History Film / BramStokersDracula

* TragicMonster: Dracula is portrayed as one in this version due to his backstory. While he away at war, his love kills herself based off a lie his enemies wrote in a letter. Since she committed suicide she can't go to heaven; he renounces his fate as a result and becomes a monster.

* UltimateUniverse: Gary Oldman's portrayal of Count Dracula incorporates both Bela Lugosi's distinctive accent and Max Schreck's "creepy and clawed" comportment from ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}''. As well, the romantic approach given to his and Mina's relationship was presaged by the 1979 version that toplined Frank Langella.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Somewhat. The undead here are portrayed as much more monstrous and making growling and otherwise inhuman sounds. Dracula also never fully changes into animals when he shapeshifts, keeping a humanoid form when he goes wolf or bat. These vampires also have more supernatual powers -- they can send people flying with an invisible force and, if powerful enough, burn or melt crosses. Lastly, while it's stated that vampires are weaker during the daytime (but can go out in it if they choose), Dracula hypnotizes and nearly bites Mina during their first day together -- though it's late in the day when they headed to the cinematograph, so it may already be after dark when by that point.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Somewhat. The undead here are portrayed as much more monstrous and making growling and otherwise inhuman sounds. Dracula also never fully changes into animals when he shapeshifts, keeping a humanoid form when he goes wolf or bat. These vampires also have more supernatual powers -- they can send people flying with an invisible force and, if powerful enough, burn or melt crosses. Lastly, while it's stated that vampires are weaker during the daytime (but can go out in it if they choose), Dracula hypnotizes and nearly bites Mina during their first day together.

* [[PetTheDog Pet The Escaped Zoo Wolf]]: At first, Dracula makes to bite a hypnotized Mina, but hesitates, just as the crowd in the theater panics over said wolf wandering in. Instead, his ability to calm the animal impresses and fascinates the no-longer-entranced Mina, and for the first time she's genuinely charmed by him.

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Dracula retains this ability from the novel, turning into a wolf, a {{wolfman}} (or some hairy creature that bears a resemblance to one), a giant bat, and green mist.

* TheWormThatWalks: At one point Dracula turns into a pile of rats.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Mina writes in her diary that she wishes she "were as pretty and adored as Lucy." Dracula certainly sees her as beautiful and someone to adore, and the consequences aren't pretty.

* ShoutOut: The thrusting of a crucifix into the foreground (as Van Helsing faces down vampire!Lucy) is a direct reference to Hammer Films' ''Film/HorrorOfDracula''.

** Lucy's just-severed head twirling through the air is matched with a platter of rare roast beef being set before Van Helsing.

* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Dracula and Van Helsing share this trait throughout the film. Amusingly both manage to freak out Mina with it in their first meetings.

* UnlimitedWardrobe: Lucy can get away with having lots of different outfits since she's an aristocrat, but Mina has too many nice dresses for a school teacher.
** They're probably Lucy's hand-me-downs (as noted above, they're out of style).

** Van Helsing yelling "Feed me!" to his driver because he apparently can't go vampire hunting on an empty stomach. It normally would just be [[RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic realistic dialogue]], since people do need to eat, but it's this trope because he's bellowing it at the top of his lungs while doing an intentionally ridiculous tango with Quincey, screaming about how Lucy is "the Devil's concubine," and laughing like a maniac because he's figured out what Dracula is up to.

** Not entirely untrue. Apart from the 1977 TV adaptation, it is actually more faithful to the original novel then the movies preceding it as most of them was [[LostInImitation closer to the Lugosi movie and the play that was based on]] than to the novel.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Mina writes in her diary that she wishes she "were as beautiful and adored as Lucy." Dracula certainly sees her as beautiful and someone to adore, and the consequences aren't pretty.

* InCameraEffects and PracticalEffects: ''Every special effect in the movie''. There was no CGI. That shot of the train moving across the horizon over a closeup of a diary was actually done with a model train and an over-sized book. Another simple trick that pays huge dividends is BackwardsAction, used for such scenes as Dracula forcing the brides off of Jonathan and vampire!Lucy being forced back into her coffin.

* ThePowerOfLove: In the final scene, [[spoiler: as Mina tends to the dying Dracula, she realizes that their love is stronger than death. It's out of this love that she finishes him off at his request, and this not only ends his evil on Earth, but allows him to be redeemed and reunited with Elisabeta in the afterlife]].

* StakingTheLovedOne: Twice -- Arthur stakes his fiance Lucy, and in the final scene [[spoiler: Mina finishes Dracula off]].

* UltimateUniverse: Gary Oldman's portrayal of Count Dracula incorporates both Bela Lugosi's distinctive accent and Max Schreck's "creepy and clawed" comportment from ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}''.

* InCameraEffects: ''Every special effect in the movie''. There was no CGI, and no film manipulation. That shot of the train moving across the horizon over a closeup of a diary was actually done with a model train and an over-sized book.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Somewhat. The undead here are portrayed as much more monstrous and making growling and otherwise inhuman sounds. Dracula also never fully changes into animals when he shapeshifts, keeping a humanoid form when he goes wolf or bat. These vampires also have more supernatual powers -- they can send people flying with an invisible force and, if powerful enough, burn or melt crosses. Lastly, while it's stated that vampires can't use their powers during the daytime (but can go out in it if they choose), Dracula nearly bites Mina at one point during an outing -- though it could be argued he was indoors, and thus in darkness at the time.

* TogetherInDeath: Suggested in the final shot. [[spoiler: Dracula dying at Mina's hand allows him and Elisabeta to be reunited in Heaven at last.]]

* DiedHappilyEverAfter: Suggested in the final shot. [[spoiler: Dracula dying at Mina's hand allows him and Elisabeta to be reunited in Heaven at last.]]

** Made worse by the fact that is was promoted as ''[[BlatantLies 'The Most Accurate Retelling of the original Dracula ever done.']]''...but departed so drastically from the original novel that it needed its ''own'' {{Novelization}}!

** Lucy Westenra, a gorgeous [[HeroesWantRedHeads redhead]] who is [[TheTease dangling three suitors at once]] and who spends her time wearing revealing dresses, getting [[HypnotizeThePrincess hypnotized by Dracula]] and indulging in a little LesYay with her best friend Mina.

* OneWingedAngel: Dracula does this twice in the movie: first as a werewolf-like creature, then as a humanoid bat.

* AdaptationExpansion: Dracula's BackStory as a self-cursed vampire because his wife committed suicide, is entirely absent from the original novel. From that comes Mina's resemblance to his wife, Dracula's pursuit of her because of it, and Mina falling in love with him to the point of nearly sabotaging her heroes' attempts to stop him from completely turning her.

* EditedForSyndication: Aside from the expected editing for violence and nudity, all of Renfield's scenes were cut when Fox aired the movie in TheNineties.