S4E52. 31 Days of Halloween - Day 1: DRACULA (1931) dir. Tod Browning

Merry October, you beautiful people! For a holiday as fun as Halloween, who has the right to limit the party to one day? No-fucking-body.

That's why on THE MOVIES, I'm celebrating for 31 straight days. This project allows me to further dig down the rabbit hole of my favorite genre, horror, discovering subterranean weird-ass, BARBARIAN-esque detours I've yet to witness. Hold my hand and don't let go. For this entire month, we're gonna get scary.

How better to start this bacchanalia of blood than with five days of the Universal Monsters? And how better to begin this run than with the eternally imitated progenitor, Count Dracula?

Tod Browning directed and Karl Freund directed the photography (and the whole movie, depending on who you ask) but for my money, this is Bela Lugosi's movie. He's hypnotic, alluring, even amiable at times but don't cross him. He'll just as soon eye you like a panther and in one move, strike. This performance is so iconic, even SESAME STREET had to ape it. Does an Academy Award even MATTER at that point?

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