On the Badham Dracula
here's the Mondo Digital review.
By the way whilst here I want to point out that Scream Factory released the fantastic 1988 remake of
The Blob recently. I've always associated it with Christmas since seeing it at that time in the middle of the night at around 13 years old screened on TV and being traumatised to this day (in a good way) by it! Its much nastier than the 50s original (very much making it a trinity along with the other viscerally gooey 'body horror' updates of 1950s original films The Fly and The Thing), but blackly comically so, nicely handled to create that deceptively lyrical feeling that anyone can be killed off at any minute, which coupled with that sense of celebratory nihilism in the climax makes it feel really bleak! There are some never topped since special effects in this one, and a fantastic cast: Candy Clark is in there, though does not seem to get too much to do until we reach her big phone box scene. But what an exit! David Lynch regular Jack Nance briefly appears as a completely ineffectual doctor! And of course Shawnee Smith makes for a great heroine, and this is the key Kevin Dillon role (this was his big lead actor push period with Remote Control, The Rescue and War Party all being released in the same year too).
This was Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont's second collaboration as director and writer respectively following the previous year's Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. And the other really interesting anecdote about this film is that this is the film that David Cronenberg's regular cinematographer from Fast Company on, Mark Irwin, was working on and did not want to drop his commitment to when Cronenberg called him to work on Dead Ringers. So Cronenberg brought in Peter Suschitzky instead and has worked with him on every film since instead.
And there is that extended early scene of buying condoms at the local drugstore that I think a later
Levis advert (directed by Michel Gondry! And perhaps his best work!) took inspiration from in the way that it pays off! There's a lot of sentimental inertia to it!