My Mom asked me recently how I got started liking horror movies. She said I was the only person that she knew of who did. She should remember, it all started in the sixties when I was a little boy. We had a B&W TV and three channels that played a gazillion reruns - some movies - some TV shows. Horror of Dracula was one of the two Dracula movies that I grew up watching as reruns. The other, of course, was Dracula (1931) with Bela Lugosi. Recently I downloaded both from iTunes. As soon as Horror of Dracula started and I saw the eagle statue at the beginning, I thought, "oh yeah, I remember this!"
I always thought I liked Dracula (1931) better but now I can see that I like both for different reasons. I liked Dracula (1931) because of the early campy Hollywood props and the castle. Which is way creepier than the house in Horror of Dracula. Also, it's not that Lugosi is so much better than Lee, but Lugosi actually has a speaking/acting role in the movie where Lee barely speaks and acts, he just makes appearences. On the other hand, I like Horror of Dracula because the color is a nice break from B&W and let's face it, color is reality and B&W isn't! I also like the women of HOD because they are sexy and I like the interplay between them and Dracula in that they hypnotically love getting bitten. The grave-looking women of Dracula (1931) are cool too but for different reasons. Also, Peter Cushing is really the star of HOD (where Lugosi is the star of Dracula (1931)) and I loved watching his acting, something I couldn't really appreciate when I was nine years old.
Horror of Dracula, color, sexy, erotic, Peter Cushing is good - what's not to like!
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