Even if it's a bit less scary than it's predecessor, there are some scary things
- Despite it's iconic and famous among movie reviewers and it's fanbase, the "lesbic" scene while implied sexual, is frightening. Despite she acts caring to Lili, even offers her drink and food when she came to the Countess's studio, Lili models for her paints, but before the vampire attack that take Lili's life in the hospital, Marya had a completely hungry predator expression in her face. Lili is completely terrified, and before we saw it, the camera looks away, after Lili's terrified expression and we only hear her scream. Only she knows what she saw but the fact that she was under hypnotic powers and she is even scared, but the implications are scary.
- The smiling mask on the wall as we hears Lili's scream... It almost look as if Dracula was that mask feeling proud of his vampiric daughter draining blood of an innocent.
- The dummy with Bela Lugosi's likeness that represents his staked corpse. There's something... wrong with it's look.
- Marya is a sympathetic vampire, and she genuinely wants a cure for her vampirism. But even after that, she is still a vampire, and she can't control her blood hunger. You can feel sorry for her, but she is still a dangerous night monster that would feed on your blood.
- Marya and her scary manservant, Sandor, rapts Janet in London to Transylvania.
- Sandor in general. In contrast with the servile Renfield, Sandor is a manipulative and selfish manservant that want to be a vampire, and actually it's the only reason why he is with Marya. He discouraged her to get a cure, and he wants that she is still a vampire to turn him as pay for his service... That, alongside with his creepy, menacing and towering appearance makes Sandor probably the true villain here.
- The 1977 novelization had more details, but the creepiest are Janet's POV in the medieval Castle Dracula. In what keep of her conscience, she saw the Countess herself, but with more terrifing details in her physical appearance, very in contrast with the human look that she had in London City. She is depicted more like a corpse, awakening from the earth among a stentch of rancid blood and earth with the lifeless eyes and expression, the leprosy earth covered fingers, and with her hungry jaw open. The more corpse-like features are things that you can expect of vampire cases in the Illustration era (XVIII century).
- Another chapter in the novelization have Jeffrey Garth making an analysis of Marya's paintings. Many reveals a trauma with a man, possibly ''her father''. If you consider who is her father, the most feared vampire, but also a sociopath tyrannical and cruel man and also a hellish undead creature, the implications are both scary and sad. What did Dracula to her? After seeing Renfield (2023) and the implications about being in the same universe as a distant sequel, and the characterization of Dracula as a complete monster, cruel, genocide, narcissistic and manipulator without any good features, seeing Marya's personality and hatred towards her curse and against him, is harder to see. Whatever he did to her (alongside with the vampirism), was no good.
- Zigzaged with Tear Jerker and Fridge Horror, but at a point in both, movie and novel, Marya mentioned with more joy her (possibly) mortal mother singing for her, but we don't see her. Try to don't think what happened to her. Or if the responsible of her disappeareance is Dracula or Marya herself in a out of control thirst attack. In the best of cases, she died years ago naturally.
