HORROR • FANTASY • CLASSIC
The original screen adaptation that introduced one of cinema's most enduring icons, Dracula stars Bela Lugosi in his legendary portrayal of Count Dracula. As the mysterious vampire arrives in England, a trail of fear follows, leading Professor Van Helsing to confront an ancient evil in one of Universal Pictures' most influential horror classics.
October 16-18, 2026
Festival dates
Capitol Theatre
Port Hope, Ontario
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Release Year
1931
Runtime
75 minutes (1 hour 15 minutes)
Rating
Not Rated
Genre
Horror, Fantasy
Director
Tod Browning
Country
United States
Language
English
Studio
Universal Pictures
Friday October 16, 2016
8:20 PM
Capitol Theatre
Port Hope, Ontario
A stage adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula was first seen in Britain in 1924, and then in an American revision on Broadway in 1927. It was these productions which established Count Dracula’s “look”—formal evening attire plus a long black cape—which was carried forward into Universal Pictures’ 1931 film, Dracula. The movie made a star of Hungarian-born Bela Lugosi (who had played the Count in the play’s Broadway run); and its success prompted Universal to turn right around and produce Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), and a whole series of “monster movies”—many of which featured Lugosi—through the Thirties and Forties.
Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Count Dracula became the definitive screen version of the character, influencing vampire films for decades to come.
Bela Lugosi famously played the role with an intense, unblinking stare, reportedly not blinking a single time throughout the entire feature film.
Popular culture often misremembers Lugosi's Count with prominent fangs and claw-like fingernails, but the 1931 character wore neither.
For nearly a century, the movie's original epilogue—where Edward Van Sloan warns the theatre audience that "vampires do exist!"—was considered entirely lost media. However, in 2026, a miraculous print of the lost footage was discovered in a private collection, finally allowing historians to restore the film's original ending