Dracula

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I vant to suck your blood.
This page is about the character Dracula. For the novel by Bram Stoker, please see Dracula (novel).

The vampire. As Sherlock Holmes is to detectives and Superman is to superheroes, so Dracula is to vampires.

Bram Stoker was not the first to introduce vampires into western literature (see the "penny dreadful" -- emphasis on 'dreadful' -- novel Varney the Vampire for one precursor; also Carmilla, which introduces lesbian vampires; additionally The Vampyre, which Polidori wrote while hanging around with Mary Shelley and Lord Byron), but his Dracula is the first to enter popular culture -- the name known even by people not familiar with the book, or even the genre.

Stoker named the Count after the historical figure Vlad III Dracula, voïvode of Wallachia, who, despite being similarly bloodthirsty, was more prone to impaling his enemies than to biting their necks and drinking their blood. Indeed, in the novel, Van Helsing conjectures that the two were one and the same (There's also a popular theory that the name is derivative of "Droth Fhola" (pronounced Druh-Uhlla), the gaelic for "bad blood"), though Bram Stoker did not actually know a lot about the historical Dracula, beyond the name and a degree of the reputation, probably less than modern fans do.

Surprisingly, while German, Russian, Hungarian and Turkish literature and folklore all portray Dracul as a monster, he's considered a hero in Romania for his opposition to both Hungarian and Ottoman conquest, being voted among the 100 Greatest Romanians as recently as 2006. (Compare Richard the Lion Heart or Napoleon Bonaparte) People in Transylvania have been cashing in, as you can see if you watch Michael Palin's New Europe and a Dracula theme park was considered, then dropped.

The name, by the way, originates from the word "Dracul" (lit. "the Devil"), that originally stuck to Vlad the Impaler's father as a result of his association with the Order of the Dragon.

The main characters in the novel include:

Stoker invented some of the classic vampire traits, such as not having a reflection, and popularised others, but Dracula does not follow the standard rules, largely because he predates most of them. Sunlight does not do any harm to him (Though it does prevent him from shapeshifting, according to Van Helsing: "The sun that rose on our sorrow this morning guards us in its course. Until it sets tonight, that monster must retain whatever form he now has. He is confined within the limitations of his earthly envelope. He cannot melt into thin air nor disappear through cracks or chinks or crannies. If he goes through a doorway, he must open the door like a mortal."), and he is killed by having his head chopped off with a Kukri knife and a Bowie knife driven through the heart rather than a stake (not that a stake wouldn't have worked, as at least one of his victims-turned-vampire does receive this treatment, though the beheading is still required). He also starts as an old man and de-ages as he drinks blood, a tidbit kept in only by a few of the adaptations. None of them kept his abilities to slip through knife-edge cracks in masonry (unless you count the turning to mist, which may pop up occasionally, such as a power of Alucard, the son of Dracula) or turn into 'elemental dust in moonlight', however...

Most series with vampires will eventually include either Count Dracula or a subversion, sometimes using a transparent alias. ("Alucard", which despite sounding French is "Dracula" spelled backwards, is very common. It has been used in several movies, most famously by Lon Chaney Jr. in Son of Dracula.)

Despite being the archetype of all modern vampires, Dracula was remarkably angst-free in the original novel, and operated simply as a vicious, sadistic, and distinctly creepy archvillain (with a monobrow, rancid blood-breath and hair on his palms, no less) whose only redeeming quality was his Magnificent Bastardry (though there is some sympathy for Dracula the man, as opposed to Dracula the vampire, as it's established that the soul of a person who becomes a vampire is prevented from entering heaven until the vampire is destroyed, reflected by the look of peace Mina notices on him as he crumbles). He never even bothered to seduce any of his female victims, simply entering their rooms and attacking them or using hypnosis to draw them to him. Subsequent versions, naturally, have Flanderized his sex appeal and added oodles of gothy melodrama. He had some properly gothic angst, but it wasn't based on Mad Love or reluctant villainy--he was simply a very old, very tired Evil Overlord, bored with ruling a backwater area in Ruritania, who decided to Take Over the World or die trying, and would be happy with either outcome. The entry for this story is here.

