To go a quick tangent about German Expressionism
To go a quick tangent about German Expressionism
Bram Stoker’s book Dracula begins with a journal entry by Jonathan Harker. Harker is an English lawyer traveling to Transylvania, an Eastern European country, to meet with Count Dracula for business purposes. In his first journal entry, Jonathan records his trip to Dracula’s castle. Along the way local peasants warn him not proceed on to his destination especially so late at night. The worried peasants keep repeating the word “vampire” and give him crucifixes to ward off evil. Harker does get a bit scared but he still decides to continue on to the castle. When Jonathan arrives to his final destination, the friendly and gently Count greets him. During his stay at the castle, Harker feels more and more uncomfortable as certain events take place.…
Stoker’s Dracula, by contrast, is refined and enthralling. He has transmutated from a monster of sorts to a mysterious seducer, from a coldhearted “beast” of incontestable evil to a complex human arousing a strange sympathy and blurring the lines between good and evil. Count Dracula is now an attractive, sophisticated aristocrat who moves about easily in polite society. Dracula’s motivation throughout the film is the pursuit of his lost love, reincarnated in Mina Harker.…
Vampire stories have been popular for years. One such vampire is Dracula of Bram Stoker’s novel. Dracula drives the plot in many ways, but he is not always the nice guy. Not everyone like him; in fact most are scared of him. Dracula is dynamic, but the antagonist for several reasons. Dracula is evil, scares everyone, and he kills a lot of people.…
Expressionism was an artistic movement that originated in Germany at the start of 20th century. The expressionist was originally used in the medium of painting, poetry and architecture as well as by the ideas from German romanticism of the 19th century; gothic literature, myth and folklore; which spread to other medium such as film. German expressionist became popular in the 1920's during the Weimar years. Expressionist films were heavily influenced by modern art (paintings), Expressionist movie used exaggeration and distortion to create images that expressed a emotional and psychological despair and chaos through mise-en-scene.…
Dracula- Told by Different Characters By Eva Serrano Reisner I step into the castle, Fooled by hospitality. Thinking that this man, Who is standing next to me Is a gentleman. Then I see that this man is not human. His smile with pointed teeth, His lips that redden,…
Nosferatu was the first adaptation in 1922, followed by Hammer’s Dracula Collection (1958-1974) featuring Christopher Lee, Dracula Lord of the Dammed (2011), Dracula Reborn (2012), Dracula (2013) and many more. All of these adaptations have had varying amounts of success, but so many have been made so it begs the question did we really need another to add to this long list? Throughout the years Dracula’s character has been revised so many times, transforming dependent on Hollywood’s needs at the time. Original representations of Dracula are one dimensional and the silent figures are given no human qualities. Christopher Lee who was famously given very little lines for his portrayal said in an interview with Total Film, “all they do is write a story and try and fit the character in somewhere, which is very clear when you see the films. They gave me nothing to do! I pleaded with Hammer to let me use some of the lines that Bram Stoker had written. Occasionally, I sneaked one in.” More recent adaptations tend to have a more contemporary take on the character. In a more advanced society we aspire to have more open minds and therefore it is natural for a modern audience to want to understand why Dracula does the things he does. What makes this recent adaptation stand out from the others is its setting. In Dracula Reborn (2012) the whole film is set in the present day and it has not been much of a success because it completely loses the character of the narrative. Meanwhile, Dracula Untold is set in 15th Century Transylvania and therefore emulates the success of Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones because we are transported into an equally mysterious world from a different time period. It suffices our need for historical knowledge and the pleasure we get from taking a look at how people lived in another time. The representation of 15th Century Transylvania is not an accurate one because it is sexed…
Tim Burton makes unique aesthetically grotesque movies.Vincent Price,Edgar Allan Poe and even Dr. Seuss influenced Burton.All four of these men had the love of horror in common . Three cinematic techniques that Burton used editing, camera angles and music to create an effect. The editing made all the characters look very cool .The camera angles gave us a different perspective to look from .The music made almost everything the characters did so interestingly dramatic.Tim Burton’s unique productions make his work stand out from other movies.…
