Halloween is here, so how about we take a quick dive into a very underrated moment in spooky movie and music history? Unless you’re a pretty serious punk rock fan or a scholarly devotee of Bram Stoker’s horror novel Dracula, you might not know this fun little fact about a moment that occurs in the 1992 film adaptation, Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
If you don’t remember this particular creepy (and very aesthetically pleasing) film, it’s a pretty faithful adaptation of the horror novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, written in 1897. This Francis Ford Coppola work has quite the cast, namely Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and other big names in early 1990s Hollywood.
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If you have seen this Halloween classic, you might remember a particular part early on in the film where Dracula himself (Oldman) lets out an enormous wail in a fit of passion and pain. And according to a recent episode of the What Went Wrong Podcast, that infamous wail doesn’t come from Gary Oldman at all. Rather, it comes from a legend in punk rock music that wouldn’t seem out of place in a horror film.
No, That’s Not Gary Oldman You’re Hearing During That Hollar in ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’
At the very beginning of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Vlad Dracula returns to his castle after a war in the 1400s to discover his beloved, Elisabeta, has died. It’s a vital part of the movie, and the moment in which the titular character denounces God and becomes the monstrous and vampiric Dracula.
During that opening scene, Gary Oldman had to let out a passionate howl, but he couldn’t quite nail the soundbite. That’s when Sophia Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter and fellow filmmaker, decided to step in.
The junior Coppola was apparently a big fan of the psychobilly punk rock outfit The Cramps. She suggested seeking out the help of the band’s legendary frontman, Lux Interior. With pretty noteworthy pipes that any fan of the band would recognize, he seemed like the perfect person to provide that rage-filled scream that would kick off one of the most famous adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Francis Ford Coppola only had some simple instructions to follow: “Just remember, you’re back from the war, you’re horrified, but you still have feelings of romance. And you also have a feeling of despair. And the scream should last about one second.”
You just have to hear the results for yourself. I’d say this scream was perfect, wouldn’t you? I can’t unhear the singer behind “Bikini Girls With Machine Guns” when I watch this film now, though.
Photo by David Corio/Redferns