2013 and 2013 respectively.
' is a 2008 PC point-and-click adventure developed by Ascaron Entertainment, in which the player assumes the role of Abraham Van Helsing in a storyline based on the original novel.
Count Dracula, appearing as an anthropomorphic duck named Dracula Duck, appears as the final boss of the NES game DuckTales, as well as the remake .
In Overwatch, Dracula appears as a skin for Reaper. In the Overwatch Halloween event's Tale of Dr. Junkenstein "The Reaper" appears as Dracula during the Endless Night.
The mobile game Fate/Grand Order has Dracula's human incarnation, Vlad III, appear as a 5-Star Berserker and a 4-Star Lancer-class Servant. His Berserker incarnation is described as "an incarnation of calamity that mercilessly wields his powers as a vampire." He appears in the Orleans singularity as an ally of Jeanne d'Arc Alter and in Salomon as one of the Servants from the Orleans singularity.

Others

The General Mills cereal mascot Count Chocula is a vampire who craves Count Chocula cereal rather than blood. His title of Count is an allusion to that of Count Dracula's.
The association of the book with the Yorkshire fishing village of Whitby has led to the staging of the bi-annual Whitby Gothic Weekend, an event that sees the town visited by Goths from all over Britain and occasionally from other parts of the world. In addition, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution runs a fundraising bungee jump event in the town every April named the Dracula Drop.
Mad magazine has published countless spoofs of Dracula. In one, appearing in the Mad Summer Special 1983, on the inside front cover, a cartoon sequence drawn by Sergio Aragonés shows Dracula attacking a hippie who has taken LSD; Drac staggers away, seeing colorful hallucinations including blood, bats and such.
In the film Forgetting Sarah Marshall, composer Peter Bretter, in a subplot, finishes his Dracula-themed rock opera titled A Taste for Love.
Russian authors Andrey Shary and Vladimir Vedrashko in 2009 published a book Sign D: Dracula in Books and on the Screen devoted in particular to Dracula image implications in Soviet and Russian popular and mass culture.
In the United Kingdom, discount store Poundland changes the voice of its self-service checkouts to that of Dracula throughout the Halloween retail period.

Tourism

There are several locations associated with Dracula and Bram Stoker related tourism in Ireland, Britain, and Romania. These include Whitby in North Yorkshire and Transylvania in central Romania.