10 Vampire Movies That Broke All The Rules
2. Bram Stoker's Dracula
What could honestly be bolder or more transgressive than casting Keanu Reeves to play an English solicitor?
Jokes aside, Francis Ford Coppola's gothic horror is one of the most stylistically accomplished vampire films of all time, a work of such visual daring that it basically becomes a quasi-abstract experiment in what the director could actually get away with.
Yes, it's messy and overlong and undisciplined, and Reeves and Winona Ryder's accents are iffy to say the least, but it's also a fearless and sumptuous rendition of Stoker's classic tale - a hearty, rich meal of a movie which begs the viewer to bathe in every single frame.
Even almost 30 years later, it's a blistering technical marvel, albeit one best brought to life by Gary Oldman's thermonuclear performance as Count Dracula.
Tap-dancing in that grey area between moody self-seriousness and go-for-broke absurdity, Coppola's Dracula is a true rarity among the genre: a muscular, deeply felt vampire flick with a blockbuster budget to match.