Bram Stoker

Almost an entire century after the world`s first cinematic introduction to Dracula placed audiences under his haunting spell, the studio that pioneered the genre reawakens one of legend`s most captivating figures in an action-adventure that heralds a pulse-pounding rebirth of the age of monsters. Luke Evans (Fast & Furious 6, The Hobbit series) transforms from the cursed man history knows as Vlad the Impaler to an all-powerful creature of the night in Dracula Untold, the origin story of the alluring immortal we have come to fear as the sun sets: Dracula.

During the Walpurgis Night in the woods adjacent to Passo Borgo, at the foot of the Carpathian mountains, a couple of young lovers, Tania and Milos, secretly meet. On her way home, Tania is chased and overcome by a ``dark shadow`` that kills her. In those days Jonathan Harker, a young librarian, arrives at the village hired by Count Dracula, a nobleman from the area. Tania`s body mysteriously disappears from the cemetery. In the meantime Harker, before going to Count Dracula`s castle, takes the opportunity to visit Lucy Kisslinger, his wife Mina`s best friend as well as the daughter of the local mayor. Upon arriving at the castle, Harker is greeted by Tania, brought back to life from the dead and made vampire, who tries from the very beginning to seduce him; however they are interrupted by Dracula`s entrance welcoming Harker. The following night Tania tries again to bite Harker, she is close to his neck when she is stopped by the count who gets the upper hand and it is he himself who bites Harker`s neck, however allowing him to live. The following day, weakened but still conscious Harker attempts to escape, but as soon as he is outside the castle a large wolf with a white lock assaults and savagely kills him. Meanwhile, Mina, Harker`s wife, arrives in the village and is guest for a few days at the home of her dearest friend Lucy Kisslinger, who will also be bitten and vampirized. The day after, Mina, worried about her husband, goes to Count Dracula`s castle. Their encounter makes her forget the reason for her presence there. She is completely under the count`s influence; the count had orchestrated the events leading up to their encounter; in fact Mina looks exactly like his beloved Dolinger, who died some centuries ago. Upon her return to the Kisslinger house, Mina learns of the death of her dear friend Lucy. The sequence of such strange and dramatic events summons the aid of Van Helsing, vampire expert of the techniques used to eliminate them. Van Helsing, aware of the circumstances decides to act swiftly and prepares the tools needed to combat vampires. He directs himself to the center of evil, Count Dracula`s castle. Meanwhile Dracula, in the village, kills the inhabitants who rescinded their pact, while Van Helsing, inside the castle, is able to definitively eliminate Tania. Dracula, intent on his desire to reunite with his beloved wife, leads Mina, completely hypnotized, to the castle where Van Helsing is waiting. He has decided to engage in a deadly fight with his evil foe. During the struggle Van Helsing loses his gun with the silver bullet and Mina, still under Dracula`s spell, gathers it and tries to aid Dracula, but she misses the target and involuntarily kills him. The special silver bullet transforms Dracula into ashes; but his spirit lifts the ashes into the air and uniting, they shape into a large bat with a mocking grin...