Dracula may live in a Haunted Castle, or at least own one in the old country. Usually has three vampire women or more (likely past victims he turned) at his side as his minions.

He has also appeared in more films than any other character, fictional or otherwise, except for Sherlock Holmes -- including films where both appear together. Well, unless you count the Real Life Chinese-Warrior Wong Fei-Hung, who has 100 films (and counting) under his name.

Appearances of Dracula in fiction:

Advertising

  • Count Chocula closely resembles him.
  • Appears in a 1996 commercial for Glad-Lock Zipper Bags (with the "yellow and blue make green" seal) as a skeptic of the product; the pitchman asks whether he'd prefer being near a bag of garlic soup with his brand of bag, or the Glad-Lock Zipper Bag ("so you know it's closed"). Naturally, Drac chooses the latter.

Anime and Manga

  • Alucard from Hellsing is Count Dracula and Vlad III. In the manga backstory, he was portrayed as a Knight Templar, fiercely loyal to God, but was disappointed when He did not descend after all his fighting. Feeling forsaken and knowing he lost it all, he became a vampire by sheer willpower, after sucking the blood of the battlefield before he was executed by the Ottoman Empire. Centuries later, he came to England to seek the woman he desired, Mina Harker, and was defeated by Abraham van Helsing and his group. After this second defeat, he became the faithful servant of Abraham's descendants for generations.
    • In the Gonzo anime, this connection was merely implied with hints in episode 9 and 13, but supplemental material in the Japanese booklets confirm this. Although, his backstory might be different because his characterization was modified. From steadfast Bodyguard Crush-like loyalty on Integra (and a Berserk Button on people betraying her or insulting her) with a deep respect for humanity like in the manga, he becomes more of a rebellious Poisonous Friend with his own agenda who keeps testing her (but he's still angry when she's seriously injured) and without regard for humanity as whole, exhibiting arrogance and superiority for being a vampire. The OVA is more accurate to the manga.
  • In Vampire Hunter D, the Nobility worship Dracula as the Sacred Ancestor, although he is apparently long dead by 12,090 AD. D himself, though he never confirms it, is heavily implied to be Dracula's Dhampyr son (apparently as the result of a twisted game Dracula played late in his life).
    • In the novels, not only was Dracula shown to be alive in the second book, but D actually had a showdown with a mental projection of the Sacred Ancestor after learning that Dracula had impregnated hundreds of thousands of women and destroyed all the offspring but D.
    • Indeed, much of the novels seem to be Dracula Walking the Earth, having various experiments done to save the vampirekind or to create a hybrid race that combines the best of the humans and the Nobility, while D leisurely pursues him, and deals with the unfortunate aftermatches of those experiments.
  • Shaman King has Boris Tepes Dracula, a descendant of Vlad the Impaler, the original Dracula. Not actually a vampire, but his family has used shamanic powers granted by Hao to take revenge on humanity, who treated them like vampires since the time of Vlad.
  • Around the mid-70's, Monkey Punch (the same mangaka behind Lupin III) worked on a one-shot parody manga called Dracula-kun. This version of Dracula (fully named Dracula Van Peel), besides being a total goofball, couldn't be killed in any way possible, though garlic and holy crosses do affect him. You think sunlight? No can do! Even though it does turn him to ashes, he could easily be brought back by pouring a drop of blood onto his ashes. His only true weakness may lie behind his chastity; he swears never to have sex with any lady whatsoever. Ironically, he does like having sex. He just keeps himself from doing that because he doesn't want to risk getting a child that can eventually kill him.
    • The manga would later be adapted into a "Grand Stage" segment in Monkey Punch Manga Katsudou Daishashin (or Mankatsu, for short).
  • Osamu Tezuka's Don Dracula, an amusing but short-lived parody where the count has a daughter named Chocola.

