12 "Important" Movies That Are Actually Terrible

4. Dracula (1931)

The first official big screen adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic novel is iconic for many valid reasons. It was the first horror movie with sound, and the introductory scene of the title character, played by the great Bela Lugosi, boasts some of the most unforgettable imagery in film history. However, these early scenes are pretty much all anyone ever remembers.

Beyond that point, it's a very different story. Director Tod Browning may have been a master of the silent movie form, but in his first attempt at a talking picture, he clearly didn't know what he was doing yet. The gloriously atmospheric opening scenes are notable for their lack of sound or dialogue, but once the action shifts to London it all turns into a lifeless recreation of a stage play. It's bad enough that, beyond the opening 20 minutes or so, the title character is hardly ever seen; the film almost seems determined to show as little as possible.

Witness the moment in which David Manners looks out of a window and tells his co-stars he just saw a wolf run by, yet the camera remains trained on the cast in a stiff proscenium arch standpoint. Hadn't they figured out that film was a visual medium yet? The similar lack of fangs and blood may have been at least in part down to censorship issues, but this doesn't excuse the dullness of what was left over.

Lugosi made his moments in the spotlight count, and he quite rightly lives on in legend, but Dracula remains a real chore to sit through.