THE STORY: Everyone is familiar with the dark tale of Dr. Seward, his fiancée, Lucy, and their mysterious neighbor, Count Dracula, but here the events take on intensified effect through the heightened action and simplified staging of this fast-moving new version. Lucy is suffering from a strange malady, much to the concern of her aunt, Mrs. Harker, and her intended, the scholarly Dr. Seward, and matters are hardly helped by the disconcerting presence of Renfield, whose bizarre behavior (he eats flies and birds) is being observed by the doctor for scientific purposes. Sensing that Lucy’s illness may also be rooted in some undefined and perhaps unnatural phenomena, Dr. Seward has summoned the renowned metaphysician Dr. Van Helsing (here portrayed as a female character) to join them. Under her astute questioning the very odd facts of Lucy’s case begin to emerge, and when their neighbor from Carfax Hall, Count Dracula, pays a call, Van Helsing begins to suspect the horrible truth. Thereafter it is a desperate race to save Lucy, and the others, from Dracula’s evil clutches—and, once and for all, to find and destroy the vampire in his secret hiding place.
An exceptionally skillful, freely adapted version of the classic thriller by Bram Stoker.
“…fascinating…eerily worthwhile…” —The New York Times.