I will be the first to admit that I had no idea today was Dracula Day until I saw it mentioned on Instagram. Apparently this is an English event primarily that ties into celebrations in Whitby. I am going to use today as a means to celebrate some of my favorite versions of Dracula in media. I will immediately say yes original novel Dracula is great and he is well beloved, but I am going to discuss interpretations outside of the original novel.

This will probably be met with either eye rolls or some extreme confusion. My favorite version of Dracula in a film is the Dracula in Van Helsing. Yes, I said Van Helsing, which is not going to win any awards for anything any time soon. The movie is just odd and even seeing it the first time I was like uhhh, there are some strange plot things that don’t make sense. There are too many full moon days in case you are interested in what I was so thrown by. Even with that, I still love this movie. I have watched it so many time and can quote it.

What I truly love is Dracula in this. Richard Roxburgh plays Dracula, I could not tell you anything else he has been in, but as Dracula he is so dang amazing. His level of sarcasm and casual moments of rage are just so perfectly balanced. He really makes the move for me, okay him and Kate Beckinsale. My mom I’m sure thinks I only watch this movie for her and admittedly part of it is for her. The Brides are also so good and they work so well with the Dracula in this film. To prove my super fandom the Brides are name Verona, Marishka, and Alleera. Now I just really want to watch Van Helsing and it really might happen today.

My second favorite Dracula is the one played by Gary Oldman from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I have seen this one a few times and have the soundtrack, actual CD that I later put on my iPod. I can’t quote this one, but I really like Oldman’s Dracula. He moves between versions of Dracula seamlessly and while it has been a bit since I saw it I still really enjoy it. I don’t gravitate toward this one as a casual watch as often, but I did watch it a lot on VHS before I eventually found a DVD of it.

I also have two other fun Dracula elements that I really like. The first is Dracula and his daughter in Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School. Sibella was always my favorite of the ghouls and I remember when they brought in her dad. It was such a cute moment and he wears a little bat-robe! The other is the appearance of Dracula in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode has some fun nods to the original, but is also just so funny. Buffy literally just stakes him like it is no big deal and I laughed so much during that moment. It makes for a fun mini Dracula moment. Let me know your favorite Dracula appearances and versions in the comments!

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