Topic: Have you read the original Dracula novel?

[Omegasigma]

the original Dracula book is mandatory here to pass highschool english class, it has to be read and an in deph essay wrote on the vampire, I also own a film reel copy of the original silent version of dracula

[Raxivace]

I own a physical copy, though I haven't had the time to really get in depth into it yet. I plan on doing so soon though (Especially with all this awesome Castlevania news lately).

[Omegasigma]

I have the original, Dracula. the sequel Dravcula The Undead by Dache Stoker, The Journel of Vanhelsing (takes place before dracula novel and during, giving a nice backstory) a book titled "The Ultimate Dracula" written by a bunch of well known authors. on the reverse side of my Dracula novel is Frankenstien

[Fofa]

I have the original, Dracula. the sequel Dravcula The Undead by Dache Stoker, The Journel of Vanhelsing (takes place before dracula novel and during, giving a nice backstory) a book titled "The Ultimate Dracula" written by a bunch of well known authors. on the reverse side of my Dracula novel is Frankenstien

Might have to give the "Journal of Van Helsing" a look. Who wrote that?

[Omegasigma]

the title is "The Jornal of Professor Abraham Van Helsing" the cover art shows Vlad Tepes, bottoms reads:

Edited and with critical commentary by Professor Allen C. Kupfer

To my knowlage there is to coverarts to this, one with vlad, one with a large splatter of blood,
when I read this fic, It was so well written to me, I began to think i was literally reading a peice of history, and forgot I was reading a novel

[Fofa]

Thanks. Now I'll have to take a peek.

[Ratty]

I read it at least once a year...usually right after reading Jeanne Kalogridis' Trilogy, Diaries of the Family Dracul, which are a prequel to Stoker's novel. Thus, I read all 4 books in succession. It literally makes for non-stop Drac fun, and I always read these books with a CV score playing in the background

That sounds pretty neat. I'll have to take a look at some of the other books mentioned in this thread.

[Omegasigma]

Ive also kept reading the Manga of Rosario Vampire, the fact that Castlevania and Dracula make cameos is enough for me :p but i also dont mind the story

[xscientist5000]

I've read the original once when I was 12, then again when I was 15. To me, the biggest disparity between the book and the film was Mina's relationship with Dracula. I love the 1994 movie, but that part shocked me since I read the book first. That and Gary Oldman looked nothing like how I pictured Dracula from my front cover:

I remember the book talked a lot about Dracula's limitations. Something like he couldn't cross a body of water when a tide was changing? He could appear in daylight, but his powers were weakened. He has to sleep in the soil of his homeland. These are never really addressed in CV.

[K.G. Morder]

Well to be fair, CV games never really have the chance to adress them, he is usually sitting in his throne, in his castle, in Transylvania.

But considering the Novel is canon to CV, ill assume they exist.

[xscientist5000]

Well to be fair, CV games never really have the chance to adress them, he is usually sitting in his throne, in his castle, in Transylvania.

But considering the Novel is canon to CV, ill assume they exist.

That's why I'd like some survival horror elements in a new CV. For example when you have to meet Rosa in the garden. You had to talk to another character to know to meet her there. Its a point when the game stops being as linear. I guess what I'm saying is I'd like more quests that lead to information or items or optional side quests, not just "find the hidden upgrade, oh and its only hidden because the camera angles are F@#IN LOCKED".

Then they could actually utilize some more content from the novel as you strategically hunt down Dracula.

[Ratty]

I've read the original once when I was 12, then again when I was 15. To me, the biggest disparity between the book and the film was Mina's relationship with Dracula. I love the 1994 movie, but that part shocked me since I read the book first. That and Gary Oldman looked nothing like how I pictured Dracula from my front cover:
I remember the book talked a lot about Dracula's limitations. Something like he couldn't cross a body of water when a tide was changing? He could appear in daylight, but his powers were weakened. He has to sleep in the soil of his homeland. These are never really addressed in CV.

That is a badass cover, Boris Vallejo rocks my socks. I did some looking and turns out there's actually a version with a naked woman at his feet as well http://www.middian.net/Galerie3/Boris%20Vallejo%20-%20Dracula.jpg sadly, she shows no signs of being a barbarian.

About the Coppola movie- what I've heard is that the absurd wig they had on the older-form Dracula was an ill-advised attempt to compensate for Oldman being so much shorter than Reeves and the other actors. You can see this in the way the film is shot as well. As I recall for example in the scene where Mina drinks his blood and he turns into the bat creature he's always either standing on a bed or not in the same shot as the rest of them. I assume this is also why they gave him the almost comically long tophat in the younger-Drac scenes as well.
The "Mina really loves Dracula" thing is a remnant from the stage performances of Dracula where the character got turned into the romanticised Vampire we're all familiar with today. Of course in the original novel the aforementioned blood drinking incident is basically a rape scene and Dracula is a vile exploitative creature, not the tortured romantic anti-hero most films and other media tend to portray him as. What strikes me as funny in the Coppola movie is that they actually show him laughing about kidnapping and feeding his brides a baby yet they still play him as a romantic victim-hero.

