Good evening, children of the night. How beautiful your song is. #DracWeek continues, and my assigned film for the EST #watchparty edition of #abcc is Bram Stoker's Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and released in 1992. Adapted from Bram Stoker's famous novel, the film presents the familiar story of Count Dracula, an ancient Transylvanian nobleman whose encounter with Jonathan Harker draws him toward Victorian London—and toward a woman who bears an unsettling resemblance to someone from his past. This is Dracula as gothic fever dream rather than restrained literary adaptation. It is lavish, theatrical, romantic, grotesque, and occasionally so extravagantly sensual that one suspects the production design itself may have developed a pulse. But beneath the spectacle is a story about obsession, desire, mortality, grief, and the uneasy boundary between romantic devotion and something considerably more predatory. The film is interested in Dracula not merely as a monster, but as a figure who has transformed his own suffering into an excuse to possess what he cannot have. So settle in for castles, candlelight, elaborate costumes, doomed romance, supernatural depravity, and enough fog to make the Victorian era seem as though it was permanently experiencing a very dramatic weather forecast. I hope to see you (reflections notwithstanding) all at 7 PM EST (An hour from now, give or take). Remember that #substance is allowed, encouraged but not required. And as always, use the ABCC suggestion box. Let your voice be heard. Please enjoy the night. Unquirk for content warnings.
