Was Dracula Gay?

[Paul Whybrow]

The BBC is showing a dramatised version of the Dracula story this Christmas, which suggests that the Count was gay!

New BBC horror suggests Dracula did more than bite his male victims

The co-writer of the drama Mark Gatiss is gay. He makes a good point by saying that horror should be transgressive:

“Horror over time becomes quite cosy. I think horror should not be cosy.”

That Dracula creator Bram Stoker was probably a closeted homosexual adds weight to the tone of this adaptation.

Of course, there has been previous tinkering with the Dracula character. Hammer Horror films made female versions in such films as Lust For A Vampire, The Vampire Lovers and Twins Of Evil.

Yutte Stensgaard in Lust For A Vampire


At the time of the blaxploitation movies in the 1970s black actor William Marshall starred as Blacula (‘Dracula’s Soul Brother’!)

Blacula - Wikipedia

As a callow 18-year-old librarian, I watched it at the King’s Cross cinema in London uncertain whether to laugh or feel scared.

What do you make of such adjustments of famous fictional characters?

 

[Steve C]

So is this what love bites are about? I never did quite dig them.

 

[Leonora]

I remember in the novel it all seems pretty sybaritic. I'm sure Stoker would approve.

 

[KateESal]

Gay Dracula works just fine for me.

Personally, I'm all for re-imaginings of canonical characters. For example, I thought Jennifer Lee did a great job re-imagining the frosty, distant Snow Queen from Hans Anderson's tale as a troubled and passionate young woman trying to gain control of her mysterious ice-making powers.

Re-versions of fairytales which give the female characters greater agency tend to get a double thumbs up from me. Likewise, I have no problem with re-imaginings which change sexuality or skin colour etc of the characters. Such techniques can add several extra layers to the story or offer interesting alternative angles. The re-telling of Jane Eyre from the "mad wife's" point of view in Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea was a real eye-opener, for example.

Stories have been reframed and retold forever and long may it continue.