Dracula recap: 5 surprising twists from premiere episode
By Verona Jones
The premiere episode of Dracula introduces a new and unique perspective of the legendary Vampire.
In Netflix’s new original tv miniseries Dracula we meet an unprecedented Vampire count that veers off into uncharted territory. A more intense and scary version of Bram Stoker‘s classic novel Dracula.
Although Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat’s miniseries have the same characters that the novel has, the personalities of Gatiss and Moffat’s characters are different, which adds a layer of fear and intensity not found in other Dracula movies made. There were a lot of Dracula movies made too, about 200 films in all.
The constant theme in many of these movies is the deep abiding love Dracula had for Mina Murray. In some remakes, Mina is the reincarnation of his beloved wife in Walachia, and in other remakes, he saw her picture and fell in love with her. In the novel, he went after Mina as revenge against Jonathan Harker and Abraham Van Helsing were trying to kill him.
With all the different remakes of the same story, what makes Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat’s tv mini-series different from the movies? In Episode 1: “The Rules of the Beast,” there are five twists that the series takes different from the films and the novel.
5. The story narrated from a convent
Our story opens with a frail, sick-looking man in a convent. We learn later into the episode that it is Saint Mary’s convent located in Budapest, Hungary. In Bram Stoker’s novel, Jonathan Harker does narrate the story, but always as the events happen at the moment and definitely not from a convent.
This was a major twist from the original storyline and the movie remakes. Two nuns enter Jonathan Harker’s (John Heffernan) room. One introduces herself as Sister Agatha (Dolly Wells), and she will be interviewing while the other nun is there to observe. Sister Agatha wants to know Harker’s entire experience while with Dracula, including any sexual interaction.
In the novel, the story starts with Harker in a carriage on his way to Dracula’s castle and being warned about going there in the first place by the other passengers. In the movies, Harker is finishing the transference of property to the count’s name, but there is no nun or convent in the novel or films.