This version of Dracula is closely based on Bram Stoker's classic novel of the same name. A young lawyer (Jonathan Harker) is assigned to a gloomy village in the mists of eastern Europe. He is captured and imprisoned by the undead vampire Dracula, who travels to London, inspired by a photograph of Harker's betrothed, Mina Murray. In Britain, Dracula begins a reign of seduction and terror, draining the life from Mina's closest friend, Lucy Westenra. Lucy's friends gather together to try to drive Dracula away.

Winona Ryder saw the script when it was originally going to be made as a TV movie, directed by Michael Apted. She took the script to Francis Ford Coppola, whom she had not spoken to since withdrawing from The Godfather: Part III (1990) due to exhaustion six months earlier. Coppola agreed to make the film, and Apted stayed on as executive producer.

Renfield:
I'm no lunatic man. I'm a sane man fighting for his soul.

Continuity: When Mina is on the bed with Dracula, her hair moves from being all behind her shoulders to all in front between shots.

Written and Performed by Diamanda Galas (as Diamanda Galàs)
Courtesy of Mute Records Limited
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products