Comic Books

  • Marvel Comics published a long-lived Bronze Age series called The Tomb of Dracula.
    • It's later revealed that this universe's Dracula has had a centuries-long feud with Apocalypse, and has crossed paths with Dr. Strange and the X-Men several times. Also, he was a common vampire until he drank the blood of Varney.
    • The comic book was also the basis for a made-for-TV anime movie which is infamous for, among other things, a scene where Dracula, after losing his powers and becoming mortal, eats a hamburger as his first "mortal" meal.
    • He's also the villain of the final arc of Captain Britain and MI13, where he tries to conquer Britain from his castle on the moon.
    • Dracula has had more than one encounter with Spider-Man. In their first official encounter, each ran into the other, but had no true physical conflict and neither seemed even aware that the other was there. Their later meetings were often genuine combat related stories.
  • Believe it or not, Dell Comics once published a comic featuring Dracula - as a Superhero! It's true!
  • Mina Murray appears as a main character in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen after the events of the book (which have been slightly retconned; Jonathan Harker divorced her because she was "unclean"), and Dracula himself is mentioned in the travel guide at the end of each of the installments of the second volume of the comic.
  • With the "bat" motif, it's not surprising Batman has gone up against Dracula. Batman & Dracula: Red Rain is an Elseworld that pits a vampiric Dark Knight against Dracula.
  • Requiem Vampire Knight (or Requiem Chevalier Vampire in the original French) has a Dracula who's the ruler of the highest social class, the Vampires, on the world of Resurrection. Interestingly they make lots of references to the man Dracula was based off and in this universe used to be; Dracula has something of an obsession with impaling and decorates his ship the 'Satanik' with stakes covered with the bodies of those who've suffered the punishment, and an impaling gun has the sound effect of 'Tepes!' whenever it's fired. He also has the mask of the High Priest of the Archaeologists nailed to his face, because the priest hadn't removed it as a sign of respect for the vampire king (and also because Dracula really doesn't like the Archaeologists): this pretty much echoes what Vlad allegedly did to a Turkish messenger who refused to remove his turban. He even looks like the original Vlad, down to the Badass Mustache.
  • During the period of time when Lex Luthor was president of the USA, Superman and Lois Lane travelled to Transylvania and encountered a powerful vampire who may as well have been Dracula. Superman ends up defeating him in an interesting way, by letting Dracula bite him. Every cell in Superman's body is filled-to-bursting with solar energy, and this version of Dracula is fatally allergic to sunlight. You can guess what happens.
    • Pre-Crisis in the Silver Age, Superman had also encountered Dracula, along with Frankenstein's monster, when they were inadvertedly released from the netherworld by a Blind Seer. Because of Superman's weakness to magic, he has to use his wits against the evil Count. Using his heat-vision and some super-pressure on a hydrogen balloon, he creates a miniature sun that severely weakens the vampire. Dracula is not stopped, however, but the Phantom Stranger shows up to cast him and the Monster back to the shadow realm from whence they came.
  • In the indie comicbook Dracula vs. King Arthur, Lucifer, wanting to one up God, sends vampirized Dracula back in time to battle King Arthur in order to destroy his kingdom.
  • Dracula met Planetary's Elijah Snow during the latter's youth, and ended up as the victim of the mother of all Groin Attacks.
  • Buffy's Dracula returns in the Season 8 Dark Horse comic, helping the Slayer brigade deal with vampire sorcerors in Japan. It takes some time to expand on his weird relationship with Xander.
  • DC Comics Victorian Undead II Sherlock Holmes Vs Dracula: In which Sherlock Holmes is transplanted in the middle of the famous novel and helps the novel's protagonists hunt for Dracula.


Fan Fiction

  • My Immortal has Neville Navel changing his name to "Dracola" after going goth. The author most likely meant to say "Dracula".
    • That's assuming she didn't misspell it on purpose...


