Bram Stoker's Dracula and its Many Genres

Bram Stoker's Dracula and its Many Genres

Brynne Velia

             Bram Stoker’s Dracula, while viewed primarily as a horror film, is also comprised of elements from several other genres, including, but not limited to, drama, romance and fantasy. The film encompasses aspects of many genres, which supports the idea that “genre films must not only be similar in order to succeed, they must also be different” (Altman 21). Through the use of elements such as lighting and camera angles, Dracula is able to incorporate multiple genres, while still remaining true to audience expectations of a horror film.

            The asylum love scene between Dracula and Mina toward the end of the film exemplifies how these four genres are represented. As the green smoke creeps in through the window of the room in which Mina is sleeping, it is initially viewed as an aspect of horror. This non-diegetic effect is especially horrifying because the room is supposed to act as a safe place for Mina. The smoke moves slowly through the dim-lit room and under the blankets on the bed, increasing the suspense because Mina is not aware of its presence. There is a sudden shift from horror to romance as the camera follows the smoke toward the head of the bed as it pleasures Mina and the audience is left face-to-face with Mina as if from the point of view of someone above her. The haunting familiarity of the voice speaking to Mina adds to the uncanniness of the scene. The camera angle changes, revealing that the smoke has transformed into the “human” form of Dracula. This demonstrates the incorporation of fantasy through the supernatural.

            As the scene continues, the drama genre is executed through non-diegetic means. When Dracula reveals his true identity, Mina is emotionally pained because her lover is also the murderer of her dearest friend. The low-pitched, daunting music in the background is assumedly only heard by the audience. Mina’s emotions rapidly change as she is overcome with love and affection for Dracula, despite his wrongdoings. As Mina’s emotions change, the pace of the music increases slightly and is higher-pitched, aiding in evoking emotion from the audience and stressing the emotional weight of the circumstances. 

           The aspects of romance become prevalent as Mina commits to an eternal life with Dracula. As Dracula is converting Mina to a vampire, the close proximity of the camera to the lovers makes the audience feel as though they are part of the scene. The audience has a front-row seat as the lovers passionately embrace and caress each other as they begin their new “life” together. By focusing the camera solely on Dracula and Mina, any distractions are removed and the viewer can center their attention on the lovers.

           The final part of the scene uses point of view shots to convey the presence of fantasy through the supernatural. The first point of view shot is Dracula looking off into the distance, past the camera. The shot then changes to show the group of men looking in the direction of Mina. Dracula surprises both the audience and the group of men by appearing upside-down as a bat in front of the camera. The shot changes first to the men, showing their reactions, and then to Mina, showing her reaction. The use of point of view shots communicates the horror of the supernatural. The shots change so rapidly that the viewer is caught off-guard by Dracula’s change from man to bat. Dracula’s surprise entrance into the shot evokes an emotional response in the audience, typically seen in horror, while also demonstrating the supernatural elements of fantasy in the scene through Dracula’s change from man to bat. 

Works Cited

Altman, Rick. Film/Genre. London: BFI Pub, 1999. Print.

Blog #2 – Genre

Genre is a negotiation between the film industry, artists, audiences, and critics. Genres are also historical formations that continually undergo processes of change. We might think of genre films as leaky and susceptible to cross-fertilization with alternate genres, tropes, and aesthetic forms. For instance, James Cameron's Avatar is a sci-fi fantasy, which is not only a hybrid of two genres but also borrows from several others. There is the war film's critique of the military institution (e.g. Paths of Glory) as well as the revisionist Western's transposition of 'bad' white men vs. 'good' ecologically sensitive natives (e.g. Dances with Wolves). It also incorporates 'regeneration through violence' and the 'healing panacea of wilderness' – tropes that extend across several artistic mediums. Lastly, Avatar's spectacular mise-en-scène, range of technologies and weaponry, and quantity of violent battles and lengthy chase scenes, has close affinities to contemporary videogame aesthetics.

Choose any of the following films...

and provide some specific, detailed examples of how the film splits from a singular frame of genre and merges with an another genre, trope, or aesthetic form that is not restricted to the 'horror film'. You may choose to do another single-scene analysis, or identify a few plot elements, and/or describe some filmic elements (lighting, editing, camera movement, etc.) that reflect other aesthetic forms. The main point of this blog is to show the intrinsic impurity of genre – in other words, how it splits while also remaining the same. You're expected to cite at least one passage from one of our genre-focused readings (i.e. Altman, Schneider, Kawin) to guide your analysis.

