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CNN’s Harry Enten Dumps Cold Water On Theory Trump Will ‘Outperform His Polls’ For Third Time
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CNN’s Harry Enten Dumps Cold Water On Theory Trump Will ‘Outperform His Polls’ For Third Time

'Maybe Kamala Harris will be underestimated'
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FACT CHECK: Did Tim Walz Say That Russian Scientists Created Hurricane Milton?
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FACT CHECK: Did Tim Walz Say That Russian Scientists Created Hurricane Milton?

A post made on X claims that vice presidential candidate Tim Walz made a post claiming Russian scientists created Hurricane Milton. ???? US Democratic Party member Tim Walz, who is on Kamala Harris’ team, believes that Russian scientists “somehow” managed to change the Earth’s gravitational field using advanced technology. “Hurricane Milton was artificially created by Russian scientists,” […]
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Editor Daily Rundown: Trump Holds Edge With One Week To Go
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Editor Daily Rundown: Trump Holds Edge With One Week To Go

ONE WEEK TO GO... TRUMP HOLDS THE EDGE... NY POST: Trump poised for Electoral College win as polls show ex-president leading Harris in 4 battleground states New polling of battleground states forecasts wins for Donald Trump across the board in a quartet of them, positioning him for 280 electoral votes and a return to the White House. The surveys from Insider Advantage and the Trafalgar Group spotlighted contests between Trump and Harris in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia.
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Kamala Is Apparently Trying To Girlboss Joe Rogan, And It’s A Pretty Smart Strategy
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Kamala Is Apparently Trying To Girlboss Joe Rogan, And It’s A Pretty Smart Strategy

'They only wanted to do an hour'
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The Lighter Side
The Lighter Side
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Luke Combs, James Taylor Headline Star-Studded Concert for Carolina–Raises $24 Million for Hurricane Relief
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Luke Combs, James Taylor Headline Star-Studded Concert for Carolina–Raises $24 Million for Hurricane Relief

Some of the biggest stars in country music teamed up on a Saturday night to see how much money they could raise for hurricane relief. Headlined by Luke Combs and Eric Church, the Concert for Carolina generated $24 million to help North and South Carolina communities recover from the double whammy of hurricanes Helene and […] The post Luke Combs, James Taylor Headline Star-Studded Concert for Carolina–Raises $24 Million for Hurricane Relief appeared first on Good News Network.
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SciFi and Fantasy
SciFi and Fantasy  
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The Ten Best On-Screen Draculas
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The Ten Best On-Screen Draculas

Lists Dracula The Ten Best On-Screen Draculas These performances manage to breathe sinister new life into the silver screen’s favorite undead icon. By Tyler Dean | Published on October 29, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Last week, I elucidated my picks for the worst on-screen Draculas. This week, I dive into their more inspired, even transcendent counterparts. Rather than repeat everything I covered in the first piece, you can find an in-depth discussion of my criteria, qualifications, and the background necessary for breaking down a Dracula performance there. To briefly summarize, I have a PhD in Victorian Gothic literature, Dracula is among my very favorite novels, and I’ve taught vampire literature classes for the last fifteen years. Given my ongoing obsession with film and television adaptations of Stoker’s novel, I’ve decided to rank the best and worst on-screen Draculas, because life is too short to settle for boring, mediocre vampires (unless you happen to be immortal, and even then it’s no fun). Once again, I’m focusing only on portrayals of Dracula himself, and not just “a Dracula type.” Other than that, the plot doesn’t have to reflect the plot of Stoker’s novel. This ranking considers any film in which Count Dracula appears to be a Dracula film, and while there’s no way to watch all the many hundreds of films in which the character appears, I’ve tried to pull from a wide variety of time periods and genres to get a more even spread.  Let me repeat my criteria, as mentioned in the first post: I’m judging the portrayal of Dracula himself, here. That is obviously going to be affected by both the film in which the Count appears and the choices of the actor portraying him. Sometimes a film’s script or production design uplifts a less compelling Dracula. Sometimes an awful movie highlights the quality of a good performance by making it feel out of place. The reverse is also true for both these scenarios. Also, as a general rule, I talk about the performance and the actor behind it in these rankings. Any performance of a role is shaped by a variety of factors—the talent of the actor, sure, but also the competence and confidence of the director, the quality of the material provided by the screenwriter, the way in which the performance meshes or fails to mesh with fellow actors and the rest of the film. Please don’t take my condemnation or praise in this list as vitriol or encomia leveled at the actor portraying Dracula alone.  For a discussion of Stoker’s novel, and the history behind it, please see the section titled “The Basics” in my earlier post. And now, without further ado, let’s get to the list… The Best On-Screen Draculas While perhaps a bit less difficult to catalog than my previous list of the worst on-screen Draculas, trying to enumerate the best is sure to draw more controversy. In many ways, a good performance can be a far more subjective endeavor than a bad one. I’ve tried to do a reevaluation of the classics, as well as include some recent or obscure performances that are worth examining.  