My Favourite Horror Romance

I'm not a huge fan of romance novels (well, perhaps that's unfair because I've never read a single one) but I am a huge fan of love. No other emotion can bring me to tears quicker, which is why I'm thankful that at least they're happy tears. Since Valentine's Day is approaching, I thought I'd use this month to discuss my favourite horror romance.

It's not Buffy and Angel, or Buffy and Spike. Or Sookie and Bill, or Sookie and Eric. Or Elena and Stefan.... or Elena and Damon.... wait a minute, it's almost like there's a pattern here. I'm sure these romances have their merits, but none in my opinion, measure up to the epic love story depicted in Bram Stoker's Dracula (which is, ironically, not much like Bram Stoker's novel at all). Yes, I'm talking about the one from 1992, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring the legend that is Gary Oldman.

I normally grumble endlessly about movie adaptations of books I hold dear, and I'm a huge Dracula fan. However, I think that great decisions were made by screenwriter James V. Hart when he adapted the novel for the screen. While one of the best aspects of the book (for me) is that Dracula is just a monster stalking prey, I'm glad that he was humanised for the movie and given a back story. This is unusual for me because I normally hate it when someone takes a perfectly good book monster and twists them into a person, but it really works in this instance.

We've had so many Dracula movies over the years, most of which depict him as the soulless monster he is, as penned by Stoker, but what Coppola and co did was to transform and transcend the source material - that whole movie to me is a beautiful, breathing piece of art. Who needs ANOTHER film version of a story we've seen a thousand times already?

It retains the horror of the book because we still fear for the characters. They are just as terrified and distraught in the movie as they are in the book. Mina's role is elevated in the movie because being inexplicably in love with Dracula without knowing why adds layers to her character. Dracula is still a violent, terrifying monster and his new depth in this movie serves to emphasis that fact, rather than detract from it.

He loves Mina more than anything in the world - it's a deep love for which he risked his life, only to end up pledging his allegiance to darkness out of enraged grief. A love so deep that he turns himself into a monster over it. It spans oceans of time, it is unrelenting. And yet, he still stalks and terrorises Mina's friends. He still kills them. He's in a city with thousands of other food options, and yet he still consumes those dearest to her.

He seeks to isolate her, to alienate everyone around her besides himself, to sever her from her world and draw her into his. She begs to be a vampire with him, but he witholds, claiming he loves her too much to damn her. But eventually he does try.

To be clear - I'm not romanticising this love story. I don't adore this movie and this couple because I think their love is good and pure, and I did not want to see them together at the end. He is ageless, powerful beyond the scope of regular power, lethal and clever, and selfish. He demonstrates over and over how he can take from Mina until she has no choice but to try to separate from everyone else in order to protect them. She loves him and this clouds everything she once was. He loves her but instead of doing what's right, he manipulates and coerces and love bombs. He is an absolute pillar of the worst kind of romantic partner, the epitome of abuse.

And THAT is why I enjoy watching this unfold. It's because Coppola and co presented us with a "love" story that appears to be perhaps the greatest, deepest, and most sincere romance of all time, but it's actually a horrifying depiction of one of the most potentially-lethal abusive relationships in film history. I spend the whole run-time of this movie rubbing my hands together with glee at the prospect of this piece of shit's demise. I love that Harker and the gang never give up trying to save Mina and pull her back to normality, to break the spell cast over her. I love that despite being her husband, Harker STILL recognises that Mina is the victim in this twisted fairytale, manipulated beyond recognition, and needs help.

They never blame her, they just follow her to the end of the Earth in a bid to take down that murderous, toothy twat. In many ways, this movie and its message that the abuser will eventually reach his well-deserved end, is ahead of its time. I don't know if this is the message Coppola was trying to send, but that's how I interpret it.

I don't take nihilistic, voyeuristic pleasure in watching someone's mind get utterly twisted, their heart smashed to smithereens. I love this relationship only because Dracula is a horror movie. It's horror, folks. And this relationship is horror incarnate. It's one of the first movie romances I can remember watching in which the dickhead is quite literally presented as the blood-sucking monster that he is. I love it because he doesn't get her in the end, because we get to see her freed of him. I love it because the people who ACTUALLY love her do everything in their power to help her. I love it because it's as good a social commentary on toxic relationships as I've ever seen, but displayed with breathtaking sets and a score that mesmerises - everything about this movie folds you into the romance in a way that distracts you from the fact this it is not really, in the slightest, romantic. We start thinking like Mina, we cry at the end. We want her to bin off Jonathan and swan off into the darkness with her "real" love, because Dracula has convinced us too of his sincere, unyielding love for her. I love this because as filmmaking goes, I appreciate the audacity it takes to convince the whole audience that this is the love that dreams are made of. But it isn't. I can't think of any movie that so skillfully encourages you to empathise with the victim by actually rooting for this hideous "relationship" just like she does, despite it being the most lethal relationship imaginable. That's how manipulation works, you see. You don't even realise you're in the land of irrational thinking.

It is the kind of horror that chills me to the bone.

It is horror within horror within horror.

And also, it's got Keanu Reeves and his English accent, so there's that.