Brides Of Dracula

The Brides of Dracula are fictional characters in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel ''Dracula''. They are three seductive female vampire "sisters" who reside with Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania, where they entrance men with their beauty and charm, and then proceed to feed upon them. Dracula provides them with victims to devour, mainly implied to be infants.

Like Dracula, they are the living dead, repulsed by sunlight, garlic and religious objects. In chapter three of the novel, two are described as having dark hair and red eyes, like Dracula, while the other as being fair, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Novel

Sometime near the beginning of the novel, after Jonathan Harker arrives in Dracula's castle, he warns Harker that if he leaves his room to never sleep in any other room in the castle, but does not tell him why, clearly aware that the sisters will kill him.

Late one night Jonathan explores the castle. He sits at a table writing in his journal and, as he begins to fall asleep, sees three women standing in the moonlight who cast no shadows. The women proceed to seduce him and, as one of them begins to kiss his neck, he feels her sharp teeth barely scrape against his flesh. Dracula then grabs her neck and hurls her away, chastising the brides for trying to feed on Harker when he wasn't done with him. He promises to give Harker to them after his business deal is concluded and gives them a "wiggling bag" (presumed by Harker to be a human child) to appease them. Harker soon fears for his life, at one point thinking he sees the brides dancing in the sky outside his bedroom, which strengthens his resolve to escape. Dracula makes good on his word and leaves Harker to the sisters when he heads for England. Though Harker manages to escape the castle shortly after, he is badly traumatized by the encounter and is diagnosed with brain fever. Though they lose their victim, the brides continue to haunt the castle and terrorize the nearby village.

The sisters are seen again near the end of the novel as the protagonists pursue Count Dracula to Transylvania. The sisters suddenly appear at a camp consisting of Abraham Van Helsing and Jonathan's wife Mina. Sensing that Mina is cursed with vampirism, they beckon her to join them, referring to her as their "sister" and promising not to harm her. However, Van Helsing had previously crushed a Sacred wafer and scattered it in a circle around the campsite. Due to this protective barrier, both Mina and the sisters are unable to cross its border. Although the vampires kept away from the camp they remained in the darkness until sunrise upon which they fled back to the castle. At the coming of daylight, Van Helsing finds that their horses are dead. After Van Helsing binds Mina in another ring of sacramental bread, he subsequently goes to Dracula's castle alone to destroy the vampires and sterilize Dracula's tomb, keeping him from ever being able to enter it again. After locating the vampires' graves, he finds them asleep 'open-eyed'. He attempts to kill the first but almost fails as his eyes befall her beauty. Caught in an enchantment, he becomes entranced and lost in a state of uncertainty. Becoming overwhelmed with emotions, he feels compelled to protect her instead and even contemplates love for her. He suddenly hears a 'Soul Wail' from Mina which breaks the enchantment, allowing him to finish his work. First using a blacksmith hammer, he strikes a stake into her, then proceeds to operate on her, detaching the head from the body and filling the mouth with garlic. He repeats this process with the other two, taking him an entire day to complete.

Characters

In the novel, the three vampire women are not individually named. Collectively, they are known as the "sisters", and are at one point described as the "weird sisters". Although the three vampire women in ''Dracula'' are generally referred to as the "Brides of Dracula" in popular culture and media, they are never referred to as such in the novel. Whether they are married to Dracula is not mentioned in the novel, nor are they described as having any other relation to him.