It is the year 1462. Constantinople has fallen to invading Turks. Prince Dracula [Gary Oldman] must leave his bride Elizabeta [Winona Ryder] to do battle against the Turks. A ferocious and pitched battle occurs and Dracula's counteroffensive is a success and he leaves many in the Turk army alive and impaled on long spears on the battlefield. The Turks, seeking vengeance, send a message to Dracula's castle falsely announcing that the warlord has been killed in battle. Elizabeta flings herself into the river below. Because she committed suicide, the Bishop [Anthony Hopkins] proclaims her soul damned. Furious that God let his wife die while Dracula was defending His church, Dracula renounces God and the Church. He draws his sword and stabs the large cross on the dais of his chapel and it begins to bleed. Dracula drinks the blood flowing from the cross, proclaiming he will be reborn after his death with all the powers of darkness at his command. March 1897, England. Law clerk Jonathan Harker [Keanu Reeves] must travel to Transylvania to close the sale of 10 London properties being purchased by Count Dracula. Upon his return, Jonathan and fiancee Mina Murray [Winona Ryder] intend to be married. In Jonathan's absence, Mina goes to stay with her rich friend Lucy Westenra [Sadie Frost], who has just recently received three marriage proposals -- from Texan Quincey Morris [Bill Campbell], Dr Jack Seward [Richard E Grant], and Lord Arthur Holmwood [Cary Elwes] -- and she has decided to marry Arthur. Meanwhile, Jonathan has arrived at Castle Dracula following a strange carriage ride past blue flames and wolves. Even stranger is the Count himself. He never eats, sleeps all day, lives alone in a large castle in which most of the doors are locked, and crawls down the castle walls like a reptile. Jonathan has begun to have strange dreams about three women who try to seduce him. To Jonathan's further unease, the Count seems to be fascinated with a picture of Mina, who upon seeing her picture believes she is a reincarnation of Elizabeta, has forced Jonathan to write letters saying that he will be staying with the Count for another month. Meanwhile, the Count is preparing for his trip to England by having his mindless servants fill large crates with dirt from the grounds around the castle. July, 1897. Jonathan has been missing for over three months, and Mina is sick with worry, while Lucy is involved with planning for her wedding. But Lucy is not without worries either. A particularly violent summer storm has recently washed a ship of dead sailors upon the beach, and shortly thereafter Lucy has begun her old habit of sleepwalking. Each time she sleepwalks, she returns bewildered and pale. Dr Seward, who has his hands full treating the fly-eating lunatic R M Renfield [Tom Waits] , has taken on Lucy as his patient. She shows all the signs of anemia, but Dr Seward can find no cause for it. Consequently, he has decided to send for a metaphysician, philosopher, and specialist in rare blood disorders, his old mentor Professor Abraham Van Helsing [Anthony Hopkins]. Upon his arrival, Van Helsing immediately begins a blood transfusion on Lucy and places garlic near her bed. When Lucy's suitors ask what could possibly have caused such extreme anemia, Van Helsing suggests that a supernatural force may have been stalking her. The others find it too fantastical to believe. Meanwhile, Mina has begun occupying herself with a dashingly dressed but mysterious man she met near the cinematograph. He introduced himself as Prince Vlad of Szekely, and Mina is strangely drawn to him, as though she knows him. He is easily able to seduce her in the theatre but she is snapped out of her hypnosis when a large wolf appears and terrorizes the theatre-goers. Mina is surprised moments later when she sees that Vlad is suddenly friendly with the wolf. Mina later receives news that Jonathan has been found and has suffered a violent brain fever and is being cared for by the sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who bid her to come to Romania and be married to Jonathan. She realizes that she can no longer see her prince again. Mina says goodbye to Lucy, writes a note to Dracula, and sets sail for Romania. Dracula, heartbroken at losing Mina to Jonathan, takes Lucy as his bride instead, attacking her in her bed as the wolf and causing a violent explosion of blood that kills her. Lucy is dead, although Van Helsing knows that the correct term is 'undead,' for he can see the fangs in her mouth and knows that she is 'nosferatu.' He explains to Arthur, Jack, and