''Dracula'' is a

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

adaptation In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is celebrated for his 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and busi ...

's 1897 novel, ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taki ...

'', produced by

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was its ...

for WGBH Boston and

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

in 2006. It was written by Stewart Harcourt and directed by Bill Eagles.

Plot

In 1899, Arthur Holmwood is diagnosed with

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium '' Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, a ...

soon after becoming engaged to Lucy Westenra. Knowing that the disease would kill both him and his fiancée, he contacts an occult group called the Brotherhood, which is being led by a man named Singleton. Singleton claims that they know someone who can cure him of the disease, but for a price. Lucy's best friend is Mina Murray, who is engaged to Jonathan Harker, a solicitor. Arthur hires his firm to sell several properties to a Count Dracula in Transylvania. Soon after his departure, his employer is murdered, and all documents about the transaction go missing. Singleton calmly confesses the deed, telling Arthur the "young man" will never return from Transylvania. In

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the A ...

, Jonathan meets Count Dracula, a nine hundred-year-old vampire. Dracula murders Harker, assumes a youthful appearance after drinking his blood, and is soon en route to England aboard the ''Demeter''. The ''Demeter'' eventually reaches

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Cl ...

but struggles to dock during a storm. The beached ship is revealed to be empty the next morning, save for the deceased captain and some empty crates. Mina senses that something has happened to Jonathan, and Lucy invites her to stay with Lucy and Arthur in Whitby. Mina's worries are confirmed when she discovers that Jonathan was supposed to have been aboard the ship. Arthur is becoming cold and distant, and Lucy expresses anxiety over their marriage not yet being consummated. Later on, she encounters Count Dracula, who consoles her. He introduces himself to Lucy, who invites him for dinner. Arthur, enraged to find Dracula in his home, finds himself powerless as Lucy suddenly falls victim to the vampire. Arthur's old friend, Dr. Seward, is suspicious when Arthur refuses to take Lucy to the hospital. He then forces Seward at gunpoint to give her a blood transfusion from his own arm. However, Lucy dies the next morning, and Seward is convinced that Arthur is responsible for her sudden death. He investigates and finds the Chelsea home of the Brotherhood, where Singleton and others have been murdered. In the basement, surrounded by crosses made of twigs, he finds Professor Abraham Van Helsing, living like an animal, who insists they must free him at once. Van Helsing explains that he was employed as a folklorist by the Brotherhood to investigate vampires. He eventually found Dracula and was released with a message to the Brotherhood: he would come to them if invited, but only if provided with property. Frightened by Van Helsing's ordeal with Dracula, they sent Jonathan instead and imprisoned Van Helsing. Seward attempts to explain this to Mina, but she is skeptical. Seward confronts a grief-stricken and remorseful Arthur, who explains that his syphilis prevented him from consummating his marriage. He arranged for Dracula to come to England, hoping that he would cure him of the disease. The three go after a now undead Lucy while Dracula pursues Mina, who soon realises Seward was telling the truth when Dracula attempts to bite her. However, Arthur is forced to destroy his wife when she attempts to bite him and Seward. Dracula senses this, allowing Mina to escape. Seward, Arthur, and Van Helsing meet her at her home, where they agree to go after Dracula, just before dawn, where he will be at his weakest. They arrive at Dracula's crypt, where Dracula appears and attacks Mina. Arthur sacrifices himself to Dracula to buy Mina an escape. Van Helsing distracts Dracula with a cross, giving Seward the chance to stake him from behind. Mina has moved on and starts a new life with Seward sometime later. After Mina and Seward bid farewell to Van Helsing, who is leaving for Holland, a decrepit Dracula appears and watches the couple as they walk down the street, without explanation of how he survived.

Cast

* Marc Warren as Count Dracula * Dan Stevens as Lord Holmwood *

Stephanie Leonidas Stephanie Leonidas (born 14 February 1984) is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the fantasy film '' MirrorMask'' (2005), the Syfy series '' Defiance'' (2013–2015), and the Crackle crime series '' Snatch'' (2017– ...

as Mina Murray * Tom Burke as Dr. John Seward *

Sophia Myles Sophia Jane Myles (; born 18 March 1980) is an English actress. She is best known in film for portraying Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward in ''Thunderbirds'' (2004), Isolde in '' Tristan & Isolde'' (2006), Darcy in '' Transformers: Age of Extinctio ...

as Lady Holmwood/Lucy Westenra * David Suchet as

Abraham Van Helsing Professor Abraham Van Helsing, a fictional character from the 1897 gothic horror novel '' Dracula'', is an aged Dutch polymath doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows h ...

* Rafe Spall as Jonathan Harker *

Donald Sumpter Donald Sumpter (born 13 February 1943) is an English actor who has appeared in film and television since the mid-1960s. Career One of his early television appearances was the 1968 ''Doctor Who'' serial '' The Wheel in Space'' with Patrick Tro ...

as Mr. Simpkins

Reception

Critical reaction to the film was mixed.

MaryAnn Johanson Mary Ann or Maryann or Mary Anne may refer to: People * Mary Ann Booth (1843–1922), American microscopist * Mary Ann Cunningham (1841-1930), Canadian temperance activist * Mary Ann Hanmer Dodd (1813-1878), American poet * Mary Ann Hilliard ...

of ''FlickFilosopher.com'' called the film "fresh and erudite" and "a valuable new angle on an old story." ''The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review'' wrote that "the film does finally gain some sizzle when it comes to the scenes of Marc Warren’s Dracula seducing Sophia Myles’s Lucy but added that "Warren occasionally creates a dark magnetism, but mostly looks too cute and boyish to fill a role as big as Dracula." Felix Vasquez Jr. of ''Cinema Crazed'' said, "Your best bet for your fanged fix would be to sit down and watch '' Bram Stoker’s Dracula'', instead, and for the hell of it, '' Horror of Dracula'', and Universal’s ''

'', because they’re worthy variations. This isn't. ... It's not awful, but it's still rather anemic."

Release

Prior to release trailers were released featuring

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

's song Warszawa. It was first aired on 28 December 2006 in the United Kingdom. It premiered in the USA on PBS as part of the

WGBH WGBH may refer to: * WGBH Educational Foundation, based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States ** WGBH (FM), a public radio station at Boston, Massachusetts on 89.7 MHz owned by the WGBH Educational Foundation ** WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), ...

series '' Masterpiece'' on 11 February 2007. It premiered in Ireland on 27 December 2021 on Virgin Media Three.

Background

One member of the cast,

, had previously portrayed a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

in (''

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwo ...

''). Marc Warren had previously worked with David Suchet in the film '' Five Little Pigs'' for ''

Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgians, Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (''Black Coffee (play), Black Coffe ...

'', while

had appeared in ''

The A.B.C. Murders ''The A.B.C. Murders'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, featuring her characters Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp, as they contend with a series of killings by a mysterious murderer kn ...

''.

References

External links

Official BBC micrositeOfficial BBC Press ReleaseInformation from a Sophia Myles fansiteArticle on the AdaptationBBC PromotionSecond BBC Promotion
* * {{Dracula Dracula films Dracula television shows Films set in 1899 Films based on horror novels British television films 2006 television films 2006 films British horror films Horror television films Films directed by Bill Eagles 2000s English-language films Films set in London Films set in Transylvania Films set in Whitby 2000s British films