When Did Dracula Become a "Love Tale"?

A new year brings us a new season of Vampire Campfire along with a new Dracula adaption! This take on the tale is explicitly romantic, which begs the question: when did Bram Stoker’s 19th century classic turn into a love story? Rebecca and Hannah dig into the family tree of Dracula adaptions to unpack the layers on layers of intertext, question if they themselves are the crazy ones, discuss why writers made these changes, and rant about CGI gargoyles.

Come vamps, join us around the campfire.

CW: sexual assault, pedophilia, suicide

Major Spoilers:

* Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1897

* Blacula, directed by William Crain, 1972

* Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, 1992

* Dracula Untold, directed by Gary Shore, 2014

* Dracula: A Love Tale, directed by Luc Besson, 2025

Other media mentioned in this episode:

Fiction

* I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, 1954

* Blood Orange by Karina Halle, 2022

Film

* Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, directed by F.W. Murnau, 1922

* Dracula, directed by Tod Browning, 1931

* Dracula, directed by Terence Fisher, 1958

* Dracula, directed by Dan Curtis, 1974

* Nosferatu the Vampyre, directed by Werner Herzog, 1979

* Dracula, directed by John Badham, 1979

TV

* Dark Shadows, 1966-1971

* Dracula, 2013

Theater

* Dracula by Hamilton Dean, 1924

* Dracula by John Balderston, 1927

* Dracula by Hamilton Dean and John Balderston, 1977

Non-fiction

* In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires by Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally, 1972

Additional Reading

* Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage and Screen by David J. Skal, 1990

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This episode was written, recorded, and produced by Rebecca Glazer & Hannah Spiegelman

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