Remember that this entry can potentially work together with your earlier entry to compose part of a rough draft for your final essay. You may choose to think of this assignment as an extension of your earlier argument or analysis, while you introduce the analytical layer of genre theory. (You may even write about the same scene, or the same film, or a similar topic from a different film, or you can change your focus to something else entirely.) Your blog entry must be 400-500 words and posted by 6pm Oct. 2nd. If you experience any technical difficulty, you must email the text to your T.A. (nicole.gartner@stonybrook.edu) by the deadline. Late assignments will not be accepted.

Dracula: Deep in the Horror Night

Do You Feel The Depth of Horror?

 -Slowly creeping around on screen like a snake. Never can be resistible. 

The slow dissolve transition skills in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Coppola, 1992) impact the moods of the next scene and cause the audience curiosity. Once the viewers feel curious, they are ready to get more concentrated and strongly engaged in the film without obstacles as it leads to the next scene with a long lasting dissolve technique.

The camera focuses on important items which represent symbols working as clues to let viewers imply what may happen later on. The scene starts with Jonathan leaving Mina. They say good-bye and peacock’s eyespot appears while they are kissing. The scene shows their pure love and how they truly care for each other.

The peacock’s eyespot leads to the scene of the train taking Jonathan Herker to Dracula’s castle. A peacock appears in the garden while Mina and Jonathan are kissing. This scene of peacock’s eyespot represents unsettlement and uncanny. This is because the symbol of peacock is immortality since the ancients believed that the peacock had flesh that did not decay after death. The scene switches from dark to light that could refer an adventure to a place where Jonathan has never been to. What’s more, as the train goes through the tunnel, it implies the image of the eye of needle.

The peacock’s eyespots fan slowly over the whole screen. The scene of the rolling peacock’s eyespots brings up a mysterious mood effectively so that viewers might feel curious about what may happen to Jonathan and Mina’s relationship. The scene clearly focuses on the last eyespot in the center of the screen that leads to a next scene. The sound in the background is slow and calm with the sound of a train whistle. The scene becomes mysterious and tense since the loud and vigorous sound of the train contrasts the soft background music. 

While Jonathan is reading the letter from Dracula, the shape of the clouds in the background look like eyes watching him. The scene of letter converts into the Mina’s photograph and Jonathan watches it for a while without knowing the situations they have to overcome. And then, it switches to Mina looking at the photo of Jonathan with a lovely smile as she is typing.  

The basic color of the train scene is the reddish orange of sunset. The sunset infers that the bright days are gone, and dark days are coming. This scene plays the role of a trigger for shifting the balance that Mina and Johnathan would face from happiness to misery.

The Monster and His Bride

The Monster and His Bride:

The first meeting of The Monster and His Bride scene in Bride of Frankenstein

Hyunkyu Matt Choi

             In Bride of Frankenstein, The Monster is a main character that makes a strong impression to audiences and makes the movie humorous. Among scenes in the movie, the scene between The Monster (Boris Karloff) and His Bride (Elsa Lanchester) is the most touching and scaring scene. In other words, the sound, camera angle, acting and staging increase tension and fear which elevate
audiences’ curiosity about the reaction of the Bride when she first meets The Monster. The Monster is funny and grotesque in the film; however, he touches audiences quietly yet so deeply. Also, a figure of the Bride is not likely to be forgotten which terrifies an audience. Her mummy-like feature, bird-like scream and Egyptian-like hair style are surprisingly scary.

           
             In the movie, The Monster is portrayed as Jesus who is killed by the society because of an atmosphere of fear. As people were afraid of Jesus, people in Bride of Frankenstein are obsessed by The Monster even though he did not try to contaminate society. Also, The Monster had bread and wine before his suicide bomber as Jesus ate bread and drank wine with his disciples for the Last Supper.

             In the beginning of scene, Henry Frankenstein and Doctor Pretorius see if their making of The Monster’s Mate is successful or not. They look at each other with anticipation and uneasiness and Frankenstein shouts in surprise “She’s alive! Alive!” after they look at her open eyes. When the Bride starts to move gradually with mummy-like feature, it scares people. In addition, bottom-to-top camera angle when the Bride is looking around and the sound form thrill. The Bride (Elsa Lanchester)’s acting and facial expression produce an atmosphere of horror and shooting The Monster’s appearance in black and white raise tensions. The first conversation between The Monster and His Bride is grotesque and somewhat comic as they cannot speak language well. Lastly, The Monster looks so pathetic when he asks “Friend?” with a joy, the Bride screams to reject him.
          
