Dracula: Book vs. Movie

Name: Dracula
Released: 1979

John Badham's 1979 film Dracula adapts the stage play based on Bram Stoker's book. Frank Langella plays the count, with Laurence Olivier as Van Helsing and Kate Nelligan as Lucy Seward.

PollBook or movie, which was better?

About the book and the movie

Book

Author: Bram Stoker
Year: 1897
Pages: 336Buy book
Audiobook length: 11 hr 59 minGet audiobook
Narrator: Daniel Natal

Solicitor Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to help a count buy property in England and discovers that his host is keeping him prisoner. Back home, unexplained illness draws Mina Murray, her friend Lucy and a circle of allies into the same danger. Their letters, journals and records piece together the movements of a vampire whose arrival threatens more than one household.

Movie

Director: John Badham
Writer: W. D. Richter
Year: 1979
Runtime: 1 hr 50 minWatch on Amazon
Cast: Frank Langella, Laurence Olivier, Donald Pleasence, Kate Nelligan
Genre: Drama, horror, Romance, vampire
IMDb: View on IMDb

The wreck of a ship near Whitby brings Count Dracula into the lives of Dr. Seward and his daughter Lucy. Charming and apparently vulnerable, he becomes a welcome visitor, while Lucy's friend Mina falls mysteriously ill. Mina's father, Professor Van Helsing, arrives with suspicions that force Lucy's family to reconsider the stranger she finds so compelling.

Other adaptations of this book

DraculaNosferatu · Movie · 1922
Details
Director
F. W. Murnau
Writer
Henrik Galeen
Year
1922
Runtime
1 hr 34 min
Cast
Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder
Thomas Hutter leaves his wife Ellen to arrange a house sale for Count Orlok in the Carpathian Mountains. His host's nocturnal habits and interest in Ellen reveal a danger that Hutter struggles to escape. As a ship carries Orlok toward their home town, unexplained deaths accompany its passage, and Ellen senses a threat that distance has not kept away.
DraculaMovie · 1931
Details
Director
Tod Browning, Karl Freund
Writer
Tod Browning, John L. Balderston, Garrett Fort
Year
1931
Runtime
1 hr 15 min
Cast
Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye
Count Dracula travels from Transylvania to England with Renfield, a businessman reduced to his terrified servant. Accepted into polite society, the count turns his attention to the women around Dr. Seward's household while Renfield is confined in the doctor's sanatorium. Professor Van Helsing begins connecting the strange behavior and unexplained wounds to a visitor whose manners conceal something inhuman.
DraculaMovie · 1958
Details
Director
Terence Fisher
Writer
Jimmy Sangster
Year
1958
Runtime
1 hr 25 min
Cast
Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling
Jonathan Harker enters Dracula's castle posing as a librarian, intent on destroying the vampire. When he fails to return, his colleague Van Helsing follows the trail and discovers that the danger has reached Harker's fiancée Lucy. Persuading her family to abandon ordinary explanations becomes urgent as Dracula gains access to the people they are trying to protect.
DraculaNosferatu the Vampyre · Movie · 1979
Details
Director
Werner Herzog
Writer
Werner Herzog
Year
1979
Runtime
1 hr 36 min
Cast
Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, Roland Topor
Jonathan Harker dismisses his wife Lucy's fears and travels to meet Count Dracula about a house purchase. The visit leaves him trapped with a lonely, predatory host who is drawn to Lucy's portrait. As Dracula makes his way to their town with coffins and rats, Lucy faces a spreading catastrophe that the people around her cannot adequately explain or contain.
DraculaBram Stoker's Dracula · Movie · 1992
Details
Director
Francis Ford Coppola
Writer
James V. Hart
Year
1992
Runtime
2 hr 8 min
Cast
Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves
Jonathan Harker visits a Transylvanian count to arrange a property purchase, unaware that a photograph of his fiancée Mina will awaken Dracula's obsession with a lost love. The count travels to England, where Lucy's mysterious illness brings Professor Van Helsing into the household. While her friends search for a cause, Dracula approaches Mina with a claim on her past that she cannot explain.
DraculaSeries · 2020 · BBC One, Netflix
Details
Creator
Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat
Writer
Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss
Year
2020
Episode
1 hr 30 min
Seasons
1
Episodes
3
Network
BBC One, Netflix
Cast
Claes Bang, Dolly Wells, John Heffernan, Joanna Scanlan
A gravely weakened Jonathan Harker recounts his stay at Count Dracula's castle to Sister Agatha, a nun unusually interested in the workings of evil. His story reveals a vampire preparing to travel beyond Transylvania and an opponent determined to understand him. The confrontation follows Dracula's appetite for new lives and experiences, testing the rules that appear to govern his power.
DraculaThe Last Voyage of the Demeter · Movie · 2023
Details
Director
André Øvredal
Writer
Stefan Ruzowitzky, Bragi F. Schut, Zak Olkewicz
Year
2023
Runtime
1 hr 58 min
Cast
Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian
Doctor Clemens finds work aboard the Demeter, a merchant ship carrying sealed crates to England. After livestock are slaughtered and a woman is discovered among the cargo, the crew realizes something aboard is hunting them at night. With open water in every direction, the sailors must understand the creature's habits before there are too few of them left to reach port.
DraculaDracula: A Love Tale · Movie · 2025
Details
Director
Luc Besson
Writer
Luc Besson
Year
2025
Runtime
2 hr 9 min
Cast
Caleb Landry Jones, Zoë Bleu Sidel, Christoph Waltz, Matilda De Angelis
The death of his wife drives Prince Vladimir to reject God and become a vampire condemned to an endless life. Across the centuries, he searches for the woman he believes he can find again, eventually encountering a young woman who resembles his lost love. His pursuit draws others into a romance sustained by obsession and the violence required to keep him alive.