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"My God! What are you doing to the furniture?"

Dracula: Dead and Loving It is a Mel Brooks movie which was released in 1995 and starred Leslie Nielsen as Dracula.

The story begins as a young solicitor from London, Thomas Renfield (Peter MacNicol), meets the mysterious Count Dracula. He begins to suspect that something is amiss, but the Count hypnotizes him before he can escape. The pair then travel to London, where the Count has purchased a manor next to an insane asylum. He meets his next-door neighbors at an opera: Dr. Seward (Harvey Korman), his daughter Mina (Amy Yasbeck), her friend Lucy (Lysette Anthony), and Mina's fiance Jonathan Harker (Steven Weber). Shortly thereafter, Lucy becomes mysteriously ill. This prompts Dr. Seward to seek advice from his old friend Dr. Abram Van Helsing (Brooks).

Van Helsing informs Jonathan and Dr. Seward that they have "entered ze realm of ze supernatural!" and that Lucy is the victim of a vampire attack. It is imperative that the vampire is stopped before Lucy dies, or she vill become vun herrself! Sadly, Lucy does indeed die and rise again as a member of the evil bloodsucking undead. This finally convinces Jonathan Harker and Dr. Seward that there is a vampire in their midst. They set off to stop him...just as Mina begins to develop the same symptoms that Lucy had before she died.

All along the way, Hilarity Ensues (literally, in this case).


This movie provides examples of:

