is this the best version most close to the book?

Parts of it are very close...other parts seem as if they were written by someone who walked by "Dracula" in a bookstore and that's as close as they ever came. It's really a mixed bag. The most significant departure is the love story between Mina and Drac, and the reincarnation angle, none of which were in the book at all. Dracula isn't sexy or magnetic, he's ugly and repulsive. When he forces Mina to drink his blood, it's not sexy or romantic, it's rape. Lucy isn't a sexpot, but a proper lady with a number of health problems. The backstory to Dracula is also invented for the movie; it's nowhere in the book.

I remember when it first came out, and expecting something that stuck to the book, and being puzzled when it suddenly took sharp turns away left and right. The reincarnated-love angle had me rolling my eyes; it was lifted directly from "Dark Shadows" and I was astonished at how unoriginal it was. (I hope Dan Curtis sued.) At the time, there was publicity material claiming the script had "material Bram Stoker left out of the novel" which is utter nonsense.


"Value your education. It's something nobody can ever take away from you." My mom.

Aside from the resurrection/romance plot it's very faithful to the book.

From what I've read this version is the most faithful version out there (I admit I have not seen all of the other versions, I saw one with Christopher Lee in it and it was very much not faithful at all).

My only real problem with this adaptation is they tried to give Dracula sympathy he didn't deserve.

I've read the novel a few times and this movie certainly does not have the feel of the novel and a lot of it differs. The opening, the ending, the way Dracula is portrayed, the way Van Helsing is portrayed, the way Lucy is portrayed, the way Harker is portrayed. It's an odd movie. Beautiful production. They obviously had plenty of money. The great Dracula movie has yet to be made, at least not to me.

Not by a long shot. The version closest to the story presented in the book is the 1977 BBC effort "Count Dracula".

You see this all the time with Dracula movies, when they change something for the movie people who haven't read the book think that the movie is how the book is.

Actually I don’t know about that I never read the book, not a big book guy but I would only put the original with Bela Lugosi above this, so this was a very fine effort. The direction and Gary Oldman were fantastic But Keanu was miscast horribly as his accent pulls you out.

Yep. Book sucks.

No way!!!