Film

  • The Universal Studios version starring Bela Lugosi (Number 79 on Bravo's One Hundred Scariest Movie Moments) is the most famous, and modern interpretations of the character and the story are more often based on it than the book.
    • a Spanish version was filmed at the exact same time and used the same sets, but at the same time featured extended/extra dialogue and scenes, as well as more elaborate camera work. It was also not subject to as stringent censorship standards and it's generally less narm-y.(Save for the title Character) it actually garnered a higher rating from several critics.
    • And it got several sequels, Draculas Daughter, Son of Dracula, House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, comedy spoof/crossover Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and a TV movie remake of House of Frankenstein in 97.
      • The original movie was actually based on the stage adaptation, rather than directly on the book.
  • The 1922 film Nosferatu was an unauthorized adaptation of the then-copyrighted novel. The Stoker estate sued and won, the court ordering all the prints to be destroyed. It had already been distributed too widely for that and many copies survived.
    • Since Stoker died in 1912, the novel is now public domain in nearly every country -- and the two that it apparently remains copyrighted in (Mexico and Cote d'Ivoire) will have it enter that status by 2013.
    • Remade as Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre in 1979.
  • Also from 1979 was Universal's adaptation of Dracula starring Frank Langella in the title role.
  • Numerous Hammer Horror versions and adaptations starting with 1958 Horror of Dracula, which cemented Christopher Lee as the second most famous Dracula after Lugosi.
    • Popularized the term "Brides of Dracula" (the title of a film that didn't include Big D himself) who are female minions he turned.
    • The Hammer series was also the first to drag him into a contemporary setting, in 1972's Dracula A.D. 1972.
  • The title character of the classic Blaxploitation movie Blacula was an African prince cursed to unlife by Count Dracula.
  • Bram Stokers Dracula is another attempt at telling the tale. While it makes some effort to adhere more closely to the novel's events than most film adaptations to date, director Francis Ford Coppola couldn't resist giving him a bad case of Angst and turning the whole thing into a story about love, despite the original Dracula being essentially the personification of syphilis. On the other hand, it featured quite a few well-known actors and art design by Mike Mignola, it was perhaps Gary Oldman's breakout role, and it was highly entertaining to watch Tom Waits and Anthony Hopkins being batshit insane from start to finish.
  • Dracula appears as the main villain in the film Van Helsing, as part of a Monster Mash with Frankenstein's Monster, The Werewolf, and Igor.
    • Van Helsing was originally planned as a direct prequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula (with Anthony Hopkins reprising his role as Van Helsing) to set up the doctor's history with the vampire, but it never panned out.
  • The villain of Blade Trinity, Drake, is explicitly identified as Dracula.
  • In Dracula 2000, they completely rewrite the origin of Dracula, as he turns out to be Judas -- that's right, the Biblical one, hence the hatred for all things Christian. Also, although he isn't partial to stakes through the heart, going years without feeding on blood, being burned and being exposed to sunlight and silver, the only thing to kill him permanently is being hanged -- since that's how Judas Iscariot originally died. His offspring, however, are vulnerable to all the usual vampire weaknesses.
    • The movie also gained two straight to video sequels: Dracula II: Ascension and Dracula III: Legacy.
  • Spoofed in Love at First Bite (1979) and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).
  • Count Yorga : MGM's somewhat 70's modern take on Dracula. The character name is different but the premise is roughly the same.
  • Dracula 3000, which is just Dracula IN SPACE, and somehow manages the distinction of being even worse than it sounds. Probably most noteworthy for featuring Erika Eleniak as an android and the tagline "In Space There Is No Sunlight."
  • In the sign-language film Deafula, Dracula is the father of the main character. He is also deaf.
  • Dracula, played by a fantasically hammy Duncan Regehr (who seemed to have a ton of fun with the role), also serves as the head of a Monster Mash in the film The Monster Squad.
    • In point of fact, Regehr's portrayal of Dracula in The Monster Squad is considered one of the all time greatest portrayals of the character in the history of cinema.


