The Reel Rejects - BRAM STOKERS DRACULA (1992) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!

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Starting point is 00:01:07 let's do this thing roll the bump all right this made me want to see megalopolis that much more now Oh, Roxanne. We did it.

Starting point is 00:01:33 We Bram Stokered. I need a minute to process this. Man. Man, oh man. There's a reason that movie is so effing famous. Yeah, man. I mean, first of all, not only the cast. But like...

Starting point is 00:01:50 Every department. Every department. Or a department. Like, that was so... phenomenally done as our man Richard E. Grant. Hell yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah, that was awesome. That was pretty

Starting point is 00:02:03 amazing. Just the vibes alone. Like, and especially having seen a handful of iterations of Dracula and or Nosepharatu, a Sadie Frost must have been that girl. Homegirl. Yeah. And Tom Waits, there we go. All right. Tom Waits pops up in stuff here and there.

Starting point is 00:02:21 He's kind of an underrated actor. And props to Michael Ballhaus. there uh yeah having seen like a handful of iterations of dracula over time you know certainly you know it's a story that has its own prolific sort of just atmosphere around it anyway but this was really cool because you know seeing versions from much earlier in film history and then seeing something like this that clearly borrows from all that but that has like the full scope of you know effects and production values of the time like this was really cool because it felt like very gothic in a way that to me is akin to those older classic you know creepy black

Starting point is 00:03:02 and white style Dracula movies but it has yeah all the the pulp and the true sort of implication of what that sort of fever that you know a Dracula type character Dracula type story brings on like ah this was this is pretty rad what what did you think yeah i'm with you on all that i mean my when I was growing up we used to do for Halloween we would decorate my like front porch

Starting point is 00:03:31 we would get all the leaves around the yard and get my Barbies and have them like screaming out and like dye them red and wet and every year we'd have a little TV

Starting point is 00:03:41 that we put in it was like a six inch screen and we would play the old I don't know what's called the old school version of Dracula the Bella Legosie one

Starting point is 00:03:51 yes or Frankenstein so that's my only um dracula like knowledge at all and so i don't know why i kind of just thought i had seen this and then when i looked i was like i have never seen this i i have no idea what this is um i can't believe who was in this i can't believe like what cultural phenomenon this is that we are watching for the first time just so good i have so many things i need to look up oh yeah get on it i have a lot of knowledge so it We got to still know about how this was done. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:04:26 And I mean, I don't know what the order of release would have or will be for these videos and stuff. But like having seen this, we won't go too far into it. If the, depending on what's out, we won't go too deep into it. But having seen an interview with vampire, having seen this, it is fascinating to me that the 90s, this is the 90s, right? I mean, let me look. The 90s do seem like a fascinating little moment for, you know, these kinds of vampire stories.

Starting point is 00:04:52 92. Okay, there you go. Yeah, that makes sense. Because, you know, it's like you had, yeah, the classic, you had like Nosferatu and Dracula and Spanish Dracula. So this is post point break. Okay. But pre-speed.

Starting point is 00:05:06 So we're still at, like, Keanu is still like, you know, on the rise, but is like also at the top. So, like, that makes a lot of sense because, like, for him to land a role like this in a movie like this, he would have had to have been or it makes sense that he would have been. and it's fascinating to me because yeah like you know the casting is in a lot of ways you can see the intent because you are getting yeah you need a couple of young you know you need a young strapping lead to be that character you need a you know a young much loved ingenue to be the mina character you need like a a veteran character actor who's not too old but who can play much older to be Dracula like there's so many great casting choices and and again this is francis ford coppola's movie following godfather part three well step up from what i've been told this is like that's interesting i've not heard the

Starting point is 00:06:03 best things about godfather three but uh this was something else and i mean you know certainly coppola is one of those like you know cinema history masters who is certainly at this point in recent years maybe struggling to maintain some of that um status and glory you know megalopolis coming out soon or dropping in theaters soon as of this recording and certainly that i have heard is big and bold but not necessarily a hundred percent agreeably of you know a certain kind of quality yeah whereas something like this at least you know and this being sort of i feel like probably a getting on toward the later phases of copula where it is less of the sort of like monumental releases like this does seem like a showstopper and

Starting point is 00:06:50 something that is so rich with different film techniques and stuff. Because, yeah, like, you know, you have your classic black and white vampire stuff. You know, you have Nosferatu and Dracula and Vampir and all that. And then you go into like the Hammer era of like the 50s and 60s where it is like sexy now and it is like a bit more garish and a bit more saturated. But I feel like something like this then, you know, further past that into the 80s, 90s, You know, this has like the height of production value and pomp that some of those hammer movies seem to have. But like with way less cheese than the hammer movies are associated with.

