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Special Features
Included in the set is
the documentary “ The Road to Dracula,”
an interview featurette with Stephen Sommers and the cast
of Van Helsing, an additional score on the
main feature by Phillip Glass, a commentary on the 1931 English
version by David J. Shal, a poster gallery and trailers for
all of the films.
Shawn: The Road to Dracula is well worth every fan's time. Great
stuff, even if it is a bit talking head-ish.
Cary: Yes. I loved that. Great insight to the history of the story
on stage, screen and in print. I never knew that Stoker wrote
the part for his boss. That was pretty interesting to me.
Shawn: And that he wanted him to play the part, no less. That's really funny. It's a shame he never lived to see any stage adaptation.
Cary: In contrast, the Stephen Sommers piece is totally worthless.
Any documentary that features the words, "Richard Roxburgh
plays a great Dracula. He's fearless," is not worth the
plastic that it's pressed into.
Shawn: Yeah, that was the very definition of promo fluff, but wasn't Van Helsing worthless too? It was enjoyable
enough, sure, but I don't think it lived up to ANYONE's expectations.
Cary: It was a disappointment, and in my eyes there may not be a
more annoying Dracula than the one in Van Helsing.
He comes across as a whiny little bitch through the whole
thing. Plus, he listens to the wives too much. He needs to
keep his pimp hand strong and tell them, "No kids!"
Shawn: Yeah... Lugosi was pimp and wouldn't stand for that shit.
Hungarians keep their women in line.
Cary: What did you think of the Philip Glass score?
Shawn: Honestly, I think it really added to the film - and I'm not
a fan of Glass. This was my first time watching it with the
score, and I think I will continue to do so going forward.
I enjoy the film more with it; it helps save from the stagnant
direction.
Cary: To me, it's just another way to watch the film. I'm a very
audio-oriented person, and when there's silence, I take notice.
That's part of why I liked the original so much. I like it,
it's good. It's just interchangeable to me. As for the rest,
I liked the poster gallery. I love the old posters. That's
something I'll watch more than once. I thought the trailers
were fun also.
Shawn: I'm a big trailer fan. So I really did like those (I wish
it had a trailer for House of Dracula, though),
and you are correct – the old posters were cool, too.
I liked the commentary, even though much was covered in the
documentary.
Cary: I did want to say something about that. Shal’s delivery
was pretty wooden; he was definitely reading from a script.
While that keeps the flow going, it's monotonous at times.
Shawn: Yeah, and he changed
direction without any sort of pause, which at times made
it hard to follow. Overall, though, I thought the vast amount
of information was worth it.
Cary: I would have loved a “pop-up
video” style function with it He talks so
much about "in this scene this happens," it would
be cool to play around with that some. Make it an optional
feature. Point out Tovar's breasts in the Spanish one.
Shawn: And point out the cardboard
hanging from the lights.
Cary: And how Tovar's nipples are showing through
her nightgown. So overall, on a scale of one to five, how many pants?
Shawn: Probably 4.5. The only thing
keeping it from the full five would be the poor transfer.
Cary: I agree.
4.5 pants.
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