Literature

  • Dracula, by Bram Stoker. This Dracula has a big, bushy mustache, which almost never is depicted in adaptations.
  • Fred Saberhagen's novel The Dracula Tape offers an intriguing retelling of Stoker's novel entirely from Dracula's first-person point of view, including his anger over misinterpretations, distortions and outright lies perpetrated in the original story (though caveat lector: occasionally, the distortions are his own work).
  • Hideyuki Kikuchi, author of the original Vampire Hunter D light novels, also wrote a novel about Dracula in Japan during the Meiji Restoration.
  • Night Huntress does introduce Dracula in book 3. He prefers "Vlad".
  • The New Annotated Dracula isn't, strictly speaking, a totally original work (it's just that, the complete text of the novel annotated) but it does take an interesting angle towards Bram Stoker's novel and its proceedings-- taking the statement in the beginning of the novel that the story related is (mostly) factual and being related by a third party and building from there. Places where character names and origins have been changed, edits made in retrospect for later editions by the persons involved to make their behaviour a little more acceptable...
  • Anno Dracula by Kim Newman is set in an alternate history in which the first direct confrontation between Dracula and Van Helsing's group results in an easy victory for Dracula (Newman's Dracula is vulnerable to a smaller range of weapons than Stoker's), who goes on to become the de facto ruler of England. Followed by two more novels and a bunch of short stories carrying the timeline into and through the twentieth century.
  • In The Dresden Files, Dracula is said to be the son of Vlad Drakul, a monster of enormous power. Dracula is a member of the classically vampiric Black Court, but according to Kincaid joined as an act of youthful rebellion. The book Dracula was commissioned by the White Court to Bram Stoker, to act as a manual to explain to Muggles how to kill Black Court Vampires. It was very effective and nowadays only the most badass Black Court Vampires survive. Whether Dracula is among them is unknown; the book might have also been an account of Dracula's death, or might have simply used a powerful Black Court member as an example.
  • The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is a novel that has the actual Vlad Dracula as a vampire, using books printed with a signature dragon with the word "Drakulya" to entice curious historians into finding his grave and thereby, himself. In this version, he is essentially an eternally undead Badass Bookworm. However, he's still evil.
  • Even though many vampires in The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries are much older than the historical Dracula, a short story in the series established that in vampire culture he's viewed a little bit like a messiah because he showed them that they could have cultured, refined existences. Before him, presumably, vampires lived (so to speak) like animalistic ghouls.
    • This reflects the way vampires were conceived in folklore and depicted in literature prior to Stoker's novel and its immediate precursors.
  • Supposedly the first authorized sequel to Stoker's novel, Dracula the Un-dead is set about 25 years after the original and was published in 2009. Dracula: the Un-Dead is co-authored by screenwriter Ian Holt and Dacre Stoker, Bram's great grand-nephew. It's something of an Anachronism Stew as it combines very vague possible Sequel Hooks in the original with more connection to the historical Dracula, with all the accumulated vampire traditions from decades of movies and books, and with Jack the Ripper. To accomplish this, the book Ret Cons some parts of the original novel as deliberate deceptions and other parts as errors or carelessness by Bram Stoker, who is a character in the novel himself, and simply changes still more details with no explanation. Despite all that, it mainly relies on ambiguity in the original, like Fred Saberhagen's version.
  • Dracula is the Overprotective Dad of Draculaura in the new Monster High novel.
  • David Weber's Out of the Dark makes some oblique references to Dracula, with a significant part of the Alien Invasion story taking place in the woods and mountains of Transylvania, and a local resistance fighter seems to take inspiration from Vlad the Impaler by impaling alien invaders on stakes as a terror tactic. He actually is Dracula and finally gets really pissed at the end of the book, leading to a Curb Stomp Battle when he takes the fight directly to the invaders.