And I agree, most CV games just never got to address Dracula as a character much, which is part of what makes these other sources so fascinating for us.

[xscientist5000]

Awesome, I never knew about the cover with the naked woman. Reminds me of Dracula 2000, when he walks in the CD store, all the girls are turned on. I remember being like, I want that power!!

I think Oldman was a decent Dracula, and that's funny that he was too short. Good point about the baby, and he also killed the ship workers and Lucy, who might have been a spoiled B!@#$ and a bit sluttish but was basically innocent. All I know is, in the end I didn't feel as bad as much as I had a "Die monster!" attitude toward him.

[James Belmont]

The "Mina really loves Dracula" thing is a remnant from the stage performances of Dracula where the character got turned into the romanticised Vampire we're all familiar with today. Of course in the original novel the aforementioned blood drinking incident is basically a rape scene and Dracula is a vile exploitative creature, not the tortured romantic anti-hero most films and other media tend to portray him as. What strikes me as funny in the Coppola movie is that they actually show him laughing about kidnapping and feeding his brides a baby yet they still play him as a romantic victim-hero.

Actually, while Dracula's image was certainly sexualized gradually and subtly over time, the root of the romance lies in the old soap Dark Shadows, its creator Dan Curtis, and a writer you guys may be familiar with named Richard Matheson.

Dan Curtis made a TV movie adaptation of Dracula in...shot in the dark, 1973, starring Jack Palance. Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay. Now, Richard Matheson wanted to add a little depth to the Count, and Curtis, not one to care about rehashing things, basically worked in a subplot wherein Mina was actually the reincarnation of Dracula's one true love. This subplot was lifted from Dark Shadows, with Barnabas Collins instead of Dracula.

Ever since then, as others inspired by the film managed to work in that subplot into their own stories, it just stuck. To this day new interpretations of Dracula are released in which Dracula and Mina are lovers. I much prefer the Count to be more of a monstrous, pure evil sort of figure, myself. A tragic past can work sometimes, but it shouldn't be used to excuse his evil actions in the present and turn him into a big teddy bear, or worse, a fanged Fabio.

[Ratty]

Actually, while Dracula's image was certainly sexualized gradually and subtly over time, the root of the romance lies in the old soap Dark Shadows, its creator Dan Curtis, and a writer you guys may be familiar with named Richard Matheson.

Dan Curtis made a TV movie adaptation of Dracula in...shot in the dark, 1973, starring Jack Palance. Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay. Now, Richard Matheson wanted to add a little depth to the Count, and Curtis, not one to care about rehashing things, basically worked in a subplot wherein Mina was actually the reincarnation of Dracula's one true love. This subplot was lifted from Dark Shadows, with Barnabas Collins instead of Dracula.

Ever since then, as others inspired by the film managed to work in that subplot into their own stories, it just stuck. To this day new interpretations of Dracula are released in which Dracula and Mina are lovers. I much prefer the Count to be more of a monstrous, pure evil sort of figure, myself. A tragic past can work sometimes, but it shouldn't be used to excuse his evil actions in the present and turn him into a big teddy bear, or worse, a fanged Fabio.

Awesome, that I did not know. I had always heard this was just an extension of the stage play. And you see exactly this relationship of reeincarnation and attempted reunion/undead-ifying in Universal's "The Mummy" with Boris Karloff which coming in 1932 predates Dark Shadows by decades, with the implication that this relationship was just an element left out of the Universal version of Dracula and incorporated into the Mummy.
The Mummy - 1932 - Official Trailer
I believe there were films where the relationship between Drac and Mina was played as a romance or at least mutual sexual attraction before Dark Shadows though? I sadly have not seen many of the Hammer movies. In either case I really want to see that Palance film now but I don't think it's available on DVD on VHS, I need to check next time I've got some cash. This is the one yes?
Dan Curtis' Dracula(1973)
Guess I'll finish watching House of Dark Shadows now to, got it on VHS for 99 cents last year, watched about an hour of it and was like "welp, can't take this any more" and haven't finished it. Soap opera plots don't work well condensed, assuming they work at all.

All I know is, in the end I didn't feel as bad as much as I had a "Die monster!" attitude toward him.

Same, it's like in that scene where they're talking to him as the bat-creature the exchange is something like "Van Helsing: You impaled and killed thousands of people!" "Dracula: Look what your God has done to me!" It's like, dude, I know you lost the love of your life, but I'm pretty sure at least a couple of those thousands of people you killed had loved ones to. They're pushing the "misunderstood monster" thing really hard in that movie though, like where they let Mina defend Dracula and eventually kill him. And Reeves is like "Our work is finished here, hers has just begun" and Van Helsing says "We've all become God's madmen, all of us"
Gee guys, Quincey is over there DYING for doing this "God's madmen" business of saving the world from being taken over by the spread of Dracula's undead monster disease you could at least wait until Quincey was cold before feeling sorry for Dracula.

Oh well, at least we know Quincey got to reincarnate as a possibly even more badass hero. -The Rocketeer.