a review of 恐怖德古拉

2020 Cult Movie Challenge Week 6: Hammer Horror Week I think the last time I watched this one was on VHS back in college. I'd forgotten that Lee is only in about 10 minutes of the movie total, and doesn't even have any spoken lines after his conversation with Harker at the beginning, with the rest being a purely physical performance. In any case, he makes such an impression as the character (and more importantly, successfully differentiates himself from Lugosi's depiction) that it's easy to see why it defined his career from that point on. I've always been a big fan of Cushing's performance too; I think modern audiences who might be mainly familiar with him from Star Wars have no idea how dynamic he was in earlier roles. I read somewhere that the blocking of the final fight scene, where he somersaults across Dracula's table and grabs two candlesticks to hold up as a makeshift cross, was entirely Cushing's suggestion to director Terence Fisher, and it makes such a difference in what could have been something far less memorable.