Quincey that, to give Lucy's soul peace, they must cut off her head and take out her heart. They are horrified and think that Van Helsing is just a sick old coot, until they spend a night in Lucy's tomb and find her returning with a child in her arms. Van Helsing is able to force Lucy to release the child and forces her back into her coffin with a crucifix. Due to his engagement to and love of Lucy, Holmwood is selected to drive a large stake through Lucy's heart while Van Helsing beheads her with a single blow. When the deed is done, they band together to seek out the Count and destroy him. Mina and Jonathan have returned to London, only to hear that Lucy has died. One night, they have dinner with Van Helsing, and Jonathan realizes that he knows Count Dracula and that he sleeps in Carfax Abbey. After securing Mina at Dr Seward's sanitarium, the five of them -- Van Helsing, Jonathan, Quincey, Jack, and Arthur -- pay a visit to the abbey in order to sterilize Dracula's earth-filled crates. Meanwhile Dracula is paying a visit to Mina. When she learns that her prince is actually the vampyre who killed Lucy, she becomes extremely upset, but not enough to resist wanting to be with him, to live how he lives. Dracula drinks from Mina, then opens a vein in his chest and bids her drink. However, he stops short after she has taken but a bit. 'I love you too much to condemn you,' he explains. Suddenly, Van Helsing et al burst in the room. They attempt to destroy Dracula, but he changes into hundreds of rats and scurries away. Dracula knows that he cannot stay in England any longer and books passage back to Transylvania via Varna. Mina and the men follow close behind. As Dracula is in mind contact with Mina, Van Helsing knows Dracula's plans but Dracula also seems to know theirs. Instead of sailing into Varna, Dracula diverts the ship 200 miles north and lands at Galatz, causing a change in plans such that Van Helsing and Mina take a carriage directly from Varna to the Borgo Pass while Jonathan, Quincey, Arthur, and Jack continue by train to Galatz where they secure horses and ride for the Borgo Pass, hoping to intercept the Count. They are unsuccessful. Dracula's gypsies picked up his box at Galatz and are now speeding down the Borgo Pass road, making the race closer than ever. Mina and Van Helsing are almost to the castle but decide to stop for the night. Hearing spirits from the surrounding area, Van Helsing casts a circle around Mina and protects her by burning her forehead with a blessed communion wafer. They stay inside the circle through the night while Dracula's three brides tempt Mina to join them, killing the horses from their carriage. The next morning, as Mina sleeps in the circle, Van Helsing visits the castle and beheads the vampiresses, throwing their severed heads into the gorge, bellowing the Count's Latin name "Dracul". Near sundown, the gypsy wagon bearing Dracula in his crate approaches the castle. Jonathan, Arthur, Quincey, and Jack are riding hard to catch up. Mina and Van Helsing wait inside the castle courtyard. Mina calls up a blue flame to protect Dracula. As the gypsy wagon enters the courtyard, a gypsy stabs Quincey in the back. Jonathan attempts to open Dracula's box, but the sun has set and Dracula bursts forth, his strength revived. At that very moment, however, Jonathan slits Dracula's neck and Quincey stabs Dracula through the heart with a sword. Mina screams. As Arthur races forward to finish Dracula, Harker stops him. 'Let them go,' he says. 'Our work is finished here; hers has just begun.' As Quincey dies, Mina sits with Dracula on the chapel floor inside the castle. She kisses him, and he begs her to give him peace. Out of love, she pushes the sword the rest of the way through Dracula's heart. The burn on her forehead disappears, the wound in the altar cross repairs itself and Dracula dies, his face becoming youthful again. Mina gives him his final release by cutting off his head. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl]

