If a man is held captive by his mother in a creepy old castle, it’s for a very good reason. It’s because the man is a vampire!
It’s a valuable lesson learned by a young schoolteacher in the 1960 movie The Brides of Dracula from Hammer Film Productions.
The audience, in turn, learns some lessons about the role of women in helping a male vampire to survive.
Dr. Van Helsing goes to battle
The Brides of Dracula is the name Dracula author Bram Stoker gave to the three women who lived with the iconic vampire.
In this film, the brides are the women who teach and live at an all-girls' school that become vampires at the teeth of Baron Meister.
Dracula is no where to be seen – just Dr. Van Helsing, played by Peter Cushing, who arrives to battle the Baron and his teacher minions.
The Brides of Dracula stars Yvonne Monlaur as Marianne Danielle, the young schoolteacher who has arrived in a Transylvanian village in the mid-1800s for work at a local all-girls’ school.
After being stranded at a local pub, Marianne befriends Baroness Meinster, who invites the schoolteacher to spend the night in her castle. Danielle accepts.
During dinner, the Baroness reveals her son also lives in the castle, but he is insane and needs to be held captive. Later, Danielle frees the Baron Meinster, the Baroness’s son, from his imprisonment.
He confronts his mother, who shrinks away in terror as he beckons her forth. He forces her into another room.
The Baroness has reason to be frightened. The Baron, her son, is a vampire, and he soon transforms his mother into one as well.
Greta, the castle servant, forces Marianne to see the Baroness’s body and the puncture marks on her throat. Marianne flees, horrified, into the night.
Dr. Van Helsing happens across her, unconscious, and brings her to the girl’s school. She has no idea about the force she has unleashed onto the world by releasing the Baron.
Things hum along for a short time until teachers from the school start to go missing and eventually turn up dead with puncture marks on their throats.
The locals, and Dr. Van Helsing, know that the Baron is transforming the teachers into vampires, but Marianne needs a considerable amount of convincing.
In fact, she agreed to marry the Baron when he visited her one night at the school and proposed.
But after Marianne sees her teacher friend, Gina, in vampire form, she knows she needs to help capture the Baron, and joins forces with Van Helsing.
Exploring the idea of male vampires and women
The Brides of Dracula is a moody, effective period piece that delves into some interesting notions about male vampires and women.
The victims of Baron Meinster, both physically and psychologically, are women – his mother, Marianne, the schoolteachers. Van Helsing is the lone man to face the Baron’s rage, but only because the vampire hunter went searching for him.
The women, in turn, aid his vampirism. His mother held him captive for years, but supplied him with village women on whom to feed. Marianne, practically hypnotized by his pleas to be released, lets him go to wreak havoc on the world once again.
Other good movies from Hammer Film Productions:
Mandy Higgins - Mandy Higgins is a blogger and writer who lives in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. She has a Bachelor of Journalism (Honours) degree, and ...
