Posing as a librarian, Jonathan Harker arrives at the castle of Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) to destroy its evil master — and stop me if you’ve heard this one, but it doesn’t go well. Harker gets bit, Dracula gets mad, and Harker’s fiancée, Lucy, pays the price. Her grieving family turns to Doctor Van Helsing, still the world’s pre-eminent scholar of Count Dracula studies. And joining forces with Lucy’s brother-in-law, Arthur, Van Helsing races to protect the blood and the souls of all Dracula’s prospective victims.

Vampire stories, at least since Bram Stoker brought Dracula into the Victorian era, have always been metaphors for the fear-desire push-pull of erotic sensuality. But thanks to Christopher Lee’s brooding handsomeness, the lurid palette of Technicolor and the incipient sexual revolution, 1958’s Horror of Dracula (billed simply as Dracula outside of the US) put much more weight on the “desire” side of the scale. Dracula’s hot! His victims aren’t just afraid of him; they’re intrigued, and bewitched, and frustrated (and in some cases definitely satisfied) and also still afraid. The simple move of dragging some of the subtext into the text creates a fuller and much more modern-feeling take on the genre.

This screening is held in the Taylor Screening Room. At ticket purchase, you will be asked to select your reserved seat(s). Seating is limited; it is recommended to purchase tickets ahead of time.

VIEW the full 2026 “A Nightmare on Franklin Street” series lineup.