10. John Carradine, House of Frankenstein (1944) The Erle C Kenton-directed House of Frankenstein is a bit of a mess. Like so many of the post-Golden Age Universal monster movies, it showcases a mishmash of multiple monsters all descending on the same hapless humans. In this particular case, Lon Chaney’s Wolfman, Glenn Strange’s Frankenstein’s Monster, and Carradine’s Count Dracula all converge upon the villainous Dr. Gustav Niemann (Boris Karloff), who is trying to replicate Frankenstein’s experiments after making his way to the ruins of Castle Frankenstein in Visaria (the fictional Alpine country where many of the Universal monster movies take place). The plot is more complicated than that, but is also immaterial because the film is just an excuse get a bunch of the company’s iconic monsters in a room together and make them fight (see also 2004’s Van Helsing which, incredibly, appears later on this list). John Carradine, the legendary character actor, takes on the role of Count Dracula for the first time in this film (he would go on to play the Count at least three more times), and imbues him both with his signature baritone voice and an intense stare. He was rumored to have done a screen test for the 1931 Dracula along with other horror film royalty, including Lon Cheney and Conrad Veidt, before the role was given to then-stage actor Bela Lugosi.  One can see why he was always on the studio’s short list. Even in a film as patently dull as House of Frankenstein (though still superior to its follow-up, the quite nearly Dracula-free House of Dracula), Carradine has a hypnotic gaze that requires no special effects. Whether using that gaze to seduce a newlywed traveler or intimidate a rural Bürgermeister, he burns a hole in the screen with sheer intensity. Vampiric glamours are treated as a kind of seduction in some materials, in others, they act similarly to an anglerfish’s lure—putting the ensnared human at ease before being fed upon. There is no romance in Carradine’s Dracula. He’s an elemental force of nature, as likely to kill as to kiss, but he somehow sells it. The audience can’t help but fall under his spell, even as he makes no effort to draw us in.  9. Christopher Lee, Horror of Dracula (1958) The first Hammer Horror Dracula makes the bold decision to have its star—horror icon, inspiration for James Bond, occasional heavy metal singer, and child witness to the last sanctioned guillotining in France, Christopher Lee—play the Count without any hint of a continental accent. That’s not a problem, as Lee’s clipped, disdainful, British basso is threatening enough that it more than gets the job done.  The film is largely a vehicle for Lee’s longtime screen partner, Peter Cushing, who plays van Helsing (they would go on to star three more times together across the nine total Hammer Dracula films). That’s not anything new—Dracula is often not on-screen (or on the page) in his own films. But Lee makes an inescapable impression with his brand of wall-rattling, contemptuous calm, interrupted by terrifying close-ups of a Count with the mask dropped, revealing the savage bloodlust beneath the elegant disdain. He is more monster than man, especially in the first film, but that isn’t a reason to discount him.  Much like Carradine, Lee doesn’t rank higher on the list mainly because his screen time is both limited and largely relegated to lurking in the shadows. That said, it’s hard to ever discount the magnificent Sir Christopher in any film, let alone one in which he gets to swish his cape menacingly and tower over the hapless hunters who oppose him.  8. Thomas Doherty, The Invitation (2022) The Invitation is a film whose critical reception (a cruel 31% on Rotten Tomatoes) belies the fact that it’s one of the more fun and novel Dracula adaptations of the last decade. Starring Game of Thrones’ Nathalie Emmanuel as Evie, a Black American caterer who uses a genetic ancestry service and discovers that she’s related to a reclusive British playboy residing at Carfax Abbey in Whitby. After being invited to attend a family wedding, she falls for her distant relation, Thomas Doherty’s Walter De Ville.  We know the rest though. Walter (for Wallachia) and De Ville (for, you know) is Dracula in an alternate version of the novel where he defeated van Helsing, made Lucy one of his brides, and now runs a cult of vampire aspirants through his Whitby-dwelling descendants. Critics rightly pointed out that the film is obvious about its twist and that it’s not a particularly scary horror film. No argument there. But what those reviews miss is how effective the film is at using vampire narrative tropes to talk about race, and what an incredible job it does of recontextualizing Dracula in the era of Hallmark movies. See, while Emmanuel is, obviously, magnetic and more than carries the film—Doherty, as Walter, plays the Count as the sort of charmingly normal and devastatingly handsome British heartthrob that wouldn’t be out of place in A Christmas Prince or The Princess Diaries 2. Doherty is playing on at least thirty years of slightly befuddled, British love interests: He’s Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, Jude Law (who he uncannily resembles) in The Holiday, or Hugh Jackman in Kate & Leopold (technically Australian, but you get my point). And when the not-so-surprising twist finally occurs, he changes only subtly. The great fun of Doherty’s performance lies in how much a blood-swilling Bluebeard can still read as a Colin Firth-esque rom-com hero.  And that’s not to mention its Get Out-inspired commentary on race. I’m not comparing the two films in terms of quality. Get Out is a marvel and The Invitation is a fun, B-movie romp but, given the novel’s obsession with the purity of bloodlines and the “dangers” of reverse-colonization, it’s nice to see a Dracula film lean into and call out those themes as grotesque. The film makes use of the kinds of images and dog-whistles borrowed from Get Out and the wave of Black-experience-centered horror that followed it, alongside adaptations and remakes like Lovecraft Country and Candyman. But more than anything, with its blend of stuffy English formality and fairytale-romance overtones, it seems to draw upon press coverage and imagery from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding along with the gallingly racist tabloid coverage that followed. In their last conversation before their violent conflagration of a wedding, Dracula attempts to sell Evie on what she would gain in becoming one of his brides, saying “For someone of your… hmm…background, surely this is more than a leg up.” It’s not the smartest movie in the world but it effectively taps into some thoughtful tropes as Doherty oozes blithely through the film, making the viewer ever more uncomfortable in the way he still manages to sound halfway charming even as Dracula betrays his vile views.  