Bela Lugosi is Dracula! What a strong start for the Universal Monsters!

| Oct 31, 2023

It may not be the definitive version, but it’s easily the most famous, a veritable cultural touchstone, and it was a smash...

| Oct 15, 2022

As a whole, Dracula balances out as a brilliant classic of an early introduction to sound films and early horror inductions.

| Apr 17, 2022

Gorgeous backdrops and gloomy, Gothic sets almost upstage one of cinema's most notorious villains...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 28, 2022

Dracula from 1931 reflects limitations of its era but still contains eerie scenes and classic lines...

| Oct 15, 2021

It's more fantasy than horror, though it excels in crafting a forbidding atmosphere.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 26, 2020

The abundance of older features on Blu-rays and DVDs have helped give younger filmgoers an appreciation of classic movies. "They can learn so much more on how to pace and set a scene from Tod Browning over Michael Bay," Mankiweicz said.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 23, 2015

Bela Lugosi gives his greatest performance as the mesmerizing menace from Transylvania. Dracula chilled audiences in the 1930's, and it still gives me goosebumps.

| Original Score: A | Oct 23, 2014

It's a case of lightning-in-a-bottle casting and there's no way of telling if anyone else as Dracula would've become the model for every single Dracula that followed.

| Mar 26, 2014

It remains the most subtly romantic and highly atmospheric rendition of Bram Stoker's tale about the Transylvanian count, with Browning orchestrating the opening scenes to macabre perfection.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 7, 2013

...it's clear that the movie simply doesn't hold up terribly well all these years later.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 17, 2012

Lugosi's seminal performance and the striking opening act are what distinguish Browning's version of the classic tale.

| Original Score: 70/100 | Jul 21, 2010

A perfect example of the worst traits of Hollywood films in the early sound era.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Oct 6, 2009

Stark, cold, and deeply sensual, "Dracula's" atmosphere and intention is rooted in a fear of unknown lust and desire from which there can be no escape. To view "Dracula" is to be bitten by the vampire's desperate attack.

| Original Score: A | May 8, 2009

A classic despite numerous flaws.

| Nov 24, 2008

An exciting melodrama, not as good as it ought to be but a cut above the ordinary trapdoor-and-winding-sheet type of mystery film.

| Oct 15, 2008

A sublimated ghost story related with all surface seriousness and above all with a remarkably effective background of creepy atmosphere.

| Oct 7, 2008

All time horror classic starring Lugosi; still creepy as blazes.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 22, 2008

Bela Lugosi gives the performance of his life in a role that might have been written just for him. Highly atmospheric throughout, this remains a milestone in horror movie history.

| Sep 25, 2007

The atmospheric opening is the best part -- moody and full of sinister potential. After that, it's stilted drawing-room talk, variably acted, except for the cultish over-the-top dementia of Dwight Frye.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 25, 2007