            After rejection of the Bride, The Monster explodes the place where Henry Frankenstein and Doctor Pretorius had an experiment. The Monster was lonely because people tried to kill him rather than being a friend of him. So, The Monster anticipated the new creature (The Bride) to be his friend, however, she rejected him. When we think of his broken heart, we feel sorry for him and this is the scene that shows his emotion and touches audiences’ heart with pity.            

Blog Post #1 : Dracula - Opening Scene Analysis

Bram Stoker's Dracula- Theatrical Representation 

Yoo Hyung Justina Lee

         Francis Coppola’s film Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) opens with an overly exaggerated scene of both war and religious strife. Providing great visual imagery with the use of both vivid colors and prominent contrasts in lighting, Coppola unveils the events that lead to Dracula’s deeply flawed nature and emotional breakdown. Deviating from the norm, the dark and gloomy atmosphere present in the chapel contradicts the usual bright and tranquil ambiance of a consecrated place. In addition, the portrayal of the War in a two-dimensional format rather than a three-dimensional one creates a disconnect between the film and the audience. This is explained by German expressionism, which originated from paintings and theatre, to show the inner psychology of the characters, rather than an external description. The presence of only black and red figures, the audiences see the war as objectively as they can. The viewers cannot distinguish between the characters in silhouettes; they are forced to only acknowledge the plain cruelty of the war. With the stabbing of the holy cross, Dracula declares his renouncement of faith and also the “death of God.” In its entirety, Bram Stoker’s Dracula’s opening scene foreshadows a new dark and cold life of Dracula, in which religion has lost its influence.

The cross is a recurring symbol that appears throughout the entire opening scene. The cross is shown from the very beginning scene. Even from the inception of the film, the shattering of the cross foreshadowed the religious conflict that is to come. In addition, the couple pledged themselves in front of the cross and the first thing the Dracula was holding right after the war was also the cross. Showing the importance of the religion, the first thing the camera focuses on when Dracula enters the chapel is the giant cross in the middle of the screen, rather than Elisabeta’s corpse. Initially, Count Dracula was not skeptical of God’s sovereign grace. Not only did he declare his love for his wife under God, he also went to war for God as well. He did not blame God when he saw his deceased wife, but became furious with the fact that her soul could not be saved, for suicide was an unforgiveable sin. Until the unsettling scene, in which Dracula pierces the holy cross with his sword, Dracula seemed to be the most faithful of believers.

The destruction of the cross, representing the death of God in Dracula’s life foreshadows his mortal to immortal metamorphosis. Naturally, people die. It is the law of nature, and for some people, it is law of the God. For Dracula, however, death is not possible, which seems to defy the law of nature and God. To show the drastic transformation from one of the most devotional followers of God to a so-called demon, the cross appears frequently throughout the opening scene.

Blog Post #1: Sexuality and Lust in Bram Stoker's Dracula

 Dracula's Thirst

Ryan Chau

Bram Stoker’s Dracula plays heavily on the relationship between Dracula and Mina, and Dracula's desires. This scene as a whole explores lust, sexuality, as well as sexual repression. The scene starts off with a bizarre storm and many strange and bewildering occurrences all happening simultaneously. The insanity is almost palpable and it leaves the audience feeling overwhelmed. From Renfield’s rambling, it is rather apparent that the strange events are due to Dracula’s proximity, restlessness, and his lust. The validity of Dracula being the cause of these happenings is fortified by what John Seward says in regards to Renfield’s insanity, “There is method to his madness.” Dracula’s presence is affecting everyone. Wolves are escaping, patients at the insane asylum are growing rowdy, even Mina and Lucy are not immune as we see them dancing in the rain and even osculating. Their moment is completely unexpected and represents Mina’s desires and sexual repression after Jonathan has been gone for so long. Music and the rapid movement of the camera add to the bizarre air. Dracula is restless and stirring, and upon escaping he immediately seeks out Lucy, representing desire.  This scene is interesting because with the aura of madness impressed upon the audience, the audience is given the actual point of view of Dracula, as if the audience has become madly lusty, the audience is seeking out Lucy.

Lucy walks into the maze in a seemingly possessed manner, dressed entirely in red. This characterizes not only Dracula’s lust, but hers as well. When Mina sees Dracula with Lucy, we see that Dracula has bitten and infected Lucy. The whole process of biting and changing Lucy was incredibly sexualized by, well, the presence of sex. This is the moment were Mina first sees Dracula. She stops dead in her tracks, horrified. When Dracula looks up and sees Mina for the first time, he recognizes her and he seems ashamed. As if Mina was his wife from another life, and he was caught with someone else. You can see Dracula’s face change from bestial to human very briefly, almost like a flash of lightning as he says, “No, Do not see me.” This relates to later on where he is completely dressed and human, and he says, “See me now.” As Dracula disappears, Mina, as the heroine, rushes into save Lucy. She is perceived as the main hero in that moment as she brings Lucy back to reality. When Lucy is conscious again, she is draped entirely in white, as if her innocence has been reestablished.

