MovieChat Forums > The Brides of Dracula (1960) Discussion > As much as I love the Hammer Series...

As much as I love the Hammer Series...

posted 4 years ago by willdddd (279)
3 replies | jump to latest

Have to admit I always though it was kind of funny/weird how easily they made it for the vampires to be controlled by crosses. I always thought hurting a vampire by showing a silhouette of a cross or simply putting two objects together to look like a cross was cheesy and took away from the overall mythology, especially Count Dracula in particular, you would think it would take more than putting two pieces of wood or two candles together (as depicted in previous movies) to harm the king of vampires.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

I always liked a scene in Dracula with Frank Langella. Laurence Olivier's Van Helsing holds up a crucifix to hold the vampire off. Dracula steps forward and dismissively tosses it aside. I don't know if it was the first movie to do this... I know it has been repeated in other movies.

I always thought it was goofy but only because it assumes that somehow all vampires will react to a Christian symbol. No Jewish vampires? No Asian vampires?

What did they do about vampires in the years BC?

Yeah, as a plot device, it's definitely flawed.

[–] Wuchak (8855) 3 years ago

In that notable scene you speak of in the Langella version, Dracula powerfully responds:

"You fools! Do you think with your crosses and your wafers you can destroy me?... I am the king of my kind!... Time is on my side. In a century, when you are dust, I shall wake and call Lucy, my queen, from her grave. I have in my time had many brides, Mr. Harker. But I shall set Lucy above them all."

The band Helstar used this quote for their 1990 magnum opus NOSFERATU.

[–] Wuchak (8855) 3 years ago

The cross symbol would presumably only be effective if the person using it to combat evil vampires combined it with faith; in this case Dr. Van Helsing, whom obviously believed.

There was this horror flick from the early 80s (I think) where someone tried to use a cross or crucifix to oppose a vampire (or maybe a monstrous demon-possessed person, I can't remember) and the creature grabbed it and discarded it with disdain, pointing out that such artifacts had no power over the kingdom of darkness without personal faith in Christ.

It's reminiscent of this chronicling in the bible:

Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.

- Acts 19:13-17