VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[Lorne Malvo]

You hear a lot about unadaptable books and I'd say Dracula is in the conversation (which is odd considering it's had thousands of adaptations). It's such an awkward story to wrap around a typical film/TV structure. Like @Chris B mentioned, it's more of an ensemble piece than anything. And the majority of the adaptations give short shrift to the Demeter section - even Eggers Nosferatu only had one or two scenes on the boat. Actually, the reason I probably liked the BBC version so much was because they spent a whole episode on the Demeter before the last episode ballsed it up.

 

[HarmonicGenerator]

Did the Last Voyage of the Demeter film ever get a release over here? I was really looking forward to that one.

[Chris B]

10 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I thought the BBC adaptation had its moments - the first episode was very strong, and it seemed to try to focus on elements that weren't done to death in other adaptations, like spending a lot more time on the Demeter. I even enjoyed the mad twist before the final episode, but the follow-up on it was dreadful, and very Doctor Who (in the worst way). It was Steven Moffat all over, really, just having too many contradictory ideas at once but still trying to do all of them.

By the end of the first episode, I was knackered. The first half wasn't bad, but then it just kept going and doing more, and going and doing more, and... it's the quickest I've gained an 'Oh fuck, this is going to be a disaster' feeling on any show.

[BomberPat]

Dracula is just a really weird book, with bizarre pacing. I love it, but very little actually happens for huge chunks of it. 

I wonder if it could be better adapted into something like a Netflix series than a film; that might allow for more time to spent on sections that normally get short shrift, like the Demeter, or Harker's journey to and from Castle Dracula. By being able to switch viewpoints between episodes, it might do a better job of recreating the epistolary novel approach, of the story being cobbled together from multiple people's accounts of what happened.

I think there's too much temptation in films to over-explain or tighten the narrative, which Eggers does in trying to tie Orlok and the Mina character together, and Coppola did by trying to make Dracula's motivation something of a tragic love story. You lose something of Dracula being uncanny and unknowable when you give him reasonably mundane motivations. But also I think that's probably lost for good, as we know too much about pop culture depictions of vampires, and of Dracula in particular now, and it would be impossible to reinvent the wheel and tell a faithful adaptation with any sense of mystery or discovery to it. You're just waiting for the familiar story beats.

[Chest Rockwell]

I tried to read the book and I tapped out because of that. Was very invested in Dracula and then we switched to a couple ladies writing letter to each other that seemed to be completely unrelated and I just put it down and picked something else up. I should give it another go!

[LaGoosh]

Every Dracula/Nosferatu adaption ever released always struggles in the 3rd act and the reason for that is that the final 3rd of the book is a bit of a dull mess. 

I love the book but the adaptions very rarely ever accurately portray just how wacky it is throughout with characters reacting to things in ways no real human being would react. I think Coppolla's version is probably my favourite just because it's the only one that includes the cowboy in it. If you told the average person that in the book Dracula is killed by an American cowboy they probably wouldn't believe you!

Edited January 10, 2025 by LaGoosh

[Devon Malcolm]

47 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Did the Last Voyage of the Demeter film ever get a release over here? I was really looking forward to that one.

No and with good reason.

[BomberPat]

1 minute ago, LaGoosh said:

I love the book but the adaptions very rarely ever accurately portray just how wacky it is throughout. 

Most of them don't even have a cowboy!

[LaGoosh]

2 hours ago, Lorne Malvo said:

I also wasn't huge on the design of Orlok, the moustache really threw me at first.

I've seen a fair few people talk shit about Orlok's moustache. I liked it! And it was historically accurate for a Romanian nobleman too. I like that he looks so much like Vlad the Impaler. Why his hair and eyebrows have rotted off but his moustache has remained though I couldn't tell you.

[Lorne Malvo]

21 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I've seen a fair few people talk shit about Orlok's moustache. I liked it! And it was historically accurate for a Romanian nobleman too. I like that he looks so much like Vlad the Impaler. Why his hair and eyebrows have rotted off but his moustache has remained though I couldn't tell you.

This won't mean anything to anyone on here but he was the spit of Bernard who drinks in my local, which is why it threw me so much!

[Chris B]

24 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Every Dracula/Nosferatu adaption ever released always struggles in the 3rd act and the reason for that is that the final 3rd of the book is a bit of a dull mess. 

The last time I read it, I really loved it, to be honest. It was when I started really seeing it as a story about the group coming together.

Because of films like Bram Stoker's Dracula, and so on, there's often the take that Lucy is just sexy and flirty. Instead, she's devastated to be in the position of all these guys in love with her, and when she picks one, the rest all go 'Fair play' and resolve to stay a friend group to support her because of how amazing she is. So then, when Dracula denigrates her, it's the worst thing he could do.

The last third is messy at times, but it's not often people talk about the (chortle) stakes. Dracula has failed, but there's this whole thing about the group realising that his biggest advantage is time. He can just go and wait it all out, they'll all be dead, and the advances in technology will take people even further away from being able to defeat him. So it becomes a race against time to avoid Dracula just hiding in the earth and coming back to rule the world. As a race against time, the last time I read it, it's a lot of fun, and genuinely quite thrilling in places - chasing him across continents.

The problem is, from an adaptation point of view, that Dracula isn't in it much. So the chase isn't that exciting - what the audience wants is a confrontation. And, right until the end, it's a race of trains and ships, rather than even a thrilling horse chase.

I'm totally with @BomberPat - the way to adapt it is to slow it down and do it episodically. Make it about the threat of Dracula as much as the story - and that's really one of the things this new Nosferatu does so marvellously. The malevolence and threat is astonishing - he's just death incarnate.

[SuperBacon]

The only decent Dracula film IMO.

[JLM]

2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Did the Last Voyage of the Demeter film ever get a release over here? I was really looking forward to that one.

It's available to rent/buy on Prime Video and Apple TV. Been on my watchlist for a while too despite some very iffy reviews.

[LaGoosh]

It's a great idea for a movie and the chapter in the book is really creepy, atmospheric and fantastic. Probably the best bit. It's a shame they didn't manage to nail it.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

I’m 10 films deep in my Carry On marathon, but I’ll write more about those once I’ve finished Columbus (if I haven’t jumped off a building at that point). 

Otherwise I’ve been watching…

The Crying Game (first watch) - I didn’t know anything about this going in other than the twist, so I was surprised to see that it features IRA shenanigans, far too many cricket references and Forest Whitaker with a horrendous English accent. Nice to see Jim Broadbent and Ralph Brown popping in for small roles. It’s an okay film. 3/5

The Abyss - Michael Biehn’s super fast descent into madness is the high point in this. I need to seek out some other Ed Harris films I haven’t seen (Pollock maybe), the man is superb. 4/5

Smile (first watch) - went downhill a little after the girl on the poster buggered off early on. Middle of the road horror, however the

Spoiler

Demon climbing into the mouth of the main girl at the end was a cool visual. 3/5

Local Hero (first watch) - I just know that there’s going to be someone on here who adores this film and will chastise me for not thinking more highly of it. I liked it. I didn’t love it. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood for a slow paced, genteel film where very little happens. I thought Burt Lancaster was wonderfully eccentric and it was nice to see Peter Reigert in a lead role. I’ll give it another go in a few years time, but for now it’s one of those “yeah, it’s alright” films for me. 3/5 (forgive me)

Oppenheimer 4/5

Anatomy Of A Fall (first watch) - gripping from start to finish. Great performances all round. I reckon the dog did it. 4/5