Dracula: Critic Reviews

With Mr. Browning's imaginative direction and Mr. Lugosi's makeup and weird gestures, this picture succeeds to some extent in its grand guignol intentions.

Certainly it is Lugosi's performance, and the cinematography of Karl Freund, that make Tod Browning's film such an influential Hollywood picture.

The opening scenes, set in Dracula's castle, are magnificent -- grave, stately, and severe. But the film becomes unbearably static once the action moves to England.

A sublimated ghost story related with all surface seriousness and above all with a remarkably effective background of creepy atmosphere.

Dracula deserves its status as a classic, although one might be tempted to append the word 'lesser' to that label.

An exciting melodrama, not as good as it ought to be but a cut above the ordinary trapdoor-and-winding-sheet type of mystery film.

...it's clear that the movie simply doesn't hold up terribly well all these years later.

Lugosi's seminal performance and the striking opening act are what distinguish Browning's version of the classic tale.

A perfect example of the worst traits of Hollywood films in the early sound era.

Stark, cold, and deeply sensual, "Dracula's" atmosphere and intention is rooted in a fear of unknown lust and desire from which there can be no escape. To view "Dracula" is to be bitten by the vampire's desperate attack.

A classic despite numerous flaws.

All time horror classic starring Lugosi; still creepy as blazes.

Bela Lugosi gives the performance of his life in a role that might have been written just for him. Highly atmospheric throughout, this remains a milestone in horror movie history.

The atmospheric opening is the best part -- moody and full of sinister potential. After that, it's stilted drawing-room talk, variably acted, except for the cultish over-the-top dementia of Dwight Frye.

Not by any means the masterpiece of fond memory or reputation, although the first twenty minutes are astonishingly fluid and brilliantly shot by Karl Freund.

Once you get into the rhythms of the film, you'll discover a masterpiece.

there is a reason why Bela ended up in Ed Wood movies

[The music] contributes to Tod Browning's marvellous tone of restrained horror and stylish after-life.

It haunted no one as much as dear Bela...

After Lugosi, all vampire performances are doomed to be compared against him as either homage or departure.

Dracula takes place within the confines of the parlors and drawing rooms of London society, which bears a striking resemblance to Americana circa 1931.