7. Bela Lugosi, Dracula (1931) The Hungarian immigrant who, for all intents and purposes, cemented every stereotype about how one plays Count Dracula when he originated the role in the Deane and Balderston Broadway show, was cast when Tod Browning adapted the play for his iconic 1931 Dracula for Universal Pictures. Part of the Universal Monsters lineup that included James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) and Karl Freund’s The Mummy (1932), the film is, much like the novel it’s based on, very sparing in its use of the Count. Bela Lugosi only speaks in a handful of scenes. He is, compared with many of his fellows on this list, quite subtle. In many ways, in fact, Dwight Frye’s wide-eyed, shivering Renfield is the more unhinged and compelling performance: he’s the character an unsuspecting viewer is more likely to be frightened by. In rewatching the film, I found myself wondering if this, the single most important and influential on-screen portrayal of Dracula, was neither poor enough to make the bad list nor truly good enough to make the good one.  But, after some agonizing, I think I can safely say that, while he’s not my favorite Dracula, Lugosi’s Count does deserve a spot near the top. Lugosi uses his real accent for his few lines, which he delivers, by turns with unctuous, plastered smiles, and a far more genuine cold imperiousness. He gives the impression that the iconic, ear-to-ear grin is masking a fury-laden snarl. As Harker, Seward, and van Helsing bumble their way through the mystery of Dracula’s identity, that smile grows more and more strained. Lugosi gives the impression that his Count would rather be doing anything else than speaking with these troublesome mortals.  And, in the few moments when Lugosi is given the chance to unleash his version of a Count unfettered by politesse, one understands why he is the mold from which most other Draculas are cast. He’s domineering, frigid, just a touch spiteful. For a performance that has been parodied countless times and might be impossible to effectively emulate, the original is still capable of being shockingly fierce.  6. Michael Nouri, The Curse of Dracula (1979) I may be biased here since this 1979 TV movie, called The Curse of Dracula and released as part of the Cliffhangers anthology series, reimagines modern-day Dracula as a suave, passionate, and beloved college professor. And, like some other films on this list, Cliffhanger’s Curse of Dracula and its sequel are both not recommendable as films. They are deadly dull and far too focused on charisma-lacking performances from Stephen Johnson and Carol Baxter.  But the movie’s general lack of appeal might also highlight how good Michael Nouri is in this role. Nouri has had a long career, mostly as a character actor, though he’s probably most famous as the love interest in Flashdance. And it’s that combination of character actor energy combined with leading man good looks that makes his Dracula magnetic. The film leans into the darkly romantic aspects of Dracula and presents him as almost entirely sympathetic while he’s on the screen. We rarely see Nouri’s version actually threatening or menacing anyone, with the film preferring instead to focus on his electric charisma, mixed with a soupçon of sadness. He is a world-weary Dracula, always hunted, always misunderstood, and Nouri plays it to the hilt. Our first and best look at him in this otherwise forgettable TV movie is lecturing to his students about the marriage and subsequent suicide of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria in the sort of exquisite detail that only someone who had been in attendance could evoke. It’s convincing as the exact sort of lecture that would entrance a certain kind of student into a talented professor’s cult of personality and, if the film sees that as a bad thing, it is quite inept about voicing that concern. Moreover, it’s worth noting that Nouri is one of only a handful of Jewish actors to take on the role—certainly he is the only one I could find that played Dracula in a sympathetic version of the role. In the background, I alluded to the antisemitism of Stoker’s novel and, while Dracula himself is not ever explicitly tied to Judaism, specifics of his physical description track with grotesque stereotypes of ethnic Jewishness popular at the time. While antisemitic caricatures have been a constant across Europe for millennia, mid to late 19th-century England was a hotbed of antisemitism, thanks in part to a massive wave of immigrants fleeing Russian pogroms starting in the late 1870s. Resistance to this influx can be seen in the lead-up to Dracula’s publication with everything from George Eliot’s encomium for Jewish immigrants in Daniel Deronda, which highlights the heightened antisemitism, to the widespread supposition that Jack the Ripper must have been a Jewish immigrant because butchery was a common profession for Jewish men and Whitechapel was a Jewish ghetto at the time.  The Curse of Dracula doesn’t ever explicitly name its Count as Jewish, but it does lean into the idea of there being an elegiac affinity between his own status as a constantly persecuted and pursued man and a people scapegoated across millennia. In a scene late in the film, Nouri’s Dracula plays piano at a bar and a ninety-year-old Russian (perhaps Jewish) immigrant asks him to play “Moscow Nights” and reminisces about the lost splendors of the “old country.” Dracula indulges him and shares his own memories of fin-de-siècle Russia and the unworthiness of its Tsar compared with the man who sits before him. It’s a surprisingly touching moment to which Nouri lends his soft, melancholy gaze and charming smile.  5. Richard Roxburgh, Van Helsing (2004) Don’t get me wrong. Stephen Sommers’ madcap, cartoony ode to Universal Monster movies is a very bad film. It has a similar screwball energy to his earlier classic, The Mummy, but that only serves to point out how much the 1999 film requires Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz to perfectly match Sommers’ tone. While they succeeded, Hugh Jackman as van Helsing (here made into the human incarnation of the Archangel Gabriel, stricken with amnesia, and working for a monster-hunting order within the Catholic Church) and vampire-film royalty Kate Beckinsale, as Romani (though the film doesn’t use that term) princess Anna Valerious, just don’t work, either as an on-screen couple or as ambassadors for Sommers’ brand of whiplash-inducing action comedy. Please don’t read this pick as an encomium for the film as a whole.  