Live Action TV

  • "Count Dracula", a BBC miniseries from 1977 that was part of "Great Performances", is very faithful to the novel, save for some changes. (Arthur Holmwood and Quincy Morris mashed into a Composite Character, streamlined elements, etc.)
  • Dracula appears in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season five episode "Buffy vs. Dracula," bringing with him all the "classic" vampire tropes that Buffy usually doesn't truck with. The appearance of first season Big Bad the Master, however, was evidently inspired by the makeup worn by Max Schrek in Nosferatu, as was that of the Turok-Hahn in the final season.
  • The actual name of "Grandpa" Munster from The Munsters is Sam Dracula.
  • Count Duckula and the Count von Count in Sesame Street are parodies of the Bela Lugosi movie incarnations of Dracula.
  • Young Dracula features the Count having been forced to flee Transylvania by a peasant mob and attempting to live in British suburbia with his two children, Ingrid and Vlad.
  • Alexander Lucard, from Dracula the Series.
  • Not Dracula himself, but an episode of Young Indiana Jones has Indy (during his days as a spy in WWI), go on a mission to the castle of Transylvanian General Torgo, who is first revealed to mirror the tactics of Prince Vlad the Impaler, and is then explicitly revealed to be a vampire (not that any of the characters admit it).

Tabletop Games

  • Count Strahd von Zarovich (of the legendary Dungeons & Dragons adventure and subsequent game setting Ravenloft) started out as a renamed Count Dracula, drawing upon the movie portrayals more than the book. Similarities between the two persist to this day. To muddle the waters somewhat, though, the actual Count Dracula is used as a villain of the sub-setting Masque of the Red Death, where attempts are made to portray the character with Vlad III Tepes as a basis. As if to wring the most out of the concept, the accounts of Vlad III's infamy, taken to extremes, had in turn already been a large part of the basis for a non-vampiric villain of the main setting: Vlad Drakov.
    • Interestingly, the character of Count Strahd was first sketched out as a villain in a standalone adventure module written in the early 80's. The release of the Realms of Terror campaign boxed set was the first, though, to detail his history and motivations in depth. As the campaign setting was released in 1990 and the Bram Stoker's Dracula film in 1992, this makes the movie version of the good Count Older Than They Think.
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade, Dracula's a member of the Tzimisce clan, a group of flesh-bending transcendentalists with little need for morals.
    • And in Vampire: The Requiem, one of the major covenants (social groupings) in the game is the Ordo Dracul, a group devoted to transcending the vampiric condition that considers Dracula to be the first "true" vampire (and, interestingly, Dracula himself is completely AWOL).
    • However, for STs that absolutely must play the bastard, three possible options are given in the Ordo Dracul supplement, in three tasty troperriffic flavors: Beware the Nice Ones, Boisterous Bruiser and Magnificent Bastard. As the Ordo Dracul is a runaway fan favorite covenant, expect more delineation of Dracula's influence as the series progresses.
    • The Gangrel clanbook for Requiem also recently introduced "The Count," a Badass Biker who claims to be the grandchilde of the Count Dracula and who's quickly become a fan favorite. The Count is not one to be fucked with.
    • Both lines also do a lot with the Nosferatu variant. Each one has a Nosferatu clan made up of vampires who are... well, off. In Masquerade, this meant they were all so grotesque that they literally couldn't go into public without risking the Masquerade; they made up for this by lurking to (and cloaking themselves in) the shadows and dealing in the info trade. In Requiem, they might not necessarily be disfigured, but they at least cast an aura around them that puts an observer in the mind that something is not right, and suffer socially because of it; they tend to be the brutes and the things that "even other monsters" fear.
  • The Warhammer Fantasy Battle Vampire Counts have two bloodlines modeled on versions of Dracula. The Necrarchs resemble the character's portrayal in Nosferatu, but for the closest match, the von Carstein vampires tend to dress exactly like Bela Lugosi, and live in huge haunted castles beyond the forest. The character of Vlad von Carstein is probably the closest match to Dracula; though he is long (permanently) dead in the main storyline, his vampiric offspring (first Konrad and now Mannfred) continue the family tradition. Interestingly, all three take on different aspects of the Dracula archetype. Vlad is an artist, philosopher, and a genuine romantic who reluctantly made his dying wife a vampire so as to not be separated from her, and is Dracula as a charming, seductive noble. Konrad is a bloodthirsty, sadistic butcher, with no sense of subtlety, art, or manipulation, but takes a fierce glee in battle, and so is Dracula as Vlad the Impaler. Mannfred, finally, is a sociopathic Magnificent Bastard (though, as the current one, he has been suffering Villain Decay and is now something of a General Failure) who indirectly caused the defeats of the first two to satisfy his own ambition, and is possibly the closest to Stoker's original portrayal of Dracula. As of this edit, all three of them are 'permanently' dead, but there may be other spawns of Vlad's out there.
    • A third bloodline, the Blood Dragons, are battle-obsessed warriors that are frequently depicted wearing a "Flayed Hauberk," that resembles the distinctive armor worn by Dracula in the opening of Coppola's film.
    • Games Workshop likes to play with the idea of Mannfred being dead or not. A passing mention in the Vampire Counts army book specifically mentions Gotrek and Felix actually having encountered him long after his reported death, casting into question whether he actually is dead or not, before claiming that Felix is a known fraud and a liar and then dismissing the idea.
  • Interestingly, the Iron Kingdoms setting has a Vlad Tepes Expy that isn't a Dracula: Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince of Umbrey, complete with a spell called "Impaler."
  • Steve Jackson's Car Wars had a car catalog that included a large American car with a spike on the front... 'Vlad the Impala'.
  • Fury of Dracula board game puts players in the shoes of novel protagonists hunting the eponymous Count across Europe.


