Oscar Horrors: The Makeup of "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992)
Saturday, October 29, 2016 at 5:24PM Boo! It's "Oscar Horrors". Each evening we look back on a horror-connected nomination until Halloween. Here's Chris Feil on Bram Stoker's Dracula's makeup...
Bram Stoker's Dracula is as drenched in blood as it is in design excess. Nearly 25 years on, the film is surely one of Francis Ford Coppola's strangest in his filmography. Opulent while utilizing practical effects, the film is smartly-made eye candy that flashes both its brain and budget. Imagine a lavish and gruesome horror film for adults being dropped on today's audiences during the holiday/awards months - stranger yet, imagine it being a hit and nabbing some Oscars too, including for it's makeup design.
Part of the film's goal is establishing a vision somewhat closer to that gothic romance of Bram Stoker's original novel, including that of the titular monster...
The look of Gary Oldman's Dracula goes to delicious, terrifying extremes that are unique to previous iterations of the vampire while being connected through consistent characterizations.
When Dracula is first introduced, he arrives as the old man depicted in the novel. This is the first moment that the makeup design team (Greg Cannon, Michele Burke, and Matthew W. Mungle) gets to shake things up. The drama and detail in the character (that high wig, the knifelike nails) is its own imaginative creation at a time when the character was rigidly defined by either Bela Legosi gazes Nosferatu minimalism.
There's a symbiotic relationship between the makeup design and Eiko Ishioka's all-timer costume design that's as informative on character as it is just plain fun to watch. Even as Dracula is seen in his most human form, his hairstyling tells as much about the nobleman drag that Dracula is disguising himself within. The film may have won well before the category was Makeup AND Hairstyling, but it'd be negligent to not mention the impact of that part of the design.
Some of the flashier and more creature-based moments of the design reveal how cohesive each of the character's transformations are in comparison, such as when Dracula emerges as wolf or bat. The prosthesis is impressive and imposing (Oldman reportedly hated being in the bat costume) but also entirely believable as a different version of the same monster. And with the obvious many layers of makeup piled on here, we still don't lose the actor underneath.
Their Dracula is never pure monster, with the lines of his face allowing in as much sadness as terror. Gary Oldman is an actor we're accustomed to seeing in some kind of disguise, so he's perfectly suited to carry both the outlandish and the soulful pieces of Cannon, Burke, and Mungle's creations. The Oscars have often awarded both aging and monster makeup, and while it's intriguing how both are present here, I'd like to think what they were really awarding Bram Stoker's Dracula for was its successful creation of a cohesive character.
Season 3 Oscar Horrors is a Wrap
The Bad Seed - Supporting Actress
Dr Jekyll & Mr Mouse -Animated Short
Flatliners - Sound Editing
Fatal Attraction - Film Editing
Kwaidan - Foreign Film
Misery - Actress
Pan's Labyrinth - Production Design
The Sixth Sense - Picture
Sleepy Hollow - Production Design
Sweeney Todd - Best Actor
The Uninvited - Cinematography
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? - Cinematography
Reader Comments (6)
One of the best looking horror movies ever made
Agreed,I watch just to look at the costumes and hair,should they have awarded Oldman with a nomination.
Criminally underrated, this movie was thatrical in its purpose, and the better off for it: you can't tell the Greatest Love Of All Time without resorting to exaggeration and, think about it, Passion with capital P. And you can't get away with it with hollow woods like Ryder and Keanu and make it work, regardless. Credit to Coppola