In Whitby, England in 1913, Count Dracula (Frank Langella) arrives from Transylvania through the sailing ship Demeter one stormy night. Sickly Mina Van Helsing (Jan Francis), who is visiting her dear friend Lucy Seward (Kate Nelligan), discovers Dracula's body after his ship has run aground. The Count visits Mina and her friends at the household of Lucy's father, Dr. Jack Seward (Donald Pleasance), whose clifftop mansion also serves as the local asylum. At dinner, he proves to be a charming guest and leaves a strong impression on the hosts, especially Lucy. Less charmed by this handsome Romanian count is Jonathan Harker (Trevor Eve), Lucy's fiance. Later that night, while Lucy and Jonathan are having a secret rendezvous, Dracula reveals his true nature as he descends upon Mina to drink her blood. The following morning, Lucy suddenly finds Mina awake in bed, struggling for breath. Powerless, she watches her dear friend die, only to finds severe wounds on her throat. Lucy blames herself for Mina's untimely death, as she had leave her alone while she remained bedridden. At a loss for the cause of death, Dr. Seward calls for Mina's father, Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Lord Laurence Olivier), who suspects what may have killed his daughter: a vampire. Moreover, he begins to worry about what fate his seemingly dead daughter may now have since her encounter with the creature. Seward and Van Helsing investigate their suspicions and discover a roughly clawed opening within Mina's coffin which lead to the local mines. It is there that they encounter the ghastly form of an undead Mina and it is up to the distraught Van Helsing to destroy what remains of her daughter. Meanwhile, Lucy has been summoned to Carfax Abbey, Count Dracula's new home, and she soon reveals herself to be in love with this foreign prince and openly offer herself as his bride. After a surreal wedding night sequence, like Mina before her, Lucy is now deadly infected by Dracula's blood. However, the two doctors manage to give Lucy a blood transfusion to help prevent her vampirism, but nothing can prevent the inevitable now. Now assisted by Jonathan, the elderly doctors realize that the only way to defeat Dracula (and save Lucy) is by destroying him. They manage to locate his coffin within the grounds of Carfax Abbey, but the vampire is waiting for them. Despite this being daylight, Count Dracula is still a very powerful adversary. Dracula escapes their attempts to kill him and bursts into the asylum to free the captive Lucy. While there, he scolds his slave, Milo Renfield (Tony Haygarth), for warning the others about him. Renfield apologizes and pleads for his life, but Dracula kills him by breaking his neck. Dracula now makes preparations for him and Lucy to return to Transylvania. Harker and Van Helsing manage to get onboard a ship carrying Dracula and Lucy cargo bound for Romania. Below decks, Harker and Van Helsing find Dracula and Lucy sleeping together in the coffin. Van Helsing attempts to stake Dracula, but Lucy protests, waking Dracula. In the struggle, Van Helsing is fatally wounded by Dracula as he is impaled with the stake intended for the vampire. Dracula now turns his attention to Harker. Van Helsing uses his remaining strength to throw a hook attached to a rope, tied to the ship's rigging, into Dracula's back. Harker seizes his chance and hoists up the count through the cargo hold to the top of the ship's rigging, where he dies a painful death when the solar rays burn his body. Van Helsing dies from his deadly wounds. Lucy is now apparently herself again, and Harker comforts her. Lucy smiles as she notices Dracula's cape blow away into the horizon, hinting Dracula may have survived.

Margaret Fuchs (Valerie Leon) is in bed dreaming: in an ancient Egyptian tomb some priests are burying Queen Tera (also Valerie Leon) who looks like Margaret. As part of the ritual they chop her hand off, take it outside and throw it to the jackals. They go back into tomb and place the lid on the sarcophagus. Outside, a jackal dies on the ground with its throat ripped and bloody as the hand crawls away. As the priests leave the tomb a sandstorm appears and they all die with lacerated throats too. The severed hand crawls away. Margaret awakes from her nightmare. Her father Professor Julian Fuchs (Andrew Weir) comes into bedroom to comfort her. Another man, Corbeck (James Villiers), watches then from the window of an empty house opposite. Next morning the Professor gives Margaret a ring containing a large ruby. She puts it on showing she has a scar completely across her wrist before going off with her boyfriend Tod (Mark Edwards) in his sports car, observed again from by Corbeck from opposite. In a mental hospital two orderlies look at Berrigan (George Coulouris) in his cell which has a desk and some furnishings. He is seeing some lights that look like stars on his carpet. Tod inspects Margaret's ring closely. He thinks it must have come from her father's expedition. Tod says he will take it to a friend who can give them more information. At the mental hospital, Corbeck visits