Bela Lugosi is Dracula! What a strong start for the Universal Monsters!

Full Review | Oct 31, 2023

It may not be the definitive version, but it’s easily the most famous, a veritable cultural touchstone, and it was a smash...

Full Review | Oct 15, 2022

As a whole, Dracula balances out as a brilliant classic of an early introduction to sound films and early horror inductions.

Full Review | Apr 17, 2022

Gorgeous backdrops and gloomy, Gothic sets almost upstage one of cinema's most notorious villains...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 28, 2022

Dracula from 1931 reflects limitations of its era but still contains eerie scenes and classic lines...

Full Review | Oct 15, 2021

It's more fantasy than horror, though it excels in crafting a forbidding atmosphere.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 26, 2020

The abundance of older features on Blu-rays and DVDs have helped give younger filmgoers an appreciation of classic movies. "They can learn so much more on how to pace and set a scene from Tod Browning over Michael Bay," Mankiweicz said.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 23, 2015

Bela Lugosi gives his greatest performance as the mesmerizing menace from Transylvania. Dracula chilled audiences in the 1930's, and it still gives me goosebumps.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Oct 23, 2014

It's a case of lightning-in-a-bottle casting and there's no way of telling if anyone else as Dracula would've become the model for every single Dracula that followed.

Full Review | Mar 26, 2014

It remains the most subtly romantic and highly atmospheric rendition of Bram Stoker's tale about the Transylvanian count, with Browning orchestrating the opening scenes to macabre perfection.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 7, 2013

...it's clear that the movie simply doesn't hold up terribly well all these years later.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 17, 2012

Lugosi's seminal performance and the striking opening act are what distinguish Browning's version of the classic tale.

Full Review | Original Score: 70/100 | Jul 21, 2010

A perfect example of the worst traits of Hollywood films in the early sound era.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Oct 6, 2009

Stark, cold, and deeply sensual, "Dracula's" atmosphere and intention is rooted in a fear of unknown lust and desire from which there can be no escape. To view "Dracula" is to be bitten by the vampire's desperate attack.

Full Review | Original Score: A | May 8, 2009

A classic despite numerous flaws.

Full Review | Nov 24, 2008

An exciting melodrama, not as good as it ought to be but a cut above the ordinary trapdoor-and-winding-sheet type of mystery film.

Full Review | Oct 15, 2008

A sublimated ghost story related with all surface seriousness and above all with a remarkably effective background of creepy atmosphere.

Full Review | Oct 7, 2008

All time horror classic starring Lugosi; still creepy as blazes.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 22, 2008

Bela Lugosi gives the performance of his life in a role that might have been written just for him. Highly atmospheric throughout, this remains a milestone in horror movie history.

Full Review | Sep 25, 2007

The atmospheric opening is the best part -- moody and full of sinister potential. After that, it's stilted drawing-room talk, variably acted, except for the cultish over-the-top dementia of Dwight Frye.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 25, 2007