He Doesn't Drink...Wine

Walpurgis Night is mentioned in a stagecoach, the night of evil. Superstition is how Renfield sees that, but he'll learn soon enough. The film for me is not just the iconic presence of Lugosi, the great, but for Dwight Frye. There's a scene where poor lunatic Renfield sobs in his sanitarium cell, wanting to be fed, stranded by his master until needed. His eyes are white and wide, practically all that can be seen in his darkened cell. Dracula summons him, Mina is to be a vampire bride. Renfield mentions that God wouldn't damn his soul, a poor victim of the bite. Mina might be the prize for the count but Renfield is the tragic character that isn't as lucky as her to have the luxury of being spared by Van Helsing's stake. I reckon the Castle Dracula scene between Dracula and Renfield is my all-time favorite Gothic horror scene. The introduction of Dracula and Renfield responding to what he experienced continues annually to be a treasure for me personally. I love the Dracula and Van Helsing encounters, while I do admit that Chandler and Manners are handsome charisma vacuums. They serve as vanilla leads who probably had contracts pushing them into the film while Lugosi, Frye, and Van Sloan just bring it. While they might appear typecast, these three are seen over and over again, remembered and admired while Chandler and Manners probably happily took any film besides the dreaded horror (Manners, unfortunately, would show up in such classics as The Mummy & The Black Cat) and those roles are lost to lack of interest. Bully to horror! It doesn't die!

A red mist spread over the lawn, coming on like a flame of fire! And then he parted it, and I could see that there were thousands of rats, with their eyes blazing red,l ike his, only smaller. Then he held up his hand, and they all stopped, and I thought he seemed to be saying: "Rats! Rats! Rats! Thousands! Millions of them! All red-blood! All these will I give you! If you will obey me!"