  • Blood Lust: Best demonstrated when Renfield cuts his finger during the contract signing (causing a truly ridiculous amount of blood) and Dracula is... very bad at hiding how badly he wants to lap all that up.
  • Bloody Hilarious: Lucy's corpse spews a veritable fountain of blood when she is staked.
  • Breaking and Bloodsucking: Played for Laughs, of course.
    • Dracula in bat-form attempts to fly into Lucy's open window just in time for her to close it.
    • Dracula is lurking outside Mina's window, but she has an inconvenient nurse inside with her. He's got them both under his spell, but they're mindlessly following his commands, and Dracula can't get the nurse to leave the room and Mina to let him in.
  • Brick Joke: Van Helsing has to get the last word.
    • Dracula gets in the last word himself at the very end of the end credits, making this even more hilarious because at that point he was DEAD.
  • Ceiling Cling:
    • Dracula uses this to escape detection. A slamming door causes him to come loose.
  • Catapult Nightmare: Dracula wakes up screaming and kicking from his "daymare".
  • Cleavage Window: Seen on the outfit worn by the woman Dracula hypnotizes at the opera.
  • Comedic Work, Serious Scene: This is a pretty typical Mel Brooks parody, but Lucy's funeral is appropriately somber and serious. The discovery of Lucy's first victim as a vampire is also played for horror, but her attempt to seduce Harker and subsequent staking go back into comedy.
  • Comically Missing the Point:
    • The movie dips into this early, when the rather obviously British Renfield stops in a small village outside the Count's castle, in a hurry for directions, as not to be late. Most of the villagers are horrified at his new boss, but...
      Renfield: I'm scheduled to meet Count Dracula.
      Villager 1: Dracula!?
      Villager 2: Dracula!?
      Villager 3: Dracula!?
      Villager 4: ..."shed-yooled?"
    • Likewise when the vampire brides come to seduce him and suggestively rub against the bedposts.
      Renfield: My God'... what are you doing to the furniture?
  • Compelling Voice: Played with, as Dracula attempts to give instructions, but has difficulty getting people to do exactly what he wants and controlling multiple people at the same time. Usually results in general goofy chaos, which is par for the course in a Mel Brooks flick. Dracula seems to do this randomly as well, like when he tries to use it to get an usher to relay a (not in any way secret) message.
  • Composite Character: Brooks dispenses with all of Lucy's suitors except Seward, who becomes her much-older guardian instead. Harker takes over the role of all the four younger men. It's mentioned that he liked Lucy, while being Mina's suitor. Liked, not LIKE-Liked. Meanwhile, Harker's Transylvania adventures are given to Renfield.
  • Creator Cameo: Taken to its Logical Extreme with Van Helsing played by Mel Brooks.
  • Dangerously Loaded Cargo: Count Dracula's coffin is loaded onto a ship bound for England. During a storm, the coffin slides back and forth across the cargo bay with the Count yelping inside as it slams into the walls. Renfield tries weighing it down with his own body and eats a couple slams for his effort.
  • Decoy Protagonist: The film seems to set Renfield up like this — he is the solicitor from London who meets up with Dracula in the beginning, as opposed to Jonathan Harker from the novel. Then Renfield is made into Dracula's servant, and the focus of the film shifts to Jonathan, Mina, and eventually Van Helsing.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Jonathan and Dr. Seward during the final confrontation; they already know they are dealing with a vampire, yet they don't bother to properly prepare themselves when confronting the count (like bringing stakes and garlic along) but instead try to fight him with their bare hands and whatever objects they find in his lair. It's even worse since they put plenty of time into setting up a dramatic reveal that Dracula was a vampire.
  • Disappointed in You: After Dracula catches his wives trying to seduce Renfield, he chews them out and asks "If that make him proud of them".
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Vampire Lucy attempts this on Harker, to seduce him into vampirism.
    Harker: But Lucy, I'm British!
    Lucy: [exposing her cleavage] So are these!
    Harker: [Inelegant Blubbering]
  • The Ditz: Renfield. He gleefully eats insects and spiders in front of Dr. Seward, leads the heroes straight to where Dracula is hidden even while knowing that they were following him, and exposes his master to sunlight in a bid to rescue him, finishing Dracula off.
  • Dream Sequence: Dracula has a "daymare," where he believes his vampirism is cured and goes out to enjoy the beauty of the light. Then he bursts into flame and wakes up screaming and running.
  • Due to the Dead: After he accidentally kills his master, a mournful Renfield gathers the ashes of Dracula, puts them in the coffin, and then forms a smiley face out of them to make Dracula "look like his old self again" before shutting it.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Dracula is quite appalled when he spots his Living Shadow's more perverted side during his first dance with Mina. "NISHTAI!"
  • Evil Is Hammy: This Dracula leans a bit more Cold Ham than Bela Lugosi's. Leslie Nielsen emphasizes him as The Charmer.
  • Evil Gloating: Dracula does a bit of this during the film's climax.
    "I will destroy you! And then I will possess she who you love the most, and there is not a single thing in the world you can do to stop me!"
  • Ghostly Glide: Dracula's wives do this. Both lampshaded and subverted when he stops them from feeding on Renfield and tells them to leave. They start to do so by gliding away... before he tells them to knock it off and the women walk off normally instead.
  • Graceful Landing, Clumsy Landing: When Dracula needs his mortal servant's aid to clear out the garlic from Lucy's bedchamber, he bends the bars on the window of Renfield's cell on the upper floor of Seward's asylum, then flies to the ground. Renfield attempts to follow, landing in a heap at his master's feet.
    Dracula: Renfield, I meant for you to use the drain pipe. I fly, you don't.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Big lipped alligator moment aside; Dracula's daymare, where he can walk in the sunlight and apparently cured of his vampirism, suggests that he secretly wishes to become a human again, as he is overjoyed when apparently drinking Lucy's blood has cured him.
  • Large Ham: Several members of the cast but none more than Renfield. After he's hypnotized, it's amazing there's any scenery left by the end of the movie. Van Helsing (played by Mel Brooks himself) is also no slouch in this department.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Here and there, as expected.
    Dr. Seward: For Heaven's sake, who in all of England, by the furthest stretch of imagination, could possibly be a vampire?
    Maid (introducing): Count Dracula.
