One Paragraph Movie Review: Dracula (1958)

One hundred and eighteenth film: Dracula, the one from 1958 with Christopher Lee in it. This film is no vampire instruction manual, and requires the viewer to already understand a LOT of the ins and outs of blood-sucking culture. Happily by 1958 — and certainly by 2019 — everybody’s pretty much across the whole garlic-and-daylight allergy, strong stake-aversion, always-dressed-for-the-opera idiosyncrasies of vampires, so this is a fun, blood-soaked romp with extremely dramatic music and a mansion that looks like it could do with some central heating. Pretty sexy for a film that stands as a reminder of the importance of both flyscreens and SPF30 moisturiser, it’s a good way to spend an hour and a half with an only moderate chance of nightmares. Two and a half coffin dormitories out of five.