Dracula

In the hiatus between Hammer's series of films and Coppola's 1992 movie comes this star-laden, faithful telling of Bram Stoker's classic horror novel. Frank Langella plays Count Dracula, with Laurence Olivier as Van Helsing, Donald Pleasence as Dr Jack Seward, Kate Nelligan as Lucy Seward and Trevor Eve as Jonathan Harker. Based on a successful Broadway interpretation of the novel, in which Langella starred, John Badham's film version sees the Count as a seducer as much as one of the undead, while Olivier plays Van Helsing as a man of learning discovering the truth of the Count's true existence rather than an expert in all things vampiric. With a score by John Williams, and Gil Taylor's superb photography, this is a version that relies more on suggestion than graphic horror but still manages to be satisfyingly scary.