Fifties attitudes being what they were, a lot of people couldn't see the excellence through the blood and sensuality, and Dracula ended up the victim of some disrespectful handling. Having its title altered to Horror of Dracula in the U.S. was the least of it. Some three gory, lurid minutes were hacked out of the picture. The uncensored Dracula was only released in strong-stomached Japan, where at least one early Hammer even included frontal nudity. The excised material was believed lost for half a century.
Then in 2011, Hammer fan Simon Rowson discovered the missing frames in a Japanese film vault. It was badly damaged, but most of it was still included in the film's 2018 blu-ray release. Then just last year, mint negatives were found in Warner Bros's vaults. A complete and utterly gorgeously vivid, textured, and clean 4K restoration later, and the complete version of Dracula is now being released on home video with perfect visuals, and new 5.1 surround sound mixes, for the first time.
This double-disc blu-ray contains four different versions of Dracula: the UK and U.S. versions of the film, both of which can be watched in either theatrical or uncensored edits. The differences between Dracula and Horror of Dracula go beyond their title cards. In its homeland, Dracula was originally released in a 1:66:1 aspect ratio. Across the pond, Horror of Dracula appeared in a wider 1:85:1 format. Sometimes that means that the wider format includes more visual information on the sides, but in this case, the U.S. version is just a zoomed-in version of the UK, so there's actually less visual information on the top and bottom. Horror also looks a tad grainier and dimmer than plain-old Dracula, so unless you have a terminal case of nostalgia for seeing the words "Horror of" appear on the screen, you should have no reason to watch Disc 2 unless you plan to take in the bonus features.
These are plentiful on both discs. There are a half-dozen commentaries spread out amongst the four versions of the feature-length film. Each disc also contains an 11-minute 8mm massacre, the pre-VHS version of home video. The one on disc one is allegedly in color, although it's more like a reddish tinted version of the straight black-and-white one on disc two. Both are blurry and damaged in the extreme, with scratchy sound, and viewing either should be like plunging into a warm bath of Halloweeny nostalgia for anyone who grew up with a film projector in their household.
There are also a variety of trailers, alternate regional title cards, a minute or so of silent clapboard footage, a short introduction to the restoration, and three more substantial featurettes. On disc one, there's the 38-minute "Proving Them Wrong, a charming conversation between Christopher Lee's niece, Harriet Walter, and his biographer, Jonathan Rigby. It goes a long way toward humanizing the intimidating screen-monster and an actor with a somewhat icy reputation.
The hour-long "The Road to Dracula" is the main bonus on disc two. It's a writers' discussion of Terence Fisher's pre-Dracula life and career. Most of the time is spent on assessments of his early films. An hour is a long time to spend watching talking heads that do not include David Byrne or Chris Franz.
Half that length is "Gothic for Christians", a video essay about Terence Fisher narrator by Doug "Pinhead" Bradley (that nickname's not an insult. He's the dude from Hellraiser). This one focuses on the dichotomy between Fisher's religious upbringing and the horror pictures he made. This is an odd approach considering that the guys featured in "The Road to Dracula" suggest that it was Fisher's Christian scientist mum who was the really religious one; her famous son was much less dogmatic.
If some of these extras are underwhelming, the main feature is anything but. Having one of the all-time great horror films in a beautifully restored, uncensored state would be the blu-ray release of the year even on a bare bones disc.