Theater

  • The Dracula ballet is based off of the design of the movie, but it comes off as rather cheesy and funny instead of being remotely scary.
  • Frank Wildhorn's Dracula: the Musical played on Broadway for a few months in 2004, where it flopped massively. It has, however, had some success in Europe. For the most part it stuck very close to the plotline of the original novel, only to go off on another road completely for the last five minutes of the show, in which Dracula randomly decides that he is far too in love with Mina to take her from her mortal life. In the Broadway version, the story was kept in the Victorian era, but it was updated to the 1950's for the Swiss production.
  • Dracula-- Entre l'amour et la mort is a Quebecois musical by Bruno Pelletier which has garnered a lot of international attention. It takes some elements of the Gary Oldman film and makes it way cooler. Including a scene where Dracula tangos.
  • One of the Sera Myu stage musicals featured "Dracul" and his daughter as villains.


Video Games

  • In video games Dracula most famously appears in the Castlevania series as the main Evil Overlord antagonist, sworn enemy of the Belmont clan and other monster-hunting heroes. Rather than using "Alucard" as an alias of Dracula, it's the alias of his half-vampire son Adrian. The series also states that Quincy Morris was related to the Belmont clan, and features his son and grandson as protagonists in Bloodlines and Portrait of Ruin. Dracula resembles Bela Lugosi in most of the games; in Dracula X Chronicle, Curse of Darkness and Symphony of the Night, he looks like Gary Oldman, and then there's Circle of the Moon, where he bears a scary resemblance to Rob Zombie. Rondo of Blood has a manga Dracula.
    • As it is apparently popular, or just because it was his appearance in Symphony of the Night, the older, gray-haired, mustached slightly beard look has become the standard of the series. Interestingly, they reference his ability to become younger as he drinks blood with their attempt to explain his varying appearances: the longer he is in the world, the more power he builds up, and he subsequently appears younger. This works because whereas the older games usually had him actively engaging in a reign of terror when you defeated him, most recent games have him revived just as you are arriving at his castle. This isn't a hard and fast rule and they often break it, but at least they're referencing the novel.
    • Castlevania: Lament of Innocence provided an origin story for the series: instead of Vlad Tepes as might be expected. Dracula's true identity is fictional Crusades tactician Matthias Cronqvist, former friend of the Belmonts. In the recent reboot of the franchise, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Gabriel Belmont himself is revealed to have ended up as Dracula in The Stinger.
  • Not quite Dracula, but Melty Blood has a vampire called the Night of Wallachia. No, that's not just a fancy title, he's actually a night, as in the period of time between sundown and sunrise. He was an alchemist who was obsessed with stopping the end of the world that he predicted for the distant future. However, he was mortal and didn't have enough time to figure out the solution, so he made a Deal with the Devil and turned himself into both a vampire and a recurring phenomenon (likened to a hurricane, something that just happens whenever the conditions are right) wherein he would materialize local rumors. The first place where his night occurred was Wallachia, giving him the shape and personality of Dracula, which seems to have stuck with him for future occurrences.
  • Not exactly an appearance (yet...) but in Team Fortress 2's "Meet the Spy", the base's light-up messages include 'Lost Dracula' and 'Found Dracula'. Crazy Prepared or Foreshadowing?
