Dracula

For Scary Season 2024, we’re harkening back to a founding film in the genre of horror. In this era of the 21st Century, fans of horror are rich in the types of film they view to give themselves the creeps --- body horror, slasher films, psychological fear, the supernatural. But a film had to be the forerunner for Hollywood and the rest of the world to understand that the public wanted to be scared for their 25 cents (in 1931, probably now more like $25 --- Junior Mints included). Horror would put people in the seats and pay off. There’d been a few forerunners in the silent era --- German Expressionist films such as The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu (more on that to come). But the genre took off when Universal brought out the first in their classic series of monster films, with Dracula in 1931. In this lies a tale of, not just horror, but real-world crosscurrents in legend, in literature, symbolism, star power, typecasting, and longevity. And Universal taking horror to the bank until 1948.

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