Renfield's laugh... good God, Renfield's laugh! And if you thought American Renfield's laugh was scary, wait till you here the Spanish version!
Dracula's nearly constant Death Glare. Bela Lugosi's famous "I never drink... wine." scene is simultaneously humorous and creepy from the way he just stares right at Renfield the entire time.
Also, Renfield's first meeting with Dracula is just creepy. From the way Dracula passes through a spider web without disturbing a single strand to the way his answers don't quite match Renfield's questions, there's a palpable sense of wrongness to the scene.
The way that Dracula acts in the entire movie. Not only his omnipresent evil presence, but his personality and interactions with humans. Once you know that he is an ancient vampire, gives the impression of an Eldritch Abomination trying to mix in manners with the modern humans as he maybe didn't interactuate with them in centuries (except when he was feeding on them). Or only a very strange man.
Renfield: No! No, don't kill me! Punish me, torture me, but let me live! I can't die with all those lives on my conscience; all that blood on my hands!
At one point everyone rushes out to see Dracula's latest outrage, leaving the maid alone with Renfield. She faints, and the scene ends with him creeping toward her on all fours. We never learn what, if anything, he did to her.
The Spanish version shows what happened. He's really grabbing at a fly on her face. The build up is still creepy, though.
The film can come off as a lot creepier if you watch it with music (something the DVD lets you do). Watching it normally? Dreamy and somewhat muted. With the music? Horrifying.
The scene where Van realizes Dracula doesn't have a reflection is just concerning as hell. But the creepiest scene is when Van shows Dracula the mirror. In the span of second, Dracula's demeanor goes from a calm and affable fellow, to an animalistic monster as he quickly throws the mirror to the ground, and then quickly and smoothly transitions back to an affable gentleman without breaking a sweat.
The Spanish version has a scene where an invisible Dracula attacks Renfield, throwing him against the bars of his cell again and again. It looks very much like Dracula israpingRenfield. It's just as disturbing today as it was over ninety years ago.