Starting point is 00:07:32 So you get to have, yeah, you're like actual gothic horror sort of twisted romance thing. And even the way they portray it here, like I like that Dracula is not just a monster. like he's obviously villainous to some extent and you know not a good guy character for lack of a better way to phrase that but like even him as a character you feel for him and there's tragedy there and like his corrupting influence as much as you're like this is wrong and we want you know mina and keanu Reeves to be married and all that stuff and and he's corrupting her at the same time all of the weird little entangely you do kind of get to see from multiple perspectives. And you can feel the motivation. You can feel for everybody's position instead of just being like, oh, no, you know, Lucy's been corrupted, kill her. Oh, my God, I love Lucy.

Starting point is 00:08:28 I love Lucy. I love Lucy. Yeah. Let me ask you this. Yeah. This movie won four Oscars. No, sorry, three Oscars. It was nominated for four, one, three.

Starting point is 00:08:39 What do you think the three winners are? costume design did we have a production design no okay costume design cinematography no no

Starting point is 00:08:56 ah damn I'm like when did we get an effects award yeah this is best effects best effects okay it would have to be this is like the yeah they're pulling out so many techniques it's called best effects comma sound effects

Starting point is 00:09:09 editing okay which i don't remember in 93 that being the way the categories worked but so this is okay so they got best sound editing best costumes uh you're missing the the one big best director or something no it's about the old face the makeup best makeup effects the makeup best makeup and then the one that it lost was for best art direction and set direct uh decoration what did they lose to i want to That is a great call. This was... I don't know.

Starting point is 00:09:41 I should look that up momentarily. This was a feast. So you wish you could just click it and it would tell you. I know. But it doesn't. Someday. It'll be that easy. Man, it deserved three Oscars.

Starting point is 00:09:52 It was that good for sure. Really good. Yeah, 100%. I mean, just, yeah, the cinematography, the editing, the lighting, the... I really loved how many older and more expressionist sort of techniques they pulled in, having all these, you know, big exaggerated shadows that are, Clearly, you know, you maybe you're shining a light behind somebody else on set, but like the way they used the shadows was amazing. The way they would superimpose like a journal page or montage together multiple images kind of overlapping to suggest one thing or give you sort of a flash of a hallucination or something like that.

Starting point is 00:10:28 Like this, I was in heaven because especially again, the way that they captured the look in the mood and the techniques they used frequently. and the way that they would match lighting or just have all these little really great atmospheric, eerie details was really next level to me. Yeah, I'm with you completely. You know, like there's so many examples you could throw out, but it's from the beginning

Starting point is 00:10:56 with all the red and the stabbing behind with the black shadows. Yeah, and then bringing that back later, they're playing like that silent movie with like the paper cutouts and stuff. And even that, like there's that interlude where he first comes to the, city and it's like silent and you just hear the film you know going through and it feels like

Starting point is 00:11:14 somebody's just early camera even though it's in color you know it feels like just somebody's home movie and just like all the there were so many choices on display like this was so sculpted do you want to hear some things let's hear some things you and i need to know background we need at all i haven't read a single word i'm reading for you all right i'm ready producer and director francis fort copla explains on the DVD commentary that mina and harker's wedding was a reshoot done at the Los Angeles Greek Orthodox Church. Really? They filmed the entire ceremony with a genuine Romanian Orthodox minister and realized afterwards

Starting point is 00:11:49 that Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves may have really been married to each other. Not in any legal sense, but under the eyes of God, as Ryder claims. Reeves has said, since confessed that he often gets texts from Ryder that say, hello, husband, and they're both completely fine with it. I love that. That makes me so happy. Newly, I forgot. That's iconic.

Starting point is 00:12:14 Prince Vlad's scream after he drives his sword into the cross is not the voice of Gary Oldman. Lux Interior lead singer of punk band The Cramps recorded that scream and it was dubbed in. That's what's up. That's awesome. That is so random. That is so awesome. That's a great piece of movie trivia. Very rock and roll.