The origin and identity of the Sisters, as well as the true nature of their relationship with Count Dracula, is never revealed. One of the three may have been identified in the short story "Dracula's Guest", as the vampire named Countess Dolengen production entitled ''Count Dracula''. They are played by Susie Hickford, Sue Vanner, and Belinda Meuldijk. One of the brides in this adaptation is a Frenchwoman.
* The 1973 television series ''Purple Playhouse'' adaptation of Dracula features only two brides rather than three. They first materialize in the library, and attempt to feed upon a sleeping Harker. Dracula prevents them from killing him and orders them to leave. They later appear to Harker shoerly after Dracula has left for England, stating that now that Dracula has left them, they are "his brides", and proceed to feed upon him. They are not seen after this.
* In Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'', the brides were played by Monica Bellucci, Michaela Bercu, and Florina Kendrick. Bellucci, Bercu, and Kendrick's dialogue was in Romanian, and Kendrick reportedly helped her co-stars to speak her native tongue correctly. In this adaptation the vampire portrayed by Kendrick is clearly modeled on Medusa the Gorgon, and has living snakes coiled through her hair; another (played by Bellucci) appears to be based upon an Arabian princess due to her attire. It is the brunette vampire (portrayed by Kendrick) that is the leader, rather than the blonde (portrayed by Bercu). All three brides have speaking lines - the one played by Bellucci is the bride who calls Jonathan into their chamber (in English), the bride played by Bercu is the one who tells Dracula he has never loved, and the bride played by Kendrick taunts Van Helsing.
* In the 1995 spoof '' Dracula: Dead and Loving It'', only two brides appear. They are depicted as heavily sexualized when they first arrive in the room where Renfield is staying as they attempt to seduce him. Dracula saves him from the brides and sends them away before convincing the simple-minded Renfield he had simply had a strange dream. The brides are neither named nor have any spoken dialogue in this film and their fate at the end of the movie is unknown although it could be that they are no longer vampiric after Dracula's death.
* Three brides appear in the 2002 Italian TV mini-series ''Dracula'' (known as ''Dracula's Curse'' in foreign markets). As in the 1992 version, they speak in their native tongue and play up their supernatural nature by being able to fly and phase through objects.
* While the Brides usually remain nameless, they are named Verona, Aleera and Marishka in the 2004 film ''Van Helsing'', respectively portrayed by Silvia Colloca, Elena Anaya, and Josie Maran. Verona is the oldest of the brides and Dracula's consort, whereas Aleera and Marishka are his concubines. Aleera, the youngest of the trio, is portrayed as the most vicious. Their roles are greatly expanded into those of secondary antagonists, motivated by a need to find a way for their offspring to live, as their vampire children are born dead. They are also given the ability to transform into harpy-like creatures and fly.
* At the beginning of the 2012 film ''Dracula 3D'', Dracula attacks a young woman named Tania (portrayed by Miriam Giovanelli) after she secretly meets a lover, making her a vampire and his minion. He later passes her off as his niece to Harker, whom she tries to seduce. Tania is eventually dispatched by Van Helsing.
* In 2020 ''Dracula TV series'', Lujza Richter plays one of the vampire brides, named Elena. In this version Dracula keeps all his brides locked up in big boxes, conducting experiments on them and not permitting them to move freely around the castle. He also seems to refer to anyone that he turns into a full vampire as a "bride" (as he also uses the term to refer to Jonathan Harker, who is killed and turned into the undead in this version).

TV series

In 2015, NBC began to develop a TV series about the Brides of Dracula characters titled ''Brides'', written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and produced by Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter. The series was built on the premise "What if Van Helsing did NOT kill the three brides of Dracula? What if they survived for centuries and are now living in New York City?", with the series being described as a sexy reimagining of Dracula as a family drama with a trio of strong, diverse female leads, a show about empowered women and their attempts to maintain wealth, prestige, legacy, and their non-traditional family. In October 2019, the series was still being developed with the intention to sell it to a streaming service.

On January 8, 2020, it was announced that ABC handed out a pilot order to the series. Aguirre-Sacasa will pen the script and exec produce alongside Berlanti and Schechter. Maggie Kiley will direct the pilot. ''The Brides'' will be a co-production between ABC Studios and Warner Bros. Television. In March 2020, ''Deadline Hollywood'' reported the cast: Gina Torres as Cleo Phillips, the leader of this vampire trio and now a maven of New York City real estate; Katherine Reis as Lily Stevens, the youngest sister and now a striving singer; Chris Mason as Roland Grant, a stylish real estate mogul who arrives in town to challenge Cleo for professional supremacy and who has secret ties to Dracula; Sophia Tatum as Justine Strang, an aspiring model; Goran Višnjić as Dracula, the powerful, ageless, and iconic King of Night who “turned” each of his three brides and was left for dead at his destroyed castle in the Carpathian mountains; Erin Richards as Renée Pélagie, the sister who is now the head of a top modeling agency in New York City, known for her torrid affairs with her beautiful female models; and Charlie McElveen as Arthur Seward, an ambitious young news reporter working the graveyard shift at his paper covering news of the bizarre, and the love interest to Lily. On June 29, 2020, ABC decided to drop the series from the 2020-2021 lineup in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the series is being pitched to other networks.