Bram Stokers Dracula is dark and scary. It makes you afraid of Vampires, the walking…
Gothic Horror is a term used to depict fictitious work that has incorporated a lot of horror scenes as well as elements of the unreal world, exploring the conflict between good and evil and dealing with the supernatural in some sort of way. The episodic novel Dracula written by Bram Stoker in 1897 and the movie Blade by Stephen Norrington created in 1998 bring to the fore many conventions relating to the Gothic Horror genre despite their vastly different contexts. Gothic elements of imprisonment, eccentricity and death are clearly represented through each of the texts. Stoker and Norrington present these conventions through a variety of literary and film techniques, paying particular attention to character and setting to explore the elements of the genre. Through these interactions, the audience can feel a sense of Gothic Horror in which the composers of the two texts aim to convey.…
This revolting image of Dracula is entirely absent in the film. By contrast, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is refined and enthralling. He has evolved from a monster of sorts to an enigmatic seducer, from a coldhearted “beast” of incontestable evil to a multifaceted human arousing a strange compassion and blurring the lines between monster and man. He is now an attractive and sophisticated aristocrat who moves about effortlessly society and whose only impetus is in the search for his beloved revitalized as Mina Harker.…
In the novel, Dracula by Bram Stoker, he developed the writing of his novel by addressing the struggles between a modern society of progress, science, and technology with superstitions, folk beliefs and from the past. Bram stoker became interested in ancient superstitions including one from Cluj in Transylvania, Romania. He was a sickly child whose mother used to tell him ghost stories. Throughout the novel, two characters addressed these behaviors, Abraham Van Helsing, a Dutch professor who is a doctor and a lawyer and a philosopher and metaphysician. Also, Dr. John Seward a young doctor who studies psychological and owns his own asylum. Both of them showed their work by stopping the Count Dracula and killing him and going through rough obstacles.…
It remains unknown how much exactly did Bram Stoker know about the traditional image of vampires when he was lingering in Whitby in the year 1890. It is certain, however, that it is there where an inspiration for Dracula “bit his neck” for the first time leaving a legacy of a horror-love novel capable of freezing readers’ blood until this day.…
The story starts off with a young Englishman named Jonathan Harker. He travels to Eastern Europe in order to sell some property to Count Dracula. The antagonist is a reclusive but seemingly normal “man” from Transylvania. This section of the story takes place from the view of Harker, who decided to chronicle his adventures abroad for his fiancée, Mina Murray.…
Modern society is really intrigued by horrific sights and vampires are being used to portray the same effect to the audience. An example of a text that has used the concepts of vampires is “Dracula: by Bram Stroker”. He portrays Dracula, the vampire, as intelligent, strong and cunning. He is said to live in an isolated castle which is gloomy and dull, and whoever steps foot in there feels like a prisoner. He is described to have a thin nose and arched nostrils. He has “hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely everywhere” and also has hair growing out of his palm. He has large eyebrows and bushy hair that curls. His moustache is “heavy” and has “peculiarly sharp white teeth” and appears to be “rather cruel-looking”. His chin is broad and cheeks are firm and thin, however, the “effect was one of the extraordinary pallor”. He does not eat or drink, and also, he does not have a reflection. The overall appearance and attributes associated with Dracula are the typical beliefs and superstitions made by…
Dracula by Bram Stoker is a story about a vampire, Count Dracula, that holds Johnathan Harker captive in his castle and he eventually escapes after he has witnessed events that change him forever. Also in this story, Count Dracula bites two ladies Lucy and Mina. Lucy turns into a vampire after multiple encounters with Dracula and Dr. Steward, Dr. Van Helsing, Lord Godalming, and Quincy Morris free her from her vampire state. Then, Dracula forces Mina, who is happens to be Johnathan Harker’s wife, to drink his blood to become his slave. Dracula flees from the men after they decide to hunt and kill him. The men follow him back to his castle and catch him along the way killing him by cutting off his head and freeing Mina from her captivity to Dracula. Throughout this story, Stoker uses several elements…