MovieChat Forums > Dark Shadows (1966) Discussion > Did Barnabas change Dracula?

Did Barnabas change Dracula?

posted 7 years ago by PrometheusTree64
8 replies | jump to latest

I've often thought Barnabas Collins humanized Dracula.

When Max Schreck played Dracula in the '20s and Bela Lugosi played Dracula in the '30s and Christopher Lee played Dracula in the '50s and '60s, the character was never shown in a very sympathetic light; he was a predator and a sociopath.

And I don't recall him written as all that tormented or sympathetic in Bram Stoker's original novel either (although it's been quite a while since I've read it).

But after DARK SHADOWS, cinema portraits of Dracula seemed to change, the character morphing into a haunted, tragic, tormented figure.

Did Barnabas Collins out-Dracula Dracula? And, hence, was Dracula obliged to be made more compelling by painting him in a more sympathetic light like Barnabas?

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[–] moosefeathers 7 years ago

Yes, every vampire became pussified. This is the reason I liked that Interview with the Vampire had both the sympathetic and the monster.

Vampires are monsters or creatures. Not sympathetic, like Barnabas...although, they say that Varney, the Vampire was the first sympathetic vampire. I have not gotten through that monster of a book yet to determine this.

I finally read Dracula, and though a background character actually, he was what a vampire was supposed to be.

Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...

[–] PrometheusTree64 7 years ago

I like the tormented vampires.

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[–] redhillpb (34) 6 years ago

Exactly. I like the original Barnabas better than what he became but they had to "humanize" him to keep him at the center of the story.
(Dracula is my favorite book. So, I judge all vampires by that one:)

[–] Wuchak (8117) 3 years ago

Yes, every vampire became pussified.

LOL

(Thanks for the laugh).

[–] kenburke (2280) 7 years ago

He started out as a Dracula clone but, as time passed, was allowed to develop his own character.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

It was the typical soap opera plot element where a character introduced as a temporary villain becomes popular and slowly becomes sympathetic and likeable.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

He was really only supposed to be on the show for 6 weeks as a villain. He became popular and therefore sympathetic. Soaps do it all the time. It happens a lot in professional wrestling as well.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 4 years ago

Geez, OP, where did you get the idea that all nosferatu are identical and that Vlad Tepish was the prototypical vampire, therefore the touchstone for all other vampires?

Not for nothing, the first vampire was Lilith, Adam’s first wife before Eve.

I refer you to the scholarly text, The Vampire, by Montague Sommers.

I agree with the other posters here that Barnabus was pure cut-rate soap opera bullshit.