But Richard Roxburgh, of Moulin Rouge! (2001) and Hound of the Baskervilles (2002) fame, manages to be a thoroughly charming bit of campy continuity in the midst of all of it. Dressed in what is essentially the Victorian version of one of Prince’s concert outfits, he’s given some femme touches—earrings and a golden hair-clip, to match mannerisms that are effervescently queer-coded. He quips and rages and loudly mourns the deaths of each of his brides, channeling the kind of smarmy, licentious energy that one expects from Jeremy Irons, Charles Dance, or Alan Rickman as a ’90s action film villain. He punctuates his post-John Woo wirework bounds and levitations with little waltz and ballet maneuvers that signal he’s having far more fun than anyone else on set (with the possible exception of Shuler Hensley’s operatically warbling Frankenstein’s Monster).  Comedy Draculas are a delicate balancing act and it’s easy to go in for broadly bland shtick a la George Hamilton in 1979’s Love at First Bite, or simply ape Lugosi, or just be Leslie Nielsen. So when someone manages to make a fundamentally silly Dracula lively, campy, and just perverse enough to still feel like a threatening villain, it’s a real triumph. Van Helsing may have aged poorly, but Roxburgh’s Dracula is timelessly entertaining.  4. Max Schreck, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) Bram Stoker had only been dead a decade when German Expressionist filmmaker F.W. Murnau made Nosferatu. Unable to secure the rights to Stoker’s novel, Prana Films changed the names of its characters and altered a few plot details, but don’t be fooled: Count Orlok is Count Dracula. After a protracted legal battle, a German Court ruled in favor of Florence Stoker (Bram’s widow)’s copyright lawsuit, and ordered all prints of the film be destroyed. The film survives today only because of diligent film historians piecing it together from partial prints.  Made before the Hamilton Deane play, Orlok, like the novel’s Dracula, is an ugly, bestial, creature—hairless save his intense and bushy eyebrows, with pointed ears, long claw-like fingers, and a pair of fangs in the front of his mouth that might, uncharitably, be reminiscent of a rodent’s incisors. The film is silent, of course, but even so, Orlok has few placard lines compared to the rest of the cast. Instead, Murnau focuses on the predatory fury of Schreck’s gaze and the interminable stillness of his movements, a spider in the center of a web that Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim’s not-legally-distinct-enough Harker) hasn’t yet realized he’s in.  Whether he’s rising from the cargo hold of a ship, clawed fingers menacingly gripping the edge of the hatch, or skulking through a doorway that only barely contains him, or casting a grim, hunched shadow on the wall of Hutter’s well-appointed home, Max Schreck gives us a nightmare-inducing Count who is all strange, angular contortions of limbs and empty eyes. There is no deft turn from suave to savage. Murnau and Schreck concoct a demoniac revenant who is just barely human-shaped and whose placards feel impossible to square with the vision of an apex predator that the audience must assume hunts only in total, terrifying silence.  3. Frank Langella, Dracula (1979) Based on the same Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston stage adaptation that made Bela Lugosi a star, the 1977 Broadway revival starred Frank Langella and boasted a production designed by legendary Gothic illustrator Edward Gorey. The film, directed by Saturday Night Fever’s John Badham, uses some of Gorey’s designs but ultimately opts for a more traditional approach to sets and costumes, though it is shot through a stunningly muted filter, almost giving the appearance of a sepia-toned silent film. It’s among the nastiest takes on the Deane play, with Harker and Seward (Trevor Eve and Halloween’s Donald Pleasance) being portrayed as incompetent and misogynistic even though the Dracula they are up against is no ameliorative for poor Lucy (Kate Nelligan).  Langella, though obviously far from unattractive, is not movie-star handsome and the film saddles him with perhaps the most ludicrous, ’70s-chic puff of brown hair committed to a drama. It may just be the worst hair any Dracula has ever had, and I say this knowing full well that Lugosi made a hyper-shellacked Lego helmet the standard. But Langella overcomes these stylistic shortcomings with a hard-edged charm. He’s right on the precipice of unbearably cold—too gruff to be strictly sexy—but pulls it back just enough to hint at a salacious joie de vivre into which one might read that domineering ice a little differently.  Firmly of the school that less is more, Langella’s Dracula speaks softly, slowly, and with unnerving amounts of eye contact. He might as well be carved of stone compared with the intense, showy agita of Lawrence Olivier’s van Helsing or the crass over-familiarity of Harker and Seward. Other Draculas on this list exude gravitas and dignity, but no one outshines Langella for projecting unrelenting control.  2. Christian Camargo, Penny Dreadful (2016) Reactor has already published an article on my intense and fully justified love of Showtime’s Penny Dreadful, the supernatural prestige drama that, like Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula, imagines a world where most of the great Gothic novels of the 19th century exist simultaneously. Count Dracula is a presence on the show from the first episode where Timothy Dalton’s Sir Malcolm Murray (here the invented father of the novel’s Mina) searches for his missing daughter. But it is not until the show’s final season that Dracula actually makes an appearance on screen. He’s played by Christian Camargo, who is probably most familiar to folks as Brian Moser, Dexter Morgan’s murderous brother who serves as the villain on the first season of Dexter. But Camargo’s made the rounds as various Gothic villains throughout his career: Henry Wotton in the 2007 adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray, the traitorous Professor Bowden in the 2018 adaptation of China Mieville’s The City and the City; he’s even previously played a vampire, Eleazar of the Denali Coven, in the final two Twilight films. But Camargo is at his best in Penny Dreadful, spending much of the season in the guise of Dr. Alexander Sweet, a mild-tempered naturalist and lecturer.  