The scene as a whole is focused on Dracula. His lust is the instigator of the ongoing events and it led him to Lucy and, indirectly, Mina. He is reminded of his wife when he sees her and his lust has become a source of shame, and so, Dracula hides himself from her. Mina represents Innocents and an object of desire to Dracula. This is shown by her white gown and his reaction to seeing her, as well as the red outline that appears over her when he sees her. This scene sets up the rest of the events of the movie. Lucy becomes a vampire, and Dracula seeks Mina from that point on. We are given the point of view of Dracula, and we can now understand his desires and his desperation. 

Blog Post #1: Everyone Has a Little Bit of 'The Thing' in Them

 Blog Post #1: Everyone Has a Little Bit of 'The Thing' in Them

In John Carpenter's movie, "The Thing", a crew of American researchers are backed into a corner and revert to primal survival instincts after they encounter an alien organism that can kill other living things and take their form.  They don't know who's infected by the alien and so they start to go to extreme measures in order to survive. This theme of survival is shown in the film several times. Wanting to survive, and the lengths people are willing to take in order to live. The scene where R.J. MacReady ties up his crew and takes blood samples to test whether or not they are infected is a good example of this theme. Carpenter does so much in this scene that make it so much more suspenseful for the viewer; we don’t know what these guys are capable of doing now, especially in that situation.

The scene begins after Norris turns out to be infected and is burned to death. MacReady demands everyone to sit down and get tied up as he performs a test on everyone to see if they are infected. Clark had picked up a scalpel earlier before Norris had transformed and now it seems like he is ready to make an attempt to end MacReady's life as he is preoccupied threatening Childs. The camera angle and lighting seen in the screen shot above helps enhance the viewers suspense. From this angle, we can clearly see the scalpel hidden at the side of Clarks body and no one else can, especially not MacReady because his back is purposely turned towards us to further enhance the suspense that he has no idea what Clark is up to behind him. The fact that Clark has to result to backstabbing his very own friend is evidence that shows how the darkest sides of people come out when they are pushed into a corner and want to survive so bad. Clark runs up onto MacReady but fails, and ends up getting shot in the head.

In this screen shot, MacReady is threatening Childs to do as he says or he will shoot him. Childs calls his bluff and then MacReady points the gun right at his face and assures him that he is being serious. The camera angle here is pointed in such a way that we are facing Childs as if we are in MacReady's shoes pointing the gun at him. The look on Childs face is not only scared, but he also looks as if he is hurt that MacReady would betray him like that and put a bullet in him for not listening. This wave of paranoia brought onto them by the alien is beginning to tear their friendships apart. They mean nothing if theres no trust between them. This is a good example of how nothing else seems to matter to them now that they are just trying to survive. 

MacReady also tests Clarks blood after shooting him for attempting to kill him with a scalpel. It turns out that Clark wasn't infected and Childs comments that MacReady is a murder. This is significant because its a reminder of their morals, even in a situation like this, theres right and wrong. It's almost as if they needed to be reminded that killing people is illegal and bad, even if they are in a struggle of survival. 

"Watching Norris in there gave me the idea that maybe every part of him was a whole. Every little piece was an individual animal with a built-in desire to protect its own life"

When MacReady starts burning the wire to begin testing the blood samples, he explains his theory behind the test. After seeing Norris detach his head and try to survive, he came to the conclusion that the blood would do the same if burned by the wire in order to attempt to survive. MacReady is saying the quote above while the camera pans across the remaining people tied up. It's almost as if MacReady is talking about all of them in the room, not just the alien. You can see it in their faces, it looks like they are taking what he said personally. The theme of survival throughout this movie has turned all the crew members against each other because of their built-in desire to protect its own life. All of them have broken down in one way or another. The irony is that the thing has been trying to do the same thing that all of them have been trying to do: survive. You can now see how everyone has a little bit of the thing dormant inside them in the sense that they will be willing to go through such great lengths and throw out all sense of morality in order to survive.

Sadman Sakir

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CCS-202, Scene Analysis

Lucy flirting with his suitors

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a work of fantasy fiction. It portrays the repression of the Victorian Society through various characters in the movie. The movie did not directly portray what the Victorians considered as sexual perversions. Rather Stoker used blood as a camouflage to indicate the sexual intercourse and the perversions. We saw that Dracula survived on sucking blood using the neck; which portrayed sex and Stoker brilliantly expressed it throughout the movie.