On stage

*They appear in ''Dracula, the Musical'' by Frank Wildhorn and have their own song "Forever Young".
*In the Czech musical ''Dracula'', the brides are called "nymphs". They are the victims of Dracula, slightly resentful but still devoted to him. They are jealous and mischievous, and enjoy troubles and gossiping. They serve as a comical relief, but at the same time, they represent Dracula's dark, vampiric side.
*They also appear in the French Canadian musical ''Dracula - Entre l'amour et la mort''.
*They appear in the Northern Ballet's ''Dracula'' by David Nixon and are portrayed by Rachael Gillespie, Minju Kang, and Sarah Chun in the 2019 production of the ballet, which was recorded and showed in UK cinemas on Halloween and then broadcast on BBC4 in 2020.

Characters based on the original Brides

*In the 1960 Hammer film ''The Brides of Dracula'', the Baron Meinster (David Peel) is a vampire who attacks an unnamed local village girl (played by Marie Devereux) and the heroine Marianne's friend Gina (Andrée Melly), turning them into vampires and his "brides". Although he actually proposes to Marianne (Yvonne Monlaur), his plan to turn her is thwarted by Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), who kills the Baron while the two vampire brides seemingly escape. Despite the film's title, Dracula never appears in it.
* In ''Count Yorga, Vampire'' (1970), which is a modern-day re-telling of Dracula, Yorga likewise has his own set of Brides, first starting out with two: a red-haired Bride and a blonde (who is later revealed to be Donna's deceased mother), then later adding the protagonist's brunette friend, Erica to the ranks. The sequel, ''The Return of Count Yorga'' increases the number of Brides to a least a dozen, with the protagonist's sister, Ellen, and a friend, Mitzi, joining them.
*The Brides of Dracula concept was also present in the 1987 horror-comedy ''The Monster Squad'', in which Dracula abducts three young women and turns them into his vampire brides.
*In ''Dracula 2000'', the brides are turned at different times throughout the movie. Jennifer Esposito, Jeri Ryan and Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick portray the brides, Solina, Valerie, and Lucy respectively.
* The brides also appear in the television series ''Buffy The Vampire Slayer'' in the season 5 premiere of "Buffy vs. Dracula"(2001). They are referred to as "The Three Sisters" and are credited as "Vampire Girls". They are portrayed by Marita Schaub, Lesli Jean Matta, and Jennifer Slimko.
*In ''Hotel Transylvania'' (2012), Dracula's wife Martha (voiced by Jackie Sandler) is an homage to the Brides of Dracula.