Starting point is 00:12:35 Even beyond this specific movie, that's a great piece of trivia. At the first cast meeting called by producer and director Francis Ford Coppola, he got all the principal actors and actresses to read the entire Brom Stoker novel out loud to get a feel for the story. According to Sir Anthony Hopkins, it took two whole days to complete. Let's go. I'm down with that. I like that. Gary Oldman hired a singing coach to help him lower his voice by an octave to help give him more Dracula, a more sinister quality. Cool.

Starting point is 00:13:05 And well, and two, to sell some of those bits where he's much older. I think that helps, yeah. And when he's in, like, monster form. Francis Ford Coppola says on the DVD audio commentary that during the shaving scene, the walls of the set gradually move inward to create a subliminal growing sense of claustrophobia. I got to go back and look at that. This is a movie. I cannot wait to watch again and examine.

Starting point is 00:13:33 Gary Oldman said when he first read the script, he decided. decided it would be worth doing the movie just so he could feel what it would be like to say to someone, I've crossed oceans of time to find you. Time to find you. That is such an all-timer of a bar. Jesus Christ.

Starting point is 00:13:49 If somebody said that to me? Oh, dead. On the spot. On the spot. Rising to Valhalla. Coppola came up with the idea that when in the presence of being such as a vampire, the laws of physics don't work correctly. This is why shadows

Starting point is 00:14:05 often act independently of the figures casting them why rats can run along a ceiling upside down and why liquid drips up. Yeah. Oh! Ah! This is great. This is my new favorite movie.

Starting point is 00:14:19 So good. This is the Blues Brothers are the two best movies. When Mina recalls her previous life as Elizabetha, she says she remembers a land beyond a great forest. Land beyond the forest is the literal meaning of Transylvania. Hey! Beautiful. detail good call um okay gary oldman was drunk the night they filmed the scene where he had to lick blood from keanu reeves straight razor let's go the scene was filmed after midnight which added to the spirit of the scene and helped put the cast in the proper mood absolutely did you know he also apparently was like goofing around on the leon set when he did that famous everyone like that that delivery was like a joke and then look

Starting point is 00:15:05 Besson was like, no, that's the take- Really? Now I know what you're talking about. Yeah. The scene of Lucy getting back into her coffin and the underground crypt was shot in reverse to give it an eerie quality. That's cool. That's a good call. Man, there's, like, you know how when you go through

Starting point is 00:15:21 trivia and everything has like a thousand likes? And you're just like, oh my God, everybody did this. This seems like a treasure trove movie. Like some movies too will have like four or five pieces of decent trivia and the rest is like granular. but this is just yeah at least so far you're you're killing it um copla has openly criticized his own reasoning for casting kiana reeves as jonathan harker according to him he needed a young hot star

Starting point is 00:15:46 that would connect with the female filmgoers well did it work for me i mean he's not as in grip of the accent i think as as you would maybe hope but actually for the reputation this movie has and his performance not being one of the things people speak more highly of as I feel like I can vaguely remember like I enjoyed watching him more than I thought and I think that his presence even when his performance is campier somehow still works within the larger movie because I think the movie has a broad enough tone that a little camp isn't too badly amiss you know I thought he was fine. The accent isn't spot on. Yeah. He's fine. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:38 I love him. And I mean, too, after a certain point, he's not, like, carrying the movie. It's not like he has to carry the whole movie, you know. Yeah, completely. I am trying to see how I know Sadie Frost, who played Lucy. And it said at the end, introducing Sadie Frost. So. It must be her first joint, her first film.

Starting point is 00:17:00 But I don't recognize anything she's done since then. well then maybe it's from a past life that you remember her and that is crazy to me because she was so good she was terrific and that's another character that could easily be less it could easily feel less of a character and feel more like a gratuitous like i think there is a line that you skate with vampire stuff and especially as we've gone into the modern age and we've had like you know HBO and true blood and all sorts of stuff where you can really throw down on like the sexual aspect of vampires I thought this was really nicely, again, attuned because you do have that and you do have, like, you know, copious amounts of nudity and things like that. And it is very sensual and sexual. But it's also, like, yeah, there's a dimensionality to everything. Minus, like, his brides who you only ever see, like, once or twice and they're just temperatures. Like, yeah, a character like Lucy in a lesser movie could have just become some kind of object or thing. But, like, the whole time she does take on this sort of feral, you know, I don't know, this is this interesting quality that made the character still engaging and made me still like sad for her fate and, you know, hopeful that like, oh, maybe there's some way around this, you know.

