55 Days to Halloween - Dracula's Daughter

The strength of the human mind against the powers of darkness

This year, Dracula’s Daughter won’t start the month of October. I made the decision earlier this morning to feature it in my September lineup this year. I always thought it was a nice early morning kick off to Halloween month, but I was in the mood for it this evening so I went ahead and watched it. Although it isn’t quite as gothic as Dracula (1931), I always thought it had enough of the trappings to maintain its aesthetic spell. Zaleska, the dark countess and daughter of Dracula, remains in torment until she accepts that even as her father is gone the “curse of the Draculas” hasn’t left her. Brooding henchman, Sandor, doesn’t help matters, always encouraging her to keep up the vampiric behavior, preying on Londoners in the shadows of the night, her signet ring a method of subduing her victims. I think the biggest casualty is how little this sequel to Dracula has for Van Helsing. Ed Van Sloan is a minor player this go-around, more of an authority on vampires possibly up for an asylum or the gallows for killing Dracula, actually saved by Zaleska (who takes her dad’s body, burning it to ash over a bonfire in the hopes of releasing herself from the vampire curse holding sway over her). He just gets precious little to do. Instead we get the love triangle of Garth/Zaleska/Janet. Garth and Janet arguing and in love, griping at each other and aggravating one another. Zaleska is the new arrival that Garth is attracted to until she kidnaps Janet and threatens her life if he won’t join her among the undead as her undead hubby. I love the trip back to Castle Dracula, Zaleska’s presence throughout which is dark and foreboding, Sandor’s menace, and the inability of science to undermine a vampire’s supernatural power. Garth is rendered helpless until, ironically, Sandor is the undoing of Zaleska, a mistimed arrow from his bow piercing her heart. I like the London setting returned to for the sequel, although the ties to the 1931 film are a bit of a continuity problem…Dracula never hints about having a daughter and there are no clues as to her presence in his life. Where was Zaleska while Dracula was up to no good? And where did this link between Zaleska and Sandor originate? There’s a whole fascinating back story—a history—untold that is never elaborated.