His scenes are nearly all shot against the maximalist splendor of the Natural History Museum of Ireland in Dublin, where Dracula/Sweet weaves between a panoply of bones and taxidermy, presenting himself as a grieving widower slowly coming around to the suit of tragic, cursed, series lead, Vanessa Ives (Eva Green).  PD’s take on Dracula has him as an immortal spirit, a twin to Satan who was granted dominion over the earth rather than ruling from Hell. As a result, the show dispenses with his Transylvanian origins and the specifics of his invasion of England, so Camargo puts on a British accent plays him as a desperate, dangerous gaslighter, letting his face range from bemused to sorrowful to filled with quiet rage, all with only the barest flicker of the corner of his mouth.  But it’s the genuine sweetness and sorrow underpinning his possessive fury that chills the deepest. Where Tom Doherty’s Dracula lies through his sharpened teeth to dupe his would-be bride, Camargo is bloodcurdlingly genuine in his affections. Even as he plots to isolate and shatter Vanessa, he purrs his loneliness and love. The show even turns Dracula’s command over nocturnal vermin into a facet of his abject sorrows. His final seduction of Vanessa ends with him saying “We’re the lonely night creatures, are we not? The bat, the fox, the spider, the rat.” Penny Dreadful’s Dracula is a distinctly human monster, persuasive in his half-truths, impossible to ignore, unconscionably cruel.  1. Gary Oldman, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) And we come to it. My choice is probably going to be divisive but, for my money, and throughout my many years of teaching Dracula (the novel) and vampire lit in general, Gary Oldman is the closest thing we’ve ever had to a perfect Count. It doesn’t hurt that (with a few key exceptions), Francis Ford Coppola’s campy, maximalist film hews closer to the plot of the original than nearly all film adaptations. It’s overstuffed with a glut of great character actors—Anthony Hopkins as van Helsing, Richard E. Grant as Dr. Seward, Carey Elwes as Holmwood, Billy Campbell as Morris, Monica Bellucci as one of the brides, and Tom Waits (!!!) as Renfield. Even the film’s lowlights—young and in-over-their-heads Keanu Reeves (as Jonathan Harker) and Winona Ryder (as Mina)—are charming, even as they can’t quite get a hang of the British accents they’ve been asked to master. The film’s one glaring drawback is a grossly misogynistic and deeply misinterpreted version of the novel’s best character, Lucy Westenra (though Sadie Frost does her best with a script that does her no favors).  In a post-Anne Rice world, Coppola’s Dracula wants to make the Count a midway point between the character of the original novel and the tortured, romantic vampire antihero that the New Orleans novelist popularized in her novels, beginning with Interview with the Vampire. The prologue establishes Oldman’s Count as one and the same with the historical Vlad Țepeș and uses the tragic death of the Voivode’s first wife as the reason for his turn to vampirism. It only really deviates from the plot of the novel to invent a tortured romance between Dracula and Mina, who is the reincarnation of his dead wife, here named Elisabeta (we don’t know who the historical Vlad’s first wife was, but some suspect it was Anastasia Holszanska of Poland).  The reason why Oldman is as the top of this list is his sheer capaciousness. There are Draculas who excel at being stern, or cruel, or tortured, or monstrous, or campy. Those are all valid and potentially delightful, but only Gary Oldman is all those things at once. And he performs the role with almost no tension between those wildly different modes. His accent is in the Lugosi vein—breathier and potentially sillier—but paired with a broad, toothy smile, and a narrowing of the eyes that turns him into something both disarming and dangerous. Reeves’ Harker begins his visit a bit charmed, a bit contemptuous of his aristocratic host; by the end, he is shrieking in terror, on the edge of madness. Oldman’s choices fully justify that arc.  Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the start of Gary Oldman‘s tradition of performing from beneath roughly 50 pounds of prosthetics—the sort of repeated stunt that might be accused of detracting from a truly great performance. Here, though, it helps bring Dracula in line with both his Hamilton Deane representation as suave, aristocratic foreigner and his original representation as monstrous, beast-like creature. He appears young and old, human and terrifyingly inhuman with Greg Cannom’s makeup still reading as grotesque and unsettling thirty years later. He is also draped in the designs of legendary costumer Eiko Ishioka, which lend him, among many other iconic looks, the appearance of a skinless armadillo, a Klimt painting, and the root cause of the steampunk scene’s obsession with tiny, tinted lenses.  Through all of his transformations, Oldman’s immortal Count feels remarkably consistent. His Dracula is mad with violent ambition, exhausted by centuries of sorrow, unhinged in a whirl of cruel delight, clear-eyed and earnest on an absinthe-curdled date with Mina. Coppola, when faced with any hard decision about his movie always picks both options and tops it off with a third choice that wasn’t previously listed. He has never been subtle and his films—from The Godfather, to Apocalypse Now, to Megalopolis, to Captain EO—are all exercises in excess. But that’s a good fit for Dracula and its Aesthetic movement-inspired opulence, its faded Carpathian royalty splendor. It’s also a great fit for Oldman, who is more than up to the task of embodying Dracula from every angle and bringing an already baroque film to absolutely luminous, overwhelming life.  But what do you think? Do you have a different pick for the top slot? Is there a Dracula performance you found particularly laudable that’s not mentioned here? Let me know in the comments below—I look forward to the discussion![end-mark] The post The Ten Best On-Screen Draculas appeared first on Reactor.