Starting point is 00:18:18 She's a good friend. Yeah, absolutely. She was a real one. And she talks about, like, sex capades and helps her with her love life and gives the ring. And even when she's on her deathbed, she looks her and says, you look so beautiful. Yeah, and she's like got the fever, but she's not just like completely removed from who she was or the fact that she and Mina. And, you know, Mina having this like past life thing, it makes sense that they would still be able to connect within the whole like, you know, heightened horror lore of it all. Lucy was my favorite character.

Starting point is 00:18:49 Lucy was great. I loved her. We love Lucy. I love Lucy. I love Lucy. She was so good. Did you happen to see who the other brides were? I know Monica Belucci must have been one of them.

Starting point is 00:18:59 Yeah, I saw that. Who's now in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, and apparently is like Tim Burton's new bay, Monica Belucci. Oh, yeah, I saw that. Yeah. I don't mean to roll. That's great. Good for them.

Starting point is 00:19:13 No, it's okay. You can judge it. No, I'm not judging at all. It's just funny. Lover of love, shipper of ships, but not for you, Tim. Michaela Burkoo. Okay, maybe not. Do you know who that is?

Starting point is 00:19:24 Not by name. And Fiona Kendrick. I don't know. Play in the Super Bowl. Yeah. Fiona Kendrick, this is her only... Damn. Movie.

Starting point is 00:19:40 Not bad. Or she did with criminal intent after. And that's it. Well, damn, we'll have to do a double feature or something. And then she was like, I'm out. He's out. But yeah, too, like the lore and stuff. And this is Michaela Burkoo's literal only movie.

Starting point is 00:19:55 Damn. I guess they just must have those kinds of faces. But yeah, like the lore too, you know, you had like, you know, they're using the garlic to try and subdue whatever thing is, is, you know, coursing through her system. But also Dracula, he can walk around during the daytime. It's not the ideal time, but he can go outside, but he doesn't have the reflection, things like that, you know, or he's got influence over and can shift into any, you know, creature. That part's so interesting to me because I've never experienced that with Dracula, that he's a shapeshifter into wolves, bats, rats. Yeah, I can't remember what the exact line was, but yeah, something of any creature of the dark or any, you know, more somewhat sinister creature he has dominion over. Is that a rabbit? I thought it well, because of what I thought they had done was like, oh, I thought there was like a dead rabbit slung over the thing to represent the Keanu is about to be just like the rabbit. But no, it was a wolf too.

Starting point is 00:20:55 denote the lurking predatorial nature of Dracula. Even the way that he looked as a wolf, I thought they did such a good job for 92. Yeah. The wolf makeup, when he's the big bat creature makeup. And you have so many iconic looks to because I know on the Simpsons, they've done Mr. Burns with the, he's got the, forgive me, it looks kind of like butt cheeks.

Starting point is 00:21:19 He's got the big, like, you know, floofed out two-fold hair and the big long billowing red rose. And then you've got him in town looking steampunk with the top hat and the sunglasses and stuff. Like there's so many great wardrobe choices and so many great contrasting colors. Like we said, like Lucy and Mina would be in like red and green or teal and just like, yeah, contrasted off each other. Gary brought the heat. Yeah, man. And he's like ancient and icky but also suave and like you get it and you kind of understand the appeal.

Starting point is 00:21:51 I'm so happy because like you said, I don't know when these air. so I won't give too much away but recently we watched something that just has been hyped up so much for me that just didn't land for me that didn't hit that did not hit for me and so I was a little worried about this like oh what if I don't like this is this the most famous Dracula it's one of them I would say probably this is one that's referenced most by my horror friends in recent memory I would have to imagine that You know, if you're not thinking Bella Gosa, you're probably thinking of this. So I was like, uh-oh.

Starting point is 00:22:28 And then we went into this and it's kind of like the second it started, I felt relieved. Yeah. Because I was like, immediately, this is an artistic masterpiece. And I just fell in love. I fell in love with the characters. I felt like they threw us in in such a Shakespearean way with that immediate battle and the death of his wife because she loved him so much. She couldn't do it without him. But that just the, like I said, the Romeo and Juliet of it all with, like, she didn't realize he was still there and how these things can be avoided and you just never know.

