9 Dracula film adaptations

Back in 1921, when German director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau started shooting for "Nosferatu," there was no such thing as a "horror movie." Played by Max Schreck, the vampire Count Orlok was one of the scariest characters ever featured in a silent movie at the time. The gloomy, bald figure with bat-ears, thick eyebrows and long canines could have come directly from the depths of hell.

Actor Bela Lugosi was the first to portray Count Dracula on screen. The Hungarian-born actor impersonated the vampire from Transylvania more often than anyone else in different shows on Broadway. On February 4, 1931, director Tod Browning's film "Dracula" premiered in the US, with Lugosi as the cultured Transylvanian count who rolls his R's while speaking.

Hollywood actor Christopher Lee is another Dracula regular. Pictured above is a scene from a 1958 version of "Dracula," directed by Terence Fisher. Lee played the role of the blood-sucking monster at least 10 times in very different films, including the Hammer Horror series. This particular movie is very faithful to Bram Stoker's novel: The vampire dies when he is pierced with a cross.

Film director Werner Herzog paid tribute to Murnau's classic "Nosferatu" with a remake titled in German: "Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night." Starring in the role of Dracula, Klaus Kinski was visibly inspired by the expressions of Max Schreck, the original vampire in Murnau's film. In 1988, Kinski played the vampire again in the Italian horror flick "Nosferatu in Venice."

Count Dracula got a new lease of life with Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film featuring British actor Gary Oldman as the vampire and actress Winona Ryder as his muse, Mina. Anthony Hopkins (pictured above) played the role of Dr. van Helsing, who wants to kill the monster once and for all. The film is a great watch for costume fans.

American actor Mel Brooks played the role of the vampire in the movie "Dracula: Dead and Loving it," which he also directed. In the film, which is a spoof of Stoker's novel, Dracula isn't scary at all, but rather a clumsy womanizer.

Another homage to Murnau: This film by director Elias Mehrige is a fictionalized documentary about the making of "Nosferatu." Willem Dafoe plays the role of Max Schreck, who embodied the vampire in the original, while John Malkovich portrays the German director.

Director Patrick Lussier picked up the Dracula theme for his film "Wes Craven presents Dracula," placing the character in the city of New Orleans. Vampire hunter Dr. van Helsing tries, in vain, to remove Dracula (Gerard Butler) forever, but also injects the vampire's blood into his own veins. Lussier made two more films about the vampire.

The "Twilight" movies on the other hand are a completely different take on the Transylvanian vampire. Starring Robert Pattison as the vampire and Kristen Stewart as his love interest, films in the "Twilight" series are mostly about a young man who falls in love and the problems teenagers face — with a slightly bloody twist.