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14 Garage Makeover Ideas Worth Exploring This Spring
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14 Garage Makeover Ideas Worth Exploring This Spring

Add a little more form and function to your garage without breaking the bank with these garage makeover ideas. 14 Simple To Total Transformation Garage Makeover Ideas Sure, a garage's primary purpose is to house your car. Yet, it can serve many other functions – it can be used as a mudroom, a working space for building things, a storage space to keep seasonal decor and clothing, even a special space to practice a hobby like music or pottery. If you're one of those people who doesn't want their garage to just be a utilitarian space, then maybe these 14 garage makeover ideas will inspire you to add pizzazz to your garage.   Simple Makeovers 1. Dress Up Your Garage Doors | Garage doors give you a perfect space to flaunt your unique personality and style, especially if it is situated on the front of your house. One of the best ways to boost your garage area is by adding a DIY pergola that will showcase your green thumb. It's spring, so all the more perfect to house your beautiful climbing vines and blooms. I’m sure in no time your garage door area will be full of wonderful spring blooms that will be the envy of your neighborhood. 2. Marvelous Floors Acid stain, garage tiles, epoxy, –these are just a few options if you want to give your garage floor a marvelous look without losing an arm and leg. A bright bold paint color and a beautiful DIY rug provide simple yet interesting accents for garage floors. 3. Fabulous Walls | All you need to breathe some life to your garage is a fresh coat of paint. Choose a bold color that refreshes or bright hues that make you happy. Or if you want a bit of a country touch on your garage wall, you can opt to use pallets to cover the wall. Soon enough, your garage will no longer look like a parking space but a highlight of your home's aesthetic. 4. Functional Mudroom image via tailoredlivingknoxville Mudrooms are the one space of the house where you leave pretty much anything that you don't want inside the house. But it often requires a space of their own. A bench to sit on while taking off shoes, hooks, cubbies, cabinets and a painted door create that instant mudroom space and welcoming aura for your garage. 5. Bicycle Storage Rack image via bikeforums Looking for an easy way to keep your bicycles organized? This simple shelf, rod, or hook storage idea is a great solution to win back garage floor space, plus you can even store your bikes paired with its helmet. If you enjoy DIY-ing, you can simply build your own bicycle storage rack. 6. De-clutter Sporting Goods | If your kids love being active, more often than not you'll find their sports equipment all over your garage floor. Instead of storing them in huge bins (which eats up too much valuable space) you can opt for wall storage using a bungee cord. You'll need: nails, spare wood, and bungee cords. Install 3 pieces of wood (creating a “U” shape) from the top to bottom areas of the wall. Customize it to your desired storage height. Create a barrier to keep the sporting goods in place by hooking 4-5 bungee cords from the wooden ledges. The bungee cord's flexibility will provide easy access to your sporting goods. 7. Pegboard Garage Organization image via thecreativityexchange If you are an organization fanatic, you'll find all kinds of joy with your empty garage wall and lots of pegboards. A very simple storage idea – of hanging wire baskets to keep tools in place, and utilizing empty mason jars to hold little tools, provide a place for everything and keep everything organized. 8. Overhead Garage Storage System Take advantage of your garage ceiling space by installing overhead storage shelves. This space is perfect for storage totes, crates, or boxes of unused belongings, such as clothes and decorations.   Spruce up the homestead for #Spring2017 with these #HomeImprovement projects! https://t.co/TwKZ8lyzEG pic.twitter.com/4tSU0Spr57 — Homesteading (@HomesteadingUSA) March 13, 2017   Total Transformation 9. Garage Garden Oasis image via spoon-tamago As a homesteader, I love gardening, but sometimes space is an issue when it comes to growing plants. Did you ever think that instead of storing clutter, your garage could be transformed into a garden oasis to house both your car and plants? It may look a little overwhelming, but you have to admit it's a pretty inspiring and clever idea. 10. Family Room image via thehoneycombhome If you have the luxury of space, you can go ahead and transform your garage into an inviting family room. A cozy fireplace and a few comfortable touches will readily accommodate your need for a great family time. You probably won't remember what your old garage looked like! 11. Garage Workshop image via structuretech1 If your hobby or your husband’s hobby needs a workshop, the garage is one perfect place where you can create one. Choose a specific wall space where you store all your gardening gear. You can even add a DIY pallet workbench to make all the work easier. 12. Pop Up Shop image via whitelacecottage To a DIY lover, craft-aholic, an antique collector, or to a homesteader who wants to earn a little extra money by selling homemade products, a vacant garage is an ideal place to establish a shop for your fabulous creations, wonderful finds, and delicious homemade goodies. Your merchandise is all the decor you need, so it's just a matter of arranging it well. It's a sure winner because you're saving time, money, and energy by not transporting your stock, and you get to work from home. 13. Cheery Playroom | Kids are always hyper and active. They definitely need room to move around and use up all that energy! A garage turned into a cheery playroom become a happy and safe haven where they can exercise their imagination and practice their hobbies. 14. Kitchen/Living Area | Consider extending your dining or kitchen area out into the garage for added working space. Just think of all the extra room you'll have for canning, baking, and meal preparation! If you want to achieve a cohesive look, make sure the space has just one or two focal points. A successful homestead garage makeover is one that's seamless!   Want more garage makeover and organization tips? Check out this video from AtHomeWithNikki: A garage can definitely be transformed into a more functional and sophisticated space. Leave no wasted space with any of these ideas that can be had for cheap if you get creative with materials and labor! You'll soon be on your way to a more beautiful and functional garage. What do you think of these garage makeover ideas? Which one will you apply to your own garage? Let us know in the comments below. Want to know how spruce up your homestead? Take it easy with these 5 Ways to Spruce Up the Homestead. I'm sure after these your homestead will become the talk of the town! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter!    