Berrigan. He tries to take an ornamental cobra from the wardrobe but Berrigan attacks him and the orderlies intervene and make him leave. Tod and Margaret visit expert Geoffrey Dandridge (Hugh Burden) to show him the ring but when he sees Margaret he collapses. Star-like lights appear in the ring. Fortune teller Helen Dickerson (Rosalie Crutchley) is looking into her crystal ball to read a fortune for her customer but sees the same star-like lights too. She is alarmed and asks the customer to leave. Later, at the end of the day, Geoffrey sends his assistant home then goes to a cupboard and takes out and opens a box containing a jackal's skull. Corbeck arrives and Geoffrey explains that he has seen a woman with the ring. Corbeck explains to Geoffrey she is Margaret Fuchs, daughter of Professor Fuchs, and it will soon be her birthday and soon be time. That night Margaret dreams again about the soul of Queen Tera living all these years while her mortal body has waited. Her time is drawing near and it was she who guided people to her tomb to find her. In a flashback, explorers Professor Fuchs, Geoffrey, Corbeck, Berrigan and Helen Dickerson enter Queen Tera's tomb. Around the tomb are several ornaments around including one of a cobra snake, the skull of jackal, and a cat. They open the sarcophagus and see Queen Tera's body with the hand severed. The hand is on the floor next to the sarcophagus with the red ruby ring on a finger. The Professor takes the ring off and from its inscriptions identifies the queen as Tera. At the exact same time, Mrs Fuchs is in hospital giving birth to baby but she dies in the process. The baby at first appears to be stillborn but then doctors hear its heart start beating. The severed arm of Queen Tera in the sarcophagus starts bleeding fresh blood. Margaret wakes up from her dream and tells Tod she must leave immediately. In the basement of his house Professor Fuchs opens the sarcophagus and looks at Queen Tera's body. Margaret and Tod arrive, observed by Corbeck opposite, but there is an ominous feeling and sound from the basement. They break down the door to the basement and rush to the Professor who has cuts on his neck. He instructs them to call Doctor Putnum (Aubrey Morris). They put the Professor in bed but he is unresponsive. Doctor Putnum says the Professor will be like that for a few days and cannot reveal much about Professor's wishes other than his work would astound the world of science. That night Margaret goes to the basement and looks at Queen Tera's body. Corbeck arrives and explains the ruby is the symbol of the god to come. The Professor life's work was to discover the legend of the queen and find the truth, and he and Corbeck and their team searched for her tomb together. There was an attack on one of their members in tomb and fresh blood from Tera's wrist at exactly the same time Margaret was born in the image of Tera. Tod arrives and they agree Tera has some kind of astral power which will be directed against them if they don't understand it. They agree they must contact all old members of team to help reunite Tera with her soul. Tod and Margaret visit Berrigan at the mental hospital. When he sees Margaret he is frightened. Margaret realises he thinks she is Tera so she pretends to be Tera and asks for her familiar - her snake. He says he has not got it, then breaks down causing the orderlies to enter and restrain him and Tod and Margaret have to leave. Back home, Putnum is checking on the Professor. He is still unconscious and the doctor says there will be some paralysis on one side. He says the Professor wanted to protect her from the artefacts in the basement. Tod reads the Professor's journal. The simultaneous events of the Professor entering the tomb and Margaret's birth were a unity created by Tera. Tera had prepared for an abstract metaphysical state by lying in her sarcophagus, creating an astral body with freewill and a conscious intelligence. He believes this power could be used to keep people alive for a long time in suspended animation. Margaret says she feels Tera is dreaming of loneliness, of ancient land and times, when love was a divine possession. In the mental hospital that night the orderlies tease Berrigan with the cobra then leave it on the desk where he can see it when they leave. He struggles in his strait-jacket then goes still and listens. Suddenly the snake disappears from the desk and he sees its shadow approaching him. The window bursts open and wind blows everything around but he cannot escape. The snake approaches and strikes him. He dies