Dracula's Daughter (1936)

Featured Audience Ratings

• AJ V

  
  An average horror movie, not very scary at all, I mean she isn't even really Dracula's daughter. It does have a couple of good scenes, but other than that it's just okay.

• Chris G

  
  Dracula's Daughter is a blatant cash in on the success of the original Dracula film. Dracula's Daughter learns of her father's death and seems to seek a way out of the vampire's curse, yet doesn't really try that hard. The film will keep your interest, but… More
  Dracula's Daughter is a blatant cash in on the success of the original Dracula film. Dracula's Daughter learns of her father's death and seems to seek a way out of the vampire's curse, yet doesn't really try that hard. The film will keep your interest, but that's about it.

• Greg S

  
  Picking up exactly where DRACULA (1931) left off, this sequel has Drac's "daughter" seeking to liberate herself from the curse of vampirism by seeking the help of a psychotherapist. Some interesting twists (Countess Zaleska is both the first tragic vampire and the… More
  Picking up exactly where DRACULA (1931) left off, this sequel has Drac's "daughter" seeking to liberate herself from the curse of vampirism by seeking the help of a psychotherapist. Some interesting twists (Countess Zaleska is both the first tragic vampire and the first openly bisexual vampire), but matter-of-fact vampiress Gloria Holden has none of the sinister charisma of Lugosi.

• Kylie B

  
  I was expecting this to be a lot better than I found it to be. Maybe I just couldn't ignore the patriarchal bias which really dates the film.

• Cassandra M

  
  Being intimately familiar with modern day horror sequels, I expected this granddaddy (Grandmomma?) of horror sequels to follow the same routine: complete and total retread of the original's material with a significant drop in quality (a la Chainsaw Massacre). But to my surprise,… More
  Being intimately familiar with modern day horror sequels, I expected this granddaddy (Grandmomma?) of horror sequels to follow the same routine: complete and total retread of the original's material with a significant drop in quality (a la Chainsaw Massacre). But to my surprise, these early horror sequels while not as good as the originals had admirable ambition and originality especially compared to today's horror sequels. While Dracula was the tale of a man cursed to immortality fueled by a blood-lust, and ultimately ignoring any moral convictions in his continued survival; Dracula's Daughter follows a more tragic tale of his vampyric offspring afraid of both ending her existence and of continuing that existence. Bela Lugosi's Dracula, while the villain, had a high level of sympathy due to his otherwordly charisma, and the charm of that film was the duality of wanting him to be stopped . . . and wanting to see him succeed. Immortality proved a curse. He's not necessarily evil, he's not exactly on the hero's path either, but you can't help but like the count. Dracula's Daughter admirably draws a sharp contrast to that film, giving the title character a genuine desire to overcome her cursed heritage. She's not evil. She's not the protagonist . . . but she wants to be and is trying to be. This sets up an interesting game as the fates play for Marya's future. On one hand, a servant seeking the infamous curse constantly pushes towards giving up these pure pursuits and taking the path of her father, while another character does genuinely try helping her with, sadly, an insufficient understanding of her real problem. It does provoke a number of questions worth exploring. I wondered if Von Helsing would try to destroy Marya before learning her intentions, if the characters would try to help her, and if they couldn't help her find a way to tolerate her blood lust? I guess it's appropriate that Dracula's Daughter can never escape the shadow of her father. Lugosi and Browning will forever come first in the minds of audiences before Holden and Hillyer. Even with that said, I still like Dracula's Daughter for finding its own identity and not retreading the film that came before it. Modern horror sequels have neither a thought nor a question. Modern horror sequels are nothing more than empty shadows of their predecessors. I find it interesting that this was not always the case.

• Byron B

  
  Van Helsing is putting a stake through Dracula's heart again and Renfield is laying dead in what is obviously a different set, but intended to suggest this is happening immediately following the first movie. Van Helsing admits to murder, but he must convince someone it was a… More
  Van Helsing is putting a stake through Dracula's heart again and Renfield is laying dead in what is obviously a different set, but intended to suggest this is happening immediately following the first movie. Van Helsing admits to murder, but he must convince someone it was a morally acceptable murder to clear the world of the evil vampire. He seeks Dr. Garth (Otto Kruger) as the only man who may be able to help him. Garth is initially sought for legal counsel, but is also a doctor who can examine victims as they start piling up, and also acts as a private detective of sorts in chasing down Dracula's daughter. Dracula's daughter, though it isn't clear if she is literally the Count's daughter, is Gloria Holden, a mysterious Countess. She finds and burns Dracula's coffin and body because she wants to be released from the nocturnal life of a vampire. Her servant talks her into realizing it is not so easy to live the life of a normal lady. Dr. Garth is a doctor in the field of psychology and thinks her condition, which she won't fully open up about, could be cured with hypnosis and the power of her mind. Of course vampires have their own powers of hypnosis. In one surprising scene the Countess's servant propositions a young woman walking the night streets to come and pose for a painting. The Countess even uses her seductive qualities on the young woman instead of young men to satisfy her taste for blood. When the Countess, out of jealousy, steals away Dr. Garth's assistant who he has a love/hate relationship with, he finally believes how dangerous she can be. The Countess wants to give the doctor the gift of immortality, but will her servant let her have her way? Wait! The Van Helsing portion of the story never came to a conclusion.

• MJS M

  
  Bad sequel, but it has its charms. The Van Helsing story works better than the monster story which is kind of lame.

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