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Hot Air Feed
Hot Air Feed
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Kamala's Closing Message to Black Men: Excuse Me, I Speak Jive
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Kamala's Closing Message to Black Men: Excuse Me, I Speak Jive

Kamala's Closing Message to Black Men: Excuse Me, I Speak Jive
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Science Explorer
Science Explorer
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California's First Carbon Capture Plant Gets Greenlit, Set To Absorb 46 Million Tonnes Of CO2
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California's First Carbon Capture Plant Gets Greenlit, Set To Absorb 46 Million Tonnes Of CO2

Although the project in Kern Country is facing some heated resistance.
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Strange & Paranormal Files
Strange & Paranormal Files
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Role of Government Gatekeepers in UAP and Non-Human Intelligence Disclosure
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anomalien.com

Role of Government Gatekeepers in UAP and Non-Human Intelligence Disclosure

On a spring morning in 2020 the U.S. Department of Defense had officially released footage of unidentified flying objects captured by Navy pilots. The videos, commonly known as “Gimbal,” “Go Fast,” and “FLIR1,” had leaked years prior, but the Pentagon’s decision to acknowledge them added legitimacy to claims of mysterious aerial phenomena. However, along with this admission came questions—why had these videos taken years to be declassified? And what other information might remain hidden from the public eye? This incident is just one of many in the murky world of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) and alleged Non-Human Intelligence (NHI) encounters, where government agencies hold significant control over information. Who are the gatekeepers deciding what the public gets to know, and what motives lie behind their decisions? The program officially closed in December 1969, just three months after the Berkshire incident, citing a lack of evidence to suggest that UFOs posed a threat to national security. Historical Context and Precedents The secrecy surrounding UAPs has a long, complex history. The earliest documented government investigation into UAPs was Project Blue Book, a series of studies conducted by the U.S. Air Force from 1952 to 1969. This program reviewed over 12,000 cases, of which more than 700 remained unexplained, but Project Blue Book concluded that UAPs posed no threat to national security, a conclusion critics believe was intended to quell public interest. This wasn’t the last attempt to investigate—and obscure—the UAP phenomenon. The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), launched in 2007 by the Pentagon, reportedly investigated UAP sightings for over a decade. However, details of its operations only emerged after its alleged closure in 2012, raising questions about the secrecy surrounding the program. If UAPs presented genuine national security concerns, why was AATIP shrouded in mystery? In 2017, former AATIP official Luis Elizondo came forward, claiming the government had purposely suppressed findings and that the program continued unofficially even after its supposed closure. Patterns in disclosure timing further deepen suspicions. In recent years, several declassified documents related to UAPs have come to light, yet they often emerge only after the public becomes aware of specific incidents or when whistleblowers go public. This delay has led to growing public skepticism and a sense that official narratives may only tell part of the story. “And so, if the Department of the Air Force, if the Pentagon thinks they’re above Congress, they have something else coming to them,” she said at the time. “We told them we were going to do this if they continue to hide information and ultimately, American people deserve the facts,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) Defining Gatekeepers In any governmental structure, information control is key to power. The concept of “gatekeepers” within UAP secrecy refers to the individuals, agencies, and sometimes private contractors that control access to classified information. These gatekeepers are often intelligence officials, high-ranking members within agencies such as the CIA, NSA, and Department of Defense, as well as influential defense contractors. Defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing have become significant players in UAP information control, primarily because they hold contracts for advanced research and technological development. With access to classified technology and direct government partnerships, these contractors may be privy to UAP-related information unavailable to most public officials. In many cases, they are bound by non-disclosure agreements, protected by compartmentalized classification protocols that keep critical details hidden from even other parts of the government. These gatekeepers, particularly within intelligence communities, play a substantial role in deciding what information becomes public. According to former government officials, these individuals’ allegiance is less to the public and more to national security priorities, as defined by their agencies’ internal objectives. Current Mechanisms of Information Control The U.S. government has well-established mechanisms for controlling sensitive information, particularly in relation to UAPs. Formal methods, such as classification systems and compartmentalization, serve as barriers to transparency. Classified UAP data is frequently tagged as “Top Secret” or “Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI),” which restricts access to only a select few, even within government ranks. Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) further reinforce secrecy. Former officials, such as those who participated in AATIP, are legally restricted from sharing information unless explicitly authorized. These mechanisms are often defended on the grounds of national security, with officials asserting that public disclosure of UAP-related technology could compromise intelligence efforts or military capabilities. Many former officials have publicly spoken out about these restrictions. Christopher Mellon, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, has criticized the Department of Defense for its handling of UAP information, arguing that these mechanisms prevent the public from accessing potentially vital information. Mellon and others argue that current methods, while protective, are overly restrictive, preventing researchers and even Congress from gaining full visibility into UAP data. David Grusch came forward with allegations the federal government knows about—and has in its possession—alien spacecraft. Over the past decade, whistleblowers have played a critical role in pulling back the curtain on government secrecy surrounding UAPs. Key individuals, such as Luis Elizondo and David Grusch, have come forward with claims of concealed information and direct government interference. In a high-profile interview, former intelligence officer David Grusch alleged that government entities have withheld information regarding “intact and partially intact” UAP materials. Grusch’s claims suggest that information on these phenomena is not just classified but actively suppressed, with a network of officials dedicated to preventing leaks. Grusch’s statements were not isolated; they align with similar testimonies from other former officials, hinting at a coordinated effort to keep UAP information under wraps. The reluctance to disclose information, according to these whistleblowers, often comes from both internal pressure and external influences. With evidence suggesting that government officials may intimidate whistleblowers, the climate for disclosure remains tense, with whistleblowers risking their careers and reputations. The Motivation Behind Secrecy There are various theories regarding why governments remain tight-lipped about UAPs and potential NHI interactions. One argument centers on national security. If UAPs represent advanced technology, whether foreign or non-human, governments may want to control information to avoid disclosing potential weaknesses. Another motivation could be technological advantage. If research into UAPs has led to breakthroughs in fields like propulsion or materials science, it would be strategically advantageous to keep these discoveries under wraps, preventing adversaries from accessing cutting-edge technology. Further, the defense industry’s ties to UAP secrecy cannot be ignored, as defense contractors have vested interests in maintaining exclusive control over emerging technologies. A third, less discussed motivation is social stability. The release of incontrovertible evidence of non-human intelligence could disrupt societal norms and provoke widespread panic. Such disclosure could destabilize religious, political, and economic systems, making gatekeepers hesitant to reveal findings that could upend society’s established order. In recent years, the U.S. government has taken modest steps toward UAP transparency. The UAP Disclosure Act and recent congressional hearings have signaled a potential shift in policy, with lawmakers pushing for greater openness on the issue. The act mandates that all UAP-related materials be centralized under a controlled system accessible to Congress, which could theoretically reduce the ability of gatekeepers to withhold information. However, political factors complicate this landscape. Lobbying from the defense industry, which profits from classified research and development, remains a barrier to transparency. As contractors hold powerful sway over both Congress and defense agencies, they can exert pressure to keep valuable information confidential. Additionally, the influence of national intelligence agencies, whose interests often align with continued secrecy, further hinders efforts for full disclosure. What Awaits Us Tomorrow? Amid this uncertainty, public interest in UAP disclosure has only grown. Notable researchers, including investigative journalist Leslie Kean and former military personnel with firsthand experiences, have called for greater transparency. Kean argues that the public has a right to know about any data regarding phenomena that could impact humanity’s understanding of itself and the universe. Public opinion polls reflect an evolving attitude, with a majority of Americans now favoring full disclosure of government-held UAP information. A Gallup poll from 2021 found that 64% of Americans believe the government is withholding important details about UAPs. The evidence is mounting that government gatekeepers play a crucial role in controlling information related to UAPs and potential non-human intelligence. It appears that a web of intelligence officials, defense contractors, and government agencies is dedicated to managing public knowledge of these phenomena. While the motivations behind this secrecy range from national security to technological competition, the result remains the same: a limited understanding of UAPs. As pressure for disclosure increase, it remains to be seen if these gatekeepers will maintain their grip on information or if the walls of secrecy will eventually break down. The post Role of Government Gatekeepers in UAP and Non-Human Intelligence Disclosure appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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