In literature

*In ''The Dracula Tape'' (1975) they are seen not long after Harker comes into the castle with Dracula warning them to leave him be. In this story, the brides are disrespectful to Dracula and try to undermine him where they can. Dracula later reveals that he has tired of them and does not even remember why he turned them in the first place. It is implied that unlike Dracula (who did not want to scare or harm anyone), the women let the power go to their heads once they became vampires and he had more or less planned to abandon them in the castle. But while Dracula was trying to make friends with Harker, their visit as depicted in the novel only makes the situation and misunderstanding worse. In this adaptation, they are named Melisse, the tall, dark-haired bride. Wanda, the second dark-haired one and described as full-breasted as well as mentioned to be Melisse's younger sister. And Anna, the blonde bride who is noted to be the senior of the three and the one who is most outspoken and rebellious against Dracula. Later in the story when Dracula returns to the castle, he finds that the three have terrorized the village Dracula was friends with and promptly confronts them. Anna attempts an assassination by controlling a partially turned farmhand to attack him, but Dracula easily thwarts the attempt, reprimands them, and sends them away. When they are killed by Van Helsing, Dracula does mention that, while he was glad that their deaths prevented jealously with Mina, that he did not wish that fate on them as well.
* In the alternate history novel ''Anno Dracula'' (1992), Dracula becomes dominant in Britain and eventually weds Queen Victoria, becoming Prince consort and Lord Protector. Despite being married to Victoria he keeps his retinue of Brides. It is mentioned that one of the Brides is Barbara of Celje.
In the first sequel, '' The Bloody Red Baron'', the Brides of Dracula are mentioned as including Mata Hari, Lady Marikova (from the novel ''The House of Dracula'' by Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes), Lola-Lola (from the film ''The Blue Angel''), Sadie Thompson, Lemora and Baron Meinster (from the film ''The Brides of Dracula'').
In the beginning of the second sequel, ''Dracula Cha Cha Cha'', a list of Dracula's official Brides is given. They are: Elisabeta of Transylvania (from '' Bram Stoker's Dracula''), 1448–1462; Ilona Szilagy (Vlad III's real-life second wife), 1466–1476; Marguerite Chopin of Courtempierre (from ''Vampyr''), 1709–1711; Queen Victoria, 1886–1888; and Sari Gábor, 1948–1949. The plot surrounds Dracula's engagement to Princess Asa Vajda (from '' Black Sunday'').
* Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has written a trilogy called '' Sisters of the Night'', with each book featuring the story of one of the Brides: ''The Angry Angel'' (1998) featuring Kelene, ''The Soul of an Angel'' (1999) featuring Fenice Zucchar and ''The Angel of Death'' (unpublished) featuring Zhameni.
*In ''The Diaries of the Family Dracul'' by Jeanne Kalogridis, the Brides are imagined as Zsuzsanna Tsepesh, a descendant of Vlad Dracul (believed in the novels to be his niece); Dunya, a Transylvanian servant of Vlad's mortal descendants, and Elisabeth Bathory, the notorious Hungarian noblewoman who murdered hundreds of her servants and bathed in their blood.
*In '' Fangland'' (2007), author John Marks re-imagines the Brides of Dracula as Greek brothers.
*In ''Dracula's Diary'' by Michael Geare and Michael Corby, the Brides are named Trandafira, Vlastimila and Pavola.
*In ''The Satanic Brides of Dracula'' by Lucas Thorn, the Brides are named Vasilja, Senka and Hailwic.
*In the ''Daughters of Shadow and Blood'' trilogy by J. Matthew Saunders, the Brides are named Yasamin Ashrafi, Elena and Elizabeth James.
*In the ''Vampire Bride Dark Rebirth'' series by Rhiannon Frater, the original three Brides are named Cneajna, Elina and Ariana. The protagonist Glynis Wright becomes Dracula's fourth bride.
*In the ''Being Mrs. Dracula'' series by Faith Marlow, the three Brides are named Valeria, Ilona and Fleur.
*In ''The Brides'' by Raven c.s. McCracken, the Brides are named Katrina, Anna and Silvia.
*In ''The Fourth Bride'' by Carole Gill, the three Brides are named Verona, Aleera and Marishka (the same names given to them in the film ''Van Helsing''). The main character Dia becomes Dracula's fourth bride.
*In ''Dracula's Brides: A Paranormal Romance Anthology'', the three Brides are named Crina, Emilia and Isabella.
*In ''The Deathless Girls'' by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, the two dark-haired brides are sisters Kisaiya and Lillai. The blonde bride is an unnamed countess.
*In the graphic novel ''Dracula Motherf**ker'', the Brides are again called Verona, Aleera and Marishka. Aleera is depicted as a black woman.
*In ''A Dowry of Blood'' by S.T. Gibson, the Brides are named Constanta, Magdalena and Alexi. Alexi is a male "bride", turned after the events of the ''Dracula'' novel.
*In the novel ''The Mummy Kills the Brides'' by Erik Handy, the three Brides are named Camilla, Athyne and Eve.
*In the anthology ''The Legend of Dracula: Into the Mouth of Death'' by Perry Lake, the three Brides are named Ulrica Dolingen, Anica Zelkovic and Mara Costachescu. Earlier versions of these stories were previously published in the ''Brides of Dracula'' and ''Dracula Arisen'' anthologies.
*In the novel ''The Three Brides: Resurrection'' by Sal Caradonna, the Brides are named Alexandra, Mihaela and Ioana.
*In the Marvel Universe, the three Brides in the original novel are identified as Nikolett Bodo, Bettina Kaposvar and Emese Kisfaludi. They have been Brides since at least 1691 as revealed in the story ''Suffer Not a Witch'' in the ''Dracula Lives'' series. In the two-part story called ''The Pit of Death'', set in 1809, the protagonist Lupescu is thrown into the titular pit while invading Dracula's castle. He is attacked by seven of Dracula's Brides, among them his blind wife, Velanna Lupescu. He manages to stake all seven and arranges their bodies into the shape of a cross so that Dracula would be unable to approach them to remove the stakes.