with his cuts to his throat. The next morning the Professor wakes up. Margaret explains he had a terrible shock. She asks about the ring and why would it protect her. The Professor explains the priest severed it because they thought it was source of her evil. She says Berrigan is dead and the snake has appeared in their basement. She mentions Corbeck but the Professor implores her not to have anything to do with him. She asks where Tera's hand is but he cannot answer. Out of the window she sees Corbeck going into house opposite and she goes across to confront him. They argue over the facts but she says they need her and she is interested in the power that she may now have. Corbeck says Tera is beyond good and evil and they need to understand her. He says the relics from her tomb are needed for her resurrection from the dead, to provide power over life and death. He says her father is weak and cannot be a part of it. She says she will do anything to have the power so Corbeck says they will do it together. At Geoffrey's, his assistant tells him about Berrigan's death as she leaves at the end of the day. He realises that the jackal skull is significant and takes it out. Margaret arrives and says she wants the skull. He panics and tries to escape out of the window and down the fire escape but he drops the box. As he looks for it he hears a jackal call. He flees in fright. Tod arrives wondering what is going on. Margaret will not tell him anything and leaves. He looks around and hears the jackal call from outside. He investigates, going down the fire escape where he finds the empty box that housed the skull. Hearing noises then a scream he finds Geoffrey's body with the throat lacerated and bloody. He sees the shadow of a jackal running away. Margaret looks at Tera's body in the sarcophagus. The wrist is still bleeding fresh blood. Corbeck arrives and together they see that both the cobra and the jackal's skull are now present in the basement. Tod arrives and tries to stop Corbeck and Margaret. When they refuse he drives away to get help. Margaret screams wishing Tod dead. Tod crashes his car into a tree, his throat lacerated and covered in blood. She is frightened but Corbeck says she must not weaken and she is coming of age. Margaret collapses to the floor. The Professor staggers down to the basement and sees Margaret lying on the floor. Corbeck explains that Margaret no longer exists and soon Tera will be reborn and the Professor cannot do anything to stop it. Corbeck leaves to get the final artefact, the third and final phase of Tera's soul. Margaret dreams in bed watched by the Professor and Doctor Putnam. The Professor insists Putnum give her an injection to ensure she will not wake but while he is preparing it she wakes up. He tries to convince her to go back to bed but she uses her willpower to kill him. He dies with a lacerated throat like the others and Margaret flees. The Professor returns to find Putnum's body, then Corbeck arrives and helps the Professor move the body downstairs. Corbeck says they need each other and they control Tera not the other way around. Corbeck knows where Margaret has gone. Margaret arrives at Helen Dickerson's house. She is afraid and tries to strike Margaret but cannot do so. Instead she concedes and gives Margaret the statue of the cat. As Margaret leaves, she uses her willpower again to kill Helen. Corbeck arrives and sees Helen's body. Margaret reappears at the door and tells Corbeck to come. The Professor finds the scroll of life in the basement then sees that the statue of the cat has appeared. He looks at the severed hand in its box, then Margaret and Corbeck arrive. Corbeck takes the severed hand and places it back in the sarcophagus next to the wrist. The Professor implores him not to read the scroll saying Tera has abused her power and to wait, but Margaret says she is ready and where there is good there must be the opposite. Corbeck reads the scroll of life, to reunite Tera's soul and body and rekindle her astral spirit. The hand reattaches itself to the wrist. Margaret says to the Professor it was Tera that lead them to the tomb. The Professor realises Tera is in Margaret and Corbeck must not finish scroll. They stab Corbeck to death with some relics but Tera awakes. They try to kill her too but she kills the Professor first. Margaret manages to stab her but the building collapses in on top of them all. In a hospital, the medical staff have no idea who the woman all bandaged in the bed is. Her eyes open wide but cannot speak clearly from underneath all the bandages.

