Forget Nosferatu, This Is the Best Dracula Adaptation of All Time

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu has been in theaters for almost a month, with the film proving to be major box office success as the highest grossing film of the director’s career to date and currently sitting at the second highest grossing release for Focus Features. The film has been a critical success as well, with the remake of the 1922 film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror winning over critics and audiences alike. It just proves that vampire stores continue to resonate with audiences — especially adaptations of what for many is the OG vampire story, Dracula.

The original Nosferatu story is itself an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula — it’s a pretty fascinating piece of movie lore, that story — and as such technically puts Nosferatu in with the many, many takes on the story. However, while Eggers’ Nosferatu is destined to become a classic it is still not the best adaptation of the iconic store. No, that distinction belongs to another film: Francis Ford Coppola’s film Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Released in 1992, Bram Stoker’s Dracula stars Gary Oldman as the titular vampire, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, and Keanu Reeves and, like so many stories before it, follows Dracula who falls in love with a young woman, Mina, who is the fiancée of his solicitor, Jonathan Harker. In his pursuit of Mina, Dracula terrorizes Mina’s friends and loved ones, prompting the arrival of vampire expert Abraham Van Helsing to bring the vampire’s reign of terror to an end. While the general story is one that all Dracula adaptations follow, Coppola’s take stands out. First and foremost, the film sticks very closely to the source material. While the film does add a bit of a romantic plot, softening Dracula just a bit, most of the rest of the details of the novel and its horror and dread — particularly for Harker — rings true.

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The film also visually matches Stoker’s novel as well — and we don’t necessarily mean just the setting. One of the things that makes the novel such an enduring classic and a fascinating read is that there are moments and descriptions in the book that feel sensational and almost too wild to believe. The film captures this by translating some of those images and ideas through not only how the film is shot but in the costuming. The costumes in Coppola’s film — not to mention the hair and makeup design — are both accurate for the time period the film is set in but also elaborate and over the top. Oldman’s Dracula in particular is very distinctive with his ornate red robe and carefully coifed hair. The costumes for Dracula’s brides are also impressive — which makes it worth noting that the film won Best Costume Design at the Academy Awards in 1993.

Perhaps the biggest reason that Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the best adaptation of the iconic novel, however, is the performances themselves — particularly that of Oldman as Dracula. While Dracula is very much a monstrous figure, Oldman manages to build a complex character out of the vampire, one that the film explores across different versions. There’s the Dracula at the beginning where we get his backstory and his heartbreak at the death of his wife, his existence as a reclusive predator, and then a revitalized creature as he pursues new love. At their core, vampire stories are human stories and Oldman’s performance emphasizes that humanity in perhaps fiction’s greatest bloodsucking monster.

With Nosferatu, Eggers has given this generation a compelling and fascinating take on the general Dracula story and it’s an adaptation that certainly is among the best we’ve seen. It deserves every bit of its praise and success. But Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula remains the best one to sink your teeth into.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video. Nosferatu is in theaters now.