*A number of Brides are seen in the Marvel Comics series ''The Tomb of Dracula'', ranging from victims long since turned from ancient times to recent ones of modern-day. In the story ''The Return to...Transylvania!'', Dracula seeks out his Bride Marissa Constanda to turn him into a vampire, after he had previously become human. She refuses, telling Dracula that she now serves a new master. In the story ''Into the Tomb'', Blade encountered two Brides named Beatrix Nanai and Catherine Kiskvnalas while looking for his mother Tara Cross, who had also been turned into a Bride. All three were killed by Blade.
*The Brides are seen in the DC Comics mini series, ''Victorian Undead II: Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula'' led by Lucy Westerna in trying to ambush the heroes when they come to investigate a possible hiding spot of Dracula's. Curiously despite the Brides being centuries older, Dracula gave Lucy command over them, likely because of her resistance to religious symbols due to being turned in a modern era.
*Dracula and his brides make a cameo appearance in the ''Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' story "Night of the Living Gingerbread".
*In the mini-series '' Grimm Fairy Tales present Helsing'', three of the Brides track down the protagonist and try to kill her. She kills two of them before the third retreats. Near the end of the story, when the heroes track Dracula to his mansion during a party, we see he has amassed a large group of women as his Brides though orders them to let the protagonist pass so she may confront him. They show up briefly in the first issue of the sequel mini-series "Helsing vs Dracula".
*In ''Dracula: Ruler of the Night'', which re-tells the story, the Brides are eventually summoned to London once Dracula has landed in the city and has the Brides infiltrate the Westerna household as maids after Helsing is summoned to cure Lucy to spy on their actions. It is from them that Dracula is able to enter the household and continue feeding on Lucy. When Lucy's mother is sent a telegraph about her deteriorating condition. Dracula sends the Brides to intercept her carriage and kidnap her. The mother, along with Lucy, later is turned into two new vampire Brides. Dracula grains a third bride in Milly Van Helsing, Helsing's wife, whom he learns about from Lucy and absconds from the mental institution holding her and restores her sanity via the vampirism, albeit under his command. And later, Mrs. Petri, a socialite friend of the Westernas whose manor Lucy's mother leads Dracula to usurp after Carfax Abby is destroyed, thus making a total of seven Brides in this story—three from the olden times and four from the current era.
*In the original English language manga ''Dracula Everlasting'', Dracula decides to start creating Brides again in the third volume to give him an edge against the protagonists. He starts with three: Vanessa, a classmate of the boy he was possessing and initially has a crush on who rejected him, the mother of the protagonist who studied wiccan magic when she was human whom he kills to stop her from stopping him, and a hooker brought to him by the Renfields to feed on. Dracula had especially hoped to use the mother's powers against her daughter. After he loses her, he creates six more Brides in preparation for the final battle, one of whom was a reporter seen in an earlier volume covering the mysterious murders, whom Dracula turns when she does a report outside his manor.
*In the ''Alucard'' novel by Matthew Scott, Dracula has three vampire brides: Illyana, Camilla and Silvia. Each is described respectively as blonde, raven-haired and a redhead and are highly sexual vampires and enjoy inflicting chaos and bloodshed whenever the opportunity presents itself. There is also a fourth bride mentioned in the novel, Jana, but who is ultimately killed by her and Dracula's son Alucard shortly after her resurrection as a vampire.
*In the novel ''The Third Bride'' by Todd Davis, the Dracula story is told from the perspective of the youngest bride, Serephine de Bachaumont, a minor French noble who flees France during the Revolution. She encounters the Count in Romania 80 years before the events in Dracula. The two other brides are Parysatis and Maryushka. Serephine enlists the aid of Jonathan Harker while attempting to overthrow Dracula. The novel tells the story of the Brides' interaction with each other and Dracula, finally culminating in the vampire hunters' race to Varna and Van Helsing's assault on Castle Dracula.
*In the anthology ''Brides of Dracula: The Legend of Dracula Book Two'', Dracula's many brides include Lady Katya, Elizabeth Bathory, Mircalla Karnstein, Lady Lenore, Ulrica Dolingen and others.
*The Brides appear in Jonathan Green's ACE gamebook ''Dracula: Curse of the Vampire'', here named Lilith, Lamia and Melusina. They are described as three seeresses who seek refuge with Dracula and are turned into his vampiric consorts. At one point, if the player takes the role of Jonathan Harker, he can see the Brides transform into monstrous forms: The eldest Bride into a living corpse, the other two into a snakewoman and a werebat, respectively.''Dracula: Curse of the Vampire'', sections 228 and 440 (2021, Snowbooks, )

References

{{Dracula

Dracula characters
Literary characters introduced in 1897
Fictional characters without a name
Fictional henchmen
Fictional polyamorous characters
Fictional princesses
Fictional Romanian people
Fictional trios
Fictional vampires
Female literary villains
Female horror film villains