Dracula (BBC 2020): Some thoughts on romantic vampirism
Finally a modern interpretation of a vampire who we don't want to immediately swoon for. Mostly.
I was working the late shift when Dracula first aired just after Christmas 2019, and even though I swore I was going to watch it on catch-up, I never did. But as I write this it's nearly October (I know, relevant who? It might be January but it is always spooky season in my heart) and so it is prime Spooky Season. Not only that, but I'm nursing one hell of an upset stomach and it seemed like a dose of blood and gothic horror would be just what the doctor ordered.
Hey, boo
Dracula has been reinvented and rediscovered and redesigned as many times as his buddy Frankenstein. Vampires, however, have been getting some romanticised attention of late, and it’s bullshit. We started off strong with the likes of Lestat de Lioncourt and I could accept the moral dilemma faced by Louis du Pointe du Lac. But it quickly devolves into the eternally brooding with the likes of Angel, and then, euw gross, Edward Cullen.
The shiny vampire sort of ended things for me. My relationship with the modern vampire had come to its inevitable close and even though I mourned the loss, I knew it was time. How did we get ourselves from the terrifyingly grotesque Nosferatu, to the Volvo driving wet weekend that was ‘Twilight’?
Author's note: As a stalwart Slytherin and a general lover of fictional bad guys (and I mean the proper douche canoes like Lucius Malfoy and the Dementors and Jared Leto's The Joker) I'm hard pressed to pass on a truly terrible villain.
I have to give the BBC their due. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat nearly made me do it. So close was I to writing off Claes Band as Dracula and placing him firmly into the box marked "gas-lighting bastard". I LOVED that he was almost without any redeemable qualities. A nasty, immortal freak. A round of applause for writers willing to go there.
Oh, but then Claes had to go and climb out of a wolf's skin looking so hot and unapologetic that I had to watch with my fingers over my mouth (and I OOP) and, well, I was swayed.
Claes Bang's Dracula is a total dick, as he should be. Don't get me wrong, I love Sirius-Black-Gary-Oldman Dracula. I also thought it was a nice try in Buffy. But they had these redeeming qualities to them that made them almost ethical.
Dracula is, at least at the beginning, a complete twat. He gaslights his victims in the most expert way and doesn't worry about them finding out because so what? He can just kill them. It's all sport. The series develops in an interesting and surprising way, but I don’t think he ever loses that sense of horror about him. It clings to him like death.
What I thought was really interesting in this imagining of the text was how it points to the homo-erotic elements of vampirism. If all Dracula is interested in is the "lives" of a person, the stories, the blood, then it doesn't really matter what kind of skin sack envelopes said blood. His attention is genderless. We quickly learn that he wants to absorb knowledge and skills and personalities through a person’s blood. He’s attracted to them on a very intimately internal level.
There's one particular scene *spoiler alert* where Jonathan is begging for his life on the roof of Castle Dracul in Transylvania and he's on his knees, reaching, clasping his aggressor and Dracula says something to the effect of "do it then". And Jonathan looks at Dracula's crotch before making the oath they were actually talking about. And it was kinda delightful. Just sayin’.
this gif ruins me every time…
But the sexual connotation was very real, I didn’t imagine it. It is set up perfectly by the twisted sex dream Jonathan has while staying at the Count's home.
We don't really understand Dracula's motivations for wanting to move to England, not in the first episode anyway. It seems like boredom, like a need for fresh blood, literally. But it does feel a lot like hubris will stab him in the heart (and I guess it does? Although he still goes out on his terms, which I found a little frustrated after everything). We're led to believe that England is a place of perceived superiority, Sister Van Helsing (yes THAT Van Helsing) makes such a thing clear to Jonathan.
Game hunters always go after the bigger and more dangerous prey. Why would a beast like Dracula be any different? The bigger the thrill the better, especially if you've been alive, or undead, for centuries.
Very clever writing and great acting has made this Dracula both hideous and enigmatic. A terrible thing to behold but also alluring. It will be interesting to see how well that persona is maintained throughout the series. (N.B. I’ve now finished watching the whole series and I enjoyed where they took it, but the ending felt rushed. I think we were sold short. It was dramatic though).
Such a good version. 10/10 for gross misconduct.
Are you on side with this Dracula, or completely repulsed? Tell me in the comments who your favourite fictional vampire is!
Written by Sarah
