Does anyone else also think that this film just wouldn't work without it, regardless of the talent of Peter Cushing and Chris Lee? I actually put a clip of the soundtrack from the climactic scene with the Dracula/Van Helsing confrontation on repeat in my mp3 player. I enjoy it that much. Close your eyes, listen to it, and you can see blood dripping down the walls. And then there's the end title sequence music! Wow!
shareAgreed.
The score, where I think it's Lucy in the crypt who gets the stake, and is released into a natural death, is really an amazing piece of string writing and I'd say as good as anything I've heard in film music work, period.
My accountant says, "1 + 1, 40% of the time, equals divorce".
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Yes, I agree that this score is absolutely amazing. It doesn't get the recognition it deserves. I see the scores for Halloween and Psycho on every list of great horror film scores, but never this one and I can't imagine why. There is no reason this shouldn't be on every list of the best horror scores in history.
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Agreed. I think that everything about Hammer, from the music, directors, actors, sets and atmosphere it conjured up, has all been extremely underrated and overlooked throughout film history.
shareFor me, the opening score is the ultimate horror movie score. It's freakin' horrifying! It ranks with the all-time best film scores.
shareJames Bernard's score on this film is the perfect musical alter ego to Christpher Lee's performace as Dracula. I was thinking about this as I watched the beginning of the film again tonight. It's like one great big, loud, aggressive, in-your-face, EVIL *beep* YOU!" to the whole world.
The movie may toss out 95% of the book, but Lee's Dracula is the closest in personality and attitude to the bastard Bram Stoker wrote.
Re: "Lee's Dracula is the closest in personality and attitude to the bastard Bram Stoker wrote."
Lol.
I agree that Stoker's Dracula was a paragon of unadulterated evil rather than the somewhat sympathetic and redeemable Dracula in Coppola's version. I initially objected to the '92 film for this very reason, but came to accept it as an interesting variation of the story (in fact, it's become my favorite version). Still, I prefer Dracula as the evil, irredeemable bastage shown in Stoker's novel. Lee does this well, but Frank Langella's '79 portrayal is my favorite take on the character. Yes, he's more of a charmer, but just as evil behind the facade.
James Bernard did a very good job on the music for this film, as well as a lot of others, such as 'Curse of Frankenstein', 'Taste the Blood of Dracula' and the BFI DVD version of 'Nosferatu'.
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It's actually one of the things I don't like about this movie. I just found it really dated and overblown a lot of the time.
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