May 3, 1885: Jonathan Harker [John Van Eyssen] goes to Castle Dracula with a job as librarian. Harker writes in his diary that his purpose is to end Dracula's "reign of terror". A woman he meets in castle [Valerie Gaunt] asks him to help her escape, but the woman turns out to be a vampire. She attempts to bite Harker, but Dracula [Christopher Lee] intervenes. The next morning, Harker finds marks on his neck and knows he must act fast. He hides his diary at a crossroads, goes to the crypt, stakes the woman vampire, but Dracula wakes up. Days later Van Helsing [Peter Cushing] arrives at Klausenberg Inn; asking after Harker. The innkeeper's wife Inga [Barbara Archer] gives him Harker's dairy. Van Helsing goes to Dracula's castle where he sees a funeral coach leaving. He finds Harker lying in a coffin and stakes him. Weeks later, in Karlstadt, Van Helsing informs Arthur [Michael Gough] and Mina [Melissa Stribbing] Holmwood of Harker's death. Harker's fiancee, Lucy Holmwood [Carol Marsh], is ill and is being treated for anemia by Dr Seward [Charles Lloyd Pack]. When alone, Lucy opens her window and lets in Dracula. Mina seeks advice from Van Helsing who examines Lucy, sees marks on her neck, and instructs Mina not to open windows and to use garlic, but the maid Gerda [Olga Dickie] removes the garlic and opens the windows. The next morning, Lucy is dead. Van Helsing gives Harker's diary to Arthur to read. That evening, policemen bring home the maid's child Tania [Janine Faye] who reports seeing Lucy. Later that night, Van Helsing and Arthur go to Lucy's tomb. Van Helsing suggests that this is Dracula's revenge for the woman Harker staked. Van Helsing and Arthur go to the douane at Ingstadt to see where Dracula's coffin was bound (49 Frederichstrasse in Karlstadt). Meanwhile Mina gets a note to meet "Arthur" at 49 Frederichstrasse. Van Helsing and Arthur go to that address (it's a funeral home) and find Dracula's coffin gone. They go home just as Mina arrives from a "morning walk". Arthur gives Mina a cross to wear but it burns her hand and they know Dracula has gotten to her. They watch the house all night but Dracula gets in somehow and drinks from Mina. She receives a blood transfusion from Arthur, after which Van Helsing suggests that Arthur have a glass of wine. However, Gerda refuses to go down to wine cellar because Mina has forbidden her to do so. Turns out that Dracula is there. Dracula escapes and takes Mina to his castle. Van Helsing and Arthur follow. Dracula sees dawn approaching and stops from burying Mina. Van Helsing follows him into the castle. Dracula attempts to kill Van Helsing, but Van Helsing leaps onto some curtains, tearing them down and letting in sunlight. Dracula starts to deteriorate. Van Helsing grabs two candlesticks and makes a cross out of them. Dracula turns to dust; Mina is released. [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl]

When Countess Marya Zaleska appears in London, mysterious events occur that lead Dr. Von Helsing to believe that the Countess must be a vampire. Prof. Van Helsing is in danger of prosecution for the murder of Dracula...until a hypnotic woman steals the Count's body and cremates it. Bloodless corpses start appearing in London again, and Hungarian countess Marya Zaleska seeks the aid of Jeffrey Garth, psychiatrist, in freeing herself of a mysterious evil influence. The scene changes from foggy London back to that eerie road to the Borgo Pass... —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu> Professor Von Helsing has done the world a favor by driving a stake through the heart of Count Dracula and thus destroying him. For his trouble, Scotland Yard charges him with murder. Dr. Jeffrey Garth, a psychiatrist, may be able to act as an attorney and defend him in court. But Garth finds he has his own troubles when the Countess Marya Zaleska seeks his help. She wants to be released from her desire to drink the blood of the living. She steals the corpse of her father, Count Dracula, and burns it ritually; but she still wants blood. She'll do anything to free herself of this curse, including kidnapping the baron's daughter who is Dr. Garth's assistant, and thwarting the hopes of her sinister manservant, Sandor. —J. Spurlin In London, two policemen find the body of a man, Renfield, with the neck broken, and Dracula with a stake through his