    • One of the Medic's weapons is called "The Blutsauger". "Blutsauger" is German for "vampire" or literally "bloodsucker". The weapon drains your enemies' health and adds it to the Medic's by shooting a rapid stream of syringes at them. The Halloween special update included a "spooky" version of one of the maps complete with the ghost of one of the backstory characters. The Demoman's claymore is possessed by a vengeful spirit that actually whispers to the player when equipped. Dracula making an appearance in some future update is actually not too far-fetched.
    • There's also the Halloween 2010 update, which repeatedly warned the reader that "there are draculas right behind you!"
  • Oddly enough, in Final Fantasy XI's third expansion, Treasures of Aht Urghan, there are 50 mini missions players can do. In the final five (First Lieutenant rank), one of them has the players fighting a bossfight against one Count Dracula, who is mentioned nowhere else in the game, nor are there any other monsters of his type. The quest is called Bloody Rondo, in probable reference to the Castlevania title "Rondo of Blood".
  • Dracula appears as a boss monster in Ragnarok Online.
  • Appears at the end of the FMV game Dracula Unleashed, which is considered a sequel to the original book.
  • Likewise appeared in numerous computer adventure games bearing his name which include: Dracula Resurrection, Dracula The Last Sanctuary, Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon (All these games are one trilogy FYI), and finally Dracula: Origin
  • In Fate/Extra, Dracula becomes a Lancer class Servant, based on his other name Vlad the Impaler, in which his tendency to executing his enemies by impaling them with spears became the basis of his class selection as Lancer. Incidentally, he doesn't seem to be a vampire, since there's already Night of Wallachia for the Dracula stand-in and Vlad/Dracula's classic vampire attributes don't seem to match the established Nasuverse vampire attributes.
  • The Vibora Bay expansion for Champions Online includes, as the leader for the vampiric New Shadows faction, Vladic Dracul. Wearing blood red armor that resembles a more fantastic variant of the armor worn at the beginning of Bram Stokers Dracula , his face is also inhuman, like Count Orlock's taken to an even greater extreme.
  • First-Person Shooter Bram Stoker's Dracula is set in the haunted castle of Dracula, but it retains little to none relevance to the novel's plot.
  • Kairn, the Big Bad of the Veil of Darkness adventure game is an Expy of Lugosiesque Count Dracula. The game is even set in Transylvania.
  • Vlad Tepes, while presumably not possessing any special powers is a member of The Knights Templar in Assassin's Creed. He's also one of the multiplayer characters in Assassin's Creed: Revelations though he doesn't appear in person, having been killed by the Ottomans a while ago.


Webcomics

  • Dracula Everlasting: Nicholas Harker is an average teen who has just lost his parents in a tragic accident. But when he learns he is the sole heir to a vast estate from a mysterious ancestor he never knew he had, it's eventually revealed that Lord Dracula is that ancestor.
  • The Big Bad in Clan of the Cats. He is primarily modeled after Bram Stoker's version, and has long hair and a mustache, much like his historical counterpart.
  • Dracula is behind the events in an entire arc of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. Also, he has a moon base, complete with a gigantic moon laser. He also chills with Hitler and has Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, and Tupac making music together. (Elvis doesn't do ****.)
  • Artist Tod Wills has a furry webcomic adaptation of the novel which has been running for several years now. Dracula is a wolf, Prof. Van Helsing is a raccoon, Renfield is a rat, etc.
  • Mentioned but not seen in Order of the Stick where he was apparently voted "Sexiest Man Undead".
  • Talked about a lot in Abhay Khosla's Bram Stoker's Dracula. He never appears in the actual comic.
  • In this strip of Beaver and Steve, Steve mistakes Dracula for Santa Claus. Really.

Web Original


Western Animation

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