Starting point is 00:23:02 Just, I loved it from jump. Yeah, it feels ancient and historical and literary. And, yeah, it feels like a tome, even though it is a movie. And they pack every frame with so much. Like, it's the set, like the production design, the set direction, all that stuff is gorgeous all the times where you're on and what. It feels like an actual set when you're on something that seems more like it would be on a soundstage. They came up with clever way. Like I bet that opening battle is probably on a sound stage, but they came up with a very expressionist way to kind of show that in shadow with the, you know, dusk, the bright, brilliant orange dusk, all the costumes and all the, again, makeups and creature effects.

Starting point is 00:23:41 And then actual animal actors they had to have on screen. And then, you know, like the broad ensemble of different kinds of actors and stuff. and you've got Hopkins and Hopkins like Hopkins like holding it down and I feel like he is they don't explicitly acknowledge it so much but he is I think in that opening scene as like the priest guy and then so Van Helsing must either be him or a descendant of his and to or he is a twin because they look identical Renfield like the whole like Renfield just coming back to him frequently in the sanitarium just like so much atmosphere and there's so much. much stuff that's like faithful recreations are what feel like you know decadent recreations of you know a certain period you know you got the the 1500s or wherever you started 1400 as you guessed and then the 1800s later on but then too you also have a bunch more uh sort of fantastical stuff in there as well so not only are you recreating things but you're also sort of creating things and you've got this like crazy armor with his like wolf helmet and stuff like there's so much who's your

Starting point is 00:24:48 favorite character? Favorite individual character? I know it's a weird question for this movie, but I'm curious. I mean, Lucy was a real one. I mean, the soft spot of my heart is for Keanu. But, I mean, you know, Gary Oldman is like Dracula, the presence of Dracula is so iconic throughout this and it ties everything together that I guess it would have to be him in a way.

Starting point is 00:25:15 Yeah, that makes sense. It's like he played 10. 10 different characters almost. Yeah, and they all feel like the same guy, but that just adds to that ancient, like he's just been here for so long kind of thing. And, yeah. I'm a Lucy Stan.

Starting point is 00:25:28 I'm a Lucy stand. Lucy's great. Give me spin off or give me to. Yeah. Oh, man, that was so good. That was so good. I'm so inspired. Like you and I can talk about this movie now.

Starting point is 00:25:39 Yeah. We can just be like, hey, wasn't that great? Yeah, wasn't that so good. And this thing, and this thing. Like, oh, and the way they blend whatever dialogue was, you know, like conjured, for the adaptation versus what is directly lifted from, you know, the novel, I thought was lovely. Is Bram Stoker's Van Helsing supposed to be related to this?

Starting point is 00:26:00 Is there a Bram Stoker's Van Helsing? Yes. Not the Hugh Jackman one. I don't know. What is it? Well, if there's one called like Bram Stoker's Van Helsing, I'm not aware of it. Yeah, that's what it's called. That's what it said recommended underneath.

Starting point is 00:26:13 Oh, goodness. I don't know. I haven't heard anything about it. I'm going to guess that this you see what I'm saying? That this prime thing from 2021 is not directly related to this. Oh, okay.

Starting point is 00:26:25 No, but let's see it is. But this actually absolutely is iconic No, it is certainly not. Yeah. It is certainly not. And too like, wow, I didn't know they did that. And you have like, you know, Nosferatu and Vampire like those words,

Starting point is 00:26:40 those motifs appear here too as sort of and maybe they are also part of the original novel but they also. seem to be nodding to the you know history of vampires on screen this describes itself as a horror fantasy and it's so accurate absolutely is yeah it is it feels like a fever dream horror fantasy and it is like romantic and tragic and steamy and and intriguing and beautiful to look at and gory and icky like it's got everything yeah it's got a little bit of everything yeah i really really fuck with that movie yeah hard absolutely do you eff with it as hard

Starting point is 00:27:16 as we do. Is this an instant? Do you F as hard as we do? Do you F as hard as this movie Fs? Leave it in the comments down below. Yeah, I feel like we could both go on talking about this forever. But yeah, I love this. So good.

Starting point is 00:27:31 Yeah, so good. I'm inspired in multiple fashions. I want to write something. I want to go pick up a camera. You know, I want to build a set. I want to do everything. So leave us your thoughts on Bram Stoker Dracula. And we will catch you for the next vampire thing,

Starting point is 00:27:45 because I guess that's our thing now. Yeah, grab this. The vamp jacks. Anyway, we're the vamp jacks. We're the vamp checks. Let's go. Stay drippy. Stay moist.

Starting point is 00:27:54 Ron Joxy out. Pieces.

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The Reel Rejects - BRAM STOKERS DRACULA (1992) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!

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