heart. They arrest Prof. Von Helsing, who tells them he did it, and take him to Scotland Yard. The inspector Sir Basil Humphrey asks Von Helsing who might defend him and the professor asks for the psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Garth. Meanwhile, the mysterious Countess Marya Zeleska, Dracula's daughter, compels the policeman that is in charge to take care of the bodies and takes Dracula's body with her to bury him with her assistant Sandor before dawn, expecting to be released from the family's curse. In Edinburgh, Jeffrey is hunting with friends and his assistant Janet Blake comes to tell him that he has an appointment with Scotland Yard to help his friend Von Helsing. When Von Helsing tells him about Dracula, Jeffrey believes that he is obsessed with the vampire and promises to help him. During the night, he goes to a party where he meets the Hungarian Countess and he tells his theories about the vampire blood thirsty that he believes is an obsession. Now, Countess Zeleska believes that Jeffrey can heal her and release her from her blood thirst and she wants to bring him to her castle to spend eternal life with her in Transylvania. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Picking up where Dracula (1931) left off, Dr. Von Helsing (Edward Van Sloan), thinking he has rid London of all vampires, is instead arrested for murder. Meanwhile, the beautiful and mysterious Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden) appears in London seeking the understanding Dr. Garth (Otto Kruger), Von Helsing's psychiatrist. A mysterious sequence of events leads Von Helsing and Garth to head to Transylvania after the elusive countess and to rescue Garth's beautiful fiancee (Marguerite Churchill) in this classic thriller. —Anonymous

Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night. After a harrowing ride through the Carpathian mountains in eastern Europe, Renfield enters castle Dracula to finalize the transferral of Carfax Abbey in London to Count Dracula, who is in actuality a vampire. Renfield is drugged by the eerily hypnotic count, and turned into one of his thralls, protecting him during his sea voyage to London. After sucking the blood and turning the young Lucy Weston into a vampire, Dracula turns his attention to her friend Mina Seward, daughter of Dr. Seward who then calls in a specialist, Dr. Van Helsing, to diagnose the sudden deterioration of Mina's health. Van Helsing, realizing that Dracula is indeed a vampire, tries to prepare Mina's fiance, John Harker, and Dr. Seward for what is to come and the measures that will have to be taken to prevent Mina from becoming one of the undead. —Doug Sederberg <vornoff@sonic.net> An estate agent, Renfield, travels to Transylvania to complete a real estate transaction with Count Dracula. Unbeknown to Renfield however - despite warnings of evil by some of the locals - Dracula is a vampire and the visitor is soon his unwilling servant. They travel by ship to England but by the time it makes port, an insane Renfield is the only living passenger. Count Dracula moves into Carfax Abbey and immediately sets out to possess the beautiful Mina, who lives next door. It's left Professor Van Helsing - who knows exactly what Dracula is - to stop the spread of his evil. —garykmcd A man goes on a business trip to Transylvania where he visits a man called Count Dracula. The townspeople of the near by suburbs believe he is a vampire and warn the man but that does not stop him. Van Helsing, a doctor is studying the existence of vampires and swears to protect a young girl, Mina, who is being possessed slowly by the vampires existence. Van Helsing swears to kill him and will find out how from the help of his mental patients. One in particular which is a henchman for the infamous Count Dracula. —jke_wl A young man in a real estate business acquaints with the infamous Count Dracula the townspeople of the nearby suburbs warned the man of. After being captured by the Count he becomes his servant. Dracula soon tackles a girl named Mina and her friend. When Mina's friend is found dead a doctor swears to kill him. To fulfill his promise he gets evidence against The Count and his murder while planning his murder and tackling a harsh mental patient who was framed for the murder of Mina's friend. The mental patient being the same one from the beginning.