    Dr. Seward: Well, maybe him.
  • Living Shadow: Parodied in several scenes as a goof on Bram Stoker's Dracula. In one, Dracula falls down the stairs and claims to be perfectly fine. His shadow is then seen limping up the stairs behind him.
  • The Load: Renfield proves to be more of a liability to Dracula than Van Helsing ever was, up to and including killing him accidentally.
  • Missing Reflection: Used in the dancing scene, when a huge mirror is produced and Dracula shows no reflection. Particularly hilarious when Dracula is spinning the woman in the air.
  • Mood Whiplash: The opening credits are this up to eleven. They consist entirely of an incredibly foreboding and dramatic orchestral score playing over increasingly disturbing images of how vampires were depicted throughout history. It very effectively sets the mood...for a far more terrifying and serious movie than the silly comedy it actually is. Many viewers, even those who do not like the movie, often consider it the best and most memorable part, mostly because of how out of place it seems and how surprisingly well-done it is (James Rolfe has said it might be the greatest opening to any vampire movie ever).
    • When Lucy bites the cemetery night guard, it's a surprisingly effective Jump Scare for a Mel Brooks movie.
    • Dracula enlists Renfield to remove the strands of garlic in Lucy's room, but Renfield decides he's more interested in sneaking a peek at her under the covers. After he's discovered and dragged back to his cell, Dracula summons Lucy outside and kills her. The scene briefly cuts to her somber funeral.
    • Dracula's unnatural power in the final confrontation leads to him defeating all of the heroes, and grabbing Jonathan by the throat. He begins a pretty damned scary and badass speech about how he is utterly invincible, everyone is going to die, and there is nothing in the world that they can do to stop aaaaaaand then he gets poked in the eyes, by Johnathan, Three Stooges style.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Harker has this reaction upon staking and killing the newly vampiric Lucy. Van Helsing assures him that he did the right thing, releasing her from her torment and allowing her eternal rest.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: At the end, Renfield attempts to save Dracula by opening an escape route for him in the attic where Van Helsing and the heroes have Dracula cornered. But since morning has come and the sun is out, all he does is shine sunlight onto his master, killing him once and for all.
  • No Ontological Inertia: Double-subverted. After Dracula's death, Renfield cries and continues to call him his Master, and only snaps back to normal after Dr. Seward reminds him that he's now his own man. Renfield then follows Seward out, calling him "Master".
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Leslie Nielsen briefly drops his Transylvanian accent when Dracula receives an Eye Poke during the film's climax.
  • Profane Last Words: Dracula has escaped the vampire hunters, and is hiding in the rafters when Renfield throws open a trapdoor in the roof so his Master can escape. Only one problem: it was daylight. And there was nothing to block full sun from hitting Drac, either.
    Dracula: screams in pain Renfield, you asshole!
  • Pun: "Yes, we have 'Nosferatu.' We have 'Nosferatu' today!" note 
  • Rain of Blood: This is why Van Helsing insists on standing out of the way during Lucy's staking. He even brags about it to Seward later.
    • Not to mention Renfield's finger cut. It squirts like a geyser.
  • The Renfield: The Trope Namer appears, and Peter MacNicol (who had previously played a Renfield in Ghostbusters II) plays the role as hammy as possible.
  • Squick: In-universe, the autopsy scene, with Professor Van Helsing deliberately making his students pass out via ickiness.
    Nurse: Oh, doctor! Ten out of ten!
  • Super Window Jump: How Dracula escapes the ball after being revealed as a vampire.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Dracula says at one point, "They are fools to think they can match wits with me! Me who can control the forces of darkness! Me who has commanded the creatures of the night to do my bidding!" Says the guy who got knocked out of his hiding place by an old Englishman slamming a door. This is the same ancient evil who cannot rise from his coffin without banging his head on the chandelier.
    • Not to mention that he crashes into Lucy's bedroom window as she closed it. Who would have thought you can keep out vampires with Windex? (That has some basis in myth, actually — that a vampire can't enter a house without being invited in, and is actually reflected in the original novel, but in this case it has no plot relevance at all.)
  • Trick-and-Follow Ploy: The heroes release Renfield from the asylum in hopes that he will fall victim to this and lead them to his master. Renfield is somewhat wise to this, having been warned by Dracula not to fall for it. However, he's not quite wise enough, and just shuffles around for a minute in a small square, believing that will be enough to throw them off.
    Van Helsing: Gentlemen, we are fortunate!
    Dr. Seward: Why?
    Van Helsing: He's an imbecile!
  • Vampires Are Sex Gods: Upon turning into a vampire, Lucy changes from a proper upper-class Victorian English lady into a lusty temptress. Even being bitten is enough to make the equally patrician Mina more frisky than usual. Neither of their charms work on Jonathan. Count Dracula himself, on the other hand, is the more traditional "gentlemanly vampire" (although his shadow is far more horny).
  • Vampire Dance: Van Helsing and co. set up a party for the high society. Dracula begins an elaborate dance with Mina. Then the cover is pulled off of the floor-length mirror, revealing that Dracula has no reflection.
    • Hilarity ensues when he spirals her in the air, and in the mirror it looks like she's flying in circles.
    • His first scene with her after hypnotizing her leads to a dance in which he compliments her technique, and his Living Shadow starts humping hers.
  • Vampires Hate Garlic: The ridiculous amount of garlic that Van Helsing strings up in Lucy's room to protect her from Dracula would drive anybody away, living or undead.
  • Vampire Vords: Even Mel Brooks, as Van Helsing, plays with this trope, but it's mostly Dracula who does it.
  • You Are the Translated Foreign Word: Played with. Van Helsing tells Harker that Lucy has become Nosferatu. Harker's response: "She's Italian?"
  • You Have Failed Me: When Renfield accidentally leads the heroes to Dracula (who's about to feed on Mina), Renfield insists that Dracula invoke this on him. Dracula wasn't even going to bother, but eventually just kicks him down the stairs to shut him up.

 
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Vampire Lucy

As a freshly turned vampire, Lucy becomes more comfortable with her feminine allure, much to Jonathan's fumbling distress.

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