Lucy is one of the characters who portrayed the repressed women of that Era. Lucy is a good-hearted woman who is confused about committing to one man. We see her as this jolly-hearted fun free girl who goes to Mina to confide her secrets about her commitments. She is a little bit of flirtatious and tempting which showed the opposite of the Victorian Era as most of the women at that time needed either to be married or have a suitor. But we see Lucy on the other hand flirting with all the three men one after another at the same time. Her flirting and tempting nature made her more vulnerable to Dracula’s seduction, which gets more clear to us when she admits to Mina that she is confused about choosing a man and having problem on whose proposal she would accept.

Her want with the men in this context refers to sexual significance. We see that she does not feel any true love for her suitors but she fantasizes about casual sexual inclinations. This portrays her intentions of dissatisfaction with the institution of monogamy. This is again a portrayal of the repressed of the Victorians. Stoker makes out point of repression in most of the scenes.

We again see the sexual inclinations when Lucy is getting a blood transfusion from the men; which can only be interpreted as an act of homosexuality among the men. It also emphasizes Lucy’s desire for polygamous marriage, which she talks about with Mina and show us when he flirts with all his suitors one after another at the same party.

Lucy’s death scene as a vampire shows us that it was a scene of penetration, sexuality and rape. Since she had sexual intercourse with only Dracula, it was her husband’s first time to have intercourse experience through stabbing the stake. When Arthur Lucy’s husband puts the stake through her heart with rage while Lucy screams and quivers, which indicates sexual inclination. We also see Arthur is drained out of vital fluids, sweat, which encodes both blood and semen.

Seduction of Jonathon Harker by Dracula's Brides

Sara Bakhtiar

Woman in Coppola’s Dracula 1992 is no longer a passive figure who only symbolizes purity and innocence but is an active figure who appears as a threat to male. Seduction of Jonathon Harker (Keanu Reeves) by three Dracula’s bride is one of the important scenes that contributes to the new definition of woman in horror genre, where female is depicted as a monster and male (Harker) is the victim and passive figure. Set design, costume, sound effect that arranged for this scene excellently contributes to the idea of female sexuality as a threat to man and portrays changes in both male and female roles in horror and blurs the border between humanity and monstrosity.

The scene begins as Jonathon is lured by a sensual woman’s voice calling for him and asking him to lie down on the silk bed located in a deserted room. The voice along with the footprint on and movement of figures under the silk sheet, are all hints that raise audience curiosity and prepare them for what will happened next. Silk sheet movements and contributes to the sexual scene that follows afterwards. In a bit, the first Dracula’s bride raise topless between Jonathon legs and begins creeping on his body, licking his throat and kissing him aggressively; before long other two brides join. Brides topless in their lace-like revealing pants, eroticizes the scene and pictures the female figure men are vulnerable to. Jonathon, the noble Victorian man with suppressed desires, voluntary accept the inevitable and stays defenseless against his emotions. This sexual interaction between the characters continues until it is interrupted by Dracula. Fast movement of camera among characters who are involved in this scene, groaning of characters with pleasure and the choice of music, has also eroticized this scene noticeably.

 Presence of monster in a shape of a voluptuous woman is fundamental change in definition of woman in horror genre. Coppola depicts Dracula’s bride sexually aggressive, beautiful and powerful who use her attractiveness to satisfy her needs; ultimately delivers the fear of female sexuality and how women can be a threat to men as Vera Dika argues. One of the Brides symbolizes Medusa –Goddess of destruction and sexuality- in the scene as she is illustrated with a snake grown from her head. This is where the true faces behind vampire’s brides beauty is revealed and emphasizes the threat of female sexuality and plant this fear in the audience.

Jonathon symbolizes passivity and indecisiveness is in contradiction with the figure of man in former version of Dracula, who used to have full control over his emotions. In the scene, Coppola portrays Jonathon once with vampires on the bed and once in the reflection of the mirror on the ceiling, where none of the vampires are shown; as if he is dreaming about defilement. This image is a metaphor for men’s dark thoughts and fantasy of women and their sexual desires that was suppressed. Sexual desires in both Jonathon (representation of human) and Dracula wives (representation of monster) shows there isn't always a fine line between human and monster. According to Robin Wood concept of “Return Of the repressed”, whatever appears as an object of horror in movies are extracted from what has been suppressed in our culture. Coppola managed to picture repressed fantasy of man and woman and female sexuality successfully and showed that monster is part of human being.

work cited

Wood, Robin.”The American Nightmare: Horror in the 70s.”(1979:27-29