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Dracula: Dead and Loving It is a 1995 supernatural horror comedy film directed by Mel Brooks, from a screenplay by Brooks, Rudy De Luca, and Steve Haberman, and based on a story by De Luca and Haberman. The film stars Leslie Nielsen as Dracula and Brooks as Van Helsing, with Steven Weber, Peter MacNicol, Amy Yasbeck, Lysette Anthony, Harvey Korman, and Anne Bancroft in supporting roles. Although the film is primarily a parody of the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, it follows the 1931 film Dracula in its deviations from the novel. It also parodies, among other films, The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), while the visual style and production values are reminiscent of the Hammer Horror films.
Dracula: Dead and Loving It was theatrically released by Columbia Pictures (through Sony Pictures Releasing) in the United States on December 22, 1995, and by Gaumont Buena Vista International in France on April 10, 1996, to critical and commercial failure, grossing $10.7 million against its $30 million production budget. The film is Brooks' last directorial effort to date.
Contents
Plot
In 1893, solicitor Thomas Renfield travels from London to "Castle Dracula" in Transylvania to finalize Dracula's purchase of Carfax Abbey in England. Renfield meets Dracula, who unknown to Renfield, is a vampire. Dracula casts a hypnotic spell on Renfield, making him his slave. They soon embark for England. During the voyage, Dracula kills the ship's crew. When the ship arrives and Renfield is discovered alone on the ship, he is confined to a lunatic asylum.
Meanwhile, Dracula visits an opera house, where he introduces himself to his new neighbors: Doctor Seward, the asylum's administrator and head psychiatrist; Seward's daughter, Mina, and her fiancé, Jonathan Harker; and family friend Lucy Westenra. Dracula flirts with Lucy and later that night, enters her bedroom, and drinks her blood.
Mina discovers Lucy still in bed late in the morning, looking strangely pale. Seward, puzzled by the odd puncture marks on her throat, calls in Professor Abraham Van Helsing. Van Helsing informs the skeptical Dr. Seward that Lucy has been attacked by a vampire. Seward and Harker allow garlic to be placed in Lucy's bedroom to repel the vampire, though Seward remains skeptical. After a failed attempt by Renfield to remove the garlic, Dracula uses mind control to get Lucy out of her room and kills her.
Van Helsing meets Dracula and begins to suspect him of being a vampire after the two argue in Moldavian, each attempting to have the last word. Lucy, now a vampire herself, rises from her crypt, drains the blood from her guard, and tries to attack and seduce Harker who is keeping watch over her tomb to see if there is any truth in Van Helsing's belief about Lucy now being a vampire. Van Helsing arrives soon after and instructs Jonathan to lay Lucy's soul to rest by driving a stake through her heart.
Dracula preys on Mina, wanting her to be his undead bride. Dracula spirits Mina away to Carfax Abbey, where they dance, and he drinks her blood. The following morning, Mina tries to seduce Harker. Dr. Seward assumes Jonathan to be seducing Mina and orders him to leave. Van Helsing notices a scarf around Mina's neck and removes it, revealing two puncture marks. Though she lies about how she got them, Van Helsing confirms she has been attacked by a vampire by placing a cross on her hand, which burns a mark into it.
Production
Mel Brooks offered Kelsey Grammer $3 million to play the role of Dracula in the film.
Principal photography began in May 1995 and wrapped in September 1995. Filming took place from May 8 to July 26, 1995, at Culver Studios, California, United States.
Soundtrack
A soundtrack titled Dracula: Dead And Loving It was released 1996 on CD by Castle Rock Entertainment.
"Main Title" (2:20)
"Faster Horses" (1:07)
"Too Dark.. / Limping Shadows / The Web / Hypnotizing Reinfield" (1:35)
""Vampires?" / Gypsy Woman / Dracula's Castle" (2:21)
"Reinfield Bleeds / Dracula's Women" (1:55)
"Striptease / Bat Flies To Window / Dracula Bites Lucy" (2:00)
"Lucy In Bed / Bite Marks? / 3 Tiny Puncture Marks / I Remember Nothing" / Emergency" (3:01)
"Dracula In The Garden / Dracula Files, Reinfield Doesn't!" (2:31)
"Dracula Attacks Lucy / Funeral / Never Give Up!/ To The Crypt / Lucy Bites Sikes / Concern / Jonathan To The Crypt" (3:11)
"Lucy Reacts To The Cross / Dracula Hypnotizes Mina & Essie" (1:16)
"To Carfax Abbey / El Choclo" (2:18)
"Van Helsing Sees The Mina's Bite" (1:27)
"The Kaminsky Two-Step" (1:27)
"Hungarian Dance #5" (3:21)
"Escape / In Pursuit Of Reinfield / Fight! / Jonathan On The Floor / Attempted Escape" (4:59)
Home media
Reception
Box office
The film debuted at #10. By the end of its run, Dracula grossed $10,772,144.
Critical response
Critical reaction to Dracula: Dead and Loving It was overwhelmingly negative. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 11% of 37 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "Lacking any of the comedic bite that audiences have come to expect from a Mel Brooks farce, this vampire parody just plain ol' sucks." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.
James Berardinelli of ReelViews wrote: "Dracula: Dead and Loving It doesn't come close to the level attained by Young Frankenstein. It's a toothless parody that misses more often than it hits. ... Given the comic turn his career has taken since the early '80s, it's hard to believe that Leslie Nielsen was once a serious actor. These days, thanks to the Zucker brothers ... he has become an accomplished satirical performer. His sense of timing is impeccable, and this asset has made him a sought-after commodity for a wide variety of spoofs. Here, Nielsen takes on the title role, but his presence can't resurrect this stillborn lampoon. Unless you're a die hard Mel Brooks fan, there's no compelling reason to sit through Dracula: Dead and Loving It. The sporadic humor promises some laughs, but the ninety minutes will go by slowly."
Joe Leydon of Variety wrote: "Leslie Nielsen toplines to agreeable effect as Count Dracula, depicted here as a dead-serious but frequently flustered fellow who's prone to slipping on bat droppings in his baroque castle. ... Trouble is, while Dead and Loving It earns a fair share of grins and giggles, it never really cuts loose and goes for the belly laughs. Compared with the recent glut of dumb, dumber and dumbest comedies, Brooks's pic seems positively understated. Indeed, there isn't much here that would have seemed out of place (or too tasteless) in comedy sketches for TV variety shows of the 1950s. ... As a result, unfortunately, Dead and Loving It is so mild, it comes perilously close to blandness. ... The only real sparks are set off by MacNicol as Renfield, the solicitor who develops a taste for flies and spiders after being bitten by Dracula."
Mel Brooks said that he met critic Roger Ebert after Ebert had given Dracula: Dead and Loving It a negative review, and lashed out at him, saying, "Listen, you, I made 21 movies. I’m very talented. I’ll live in history. I have a body of work. You only have a body." Roger Ebert wrote that he was "saddened" by the encounter but had to be honest that the movie "just didn't work."