50: History of the Dracul

On this very special episode Dakota Arsenault celebrates reaching the milestone of 50 episodes! The very first one was back in April of 2015 discussing the first ten Best Picture Winner’s can be found HERE and marvel at how much better the quality has gotten (and notice the run times are much shorter!) A bit of the podcast’s history is shared including the origin of our name. 

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03:47 — 29.3MB)

Special thanks goes out to Sean Chin, Live in Limbo’s Editor in Chief and the creator and host of Capsule who sent in a lovely congratulatory message. 

Joining Dakota is Stephanie Prior, who has twice been a guest specializing in the Make/Remake segment of the show. Dakota and Stephanie talk about the history of Dracula in cinema in regards to three specific films.

1931’s Dracula stars Bela Lugosi as the first “real” on screen Dracula. The film is directed by Tod Browning and with its lack of music is as close to a silent film as a talkie can get. 

1958’s Horror of Dracula stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in the Hammer Production directed by Terence Fisher. The film has a historical epic feel to it while also being more of a drama than a horror flick.

1993’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula stars Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins directed by Francis Ford Coppola in what is both a defining and a copycat film at the same time. Paying homage to not just Dracula films but horror films in general. Easily the goriest of the three films in this series.

Briefly touched upon is both the German film Nosferatu (the original Dracula) and the mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, which spoofs all previous Dracula/vampire films. 

Happy Halloween! Make sure you send us your favourite Halloween/Horror films to watch! Follow Dakota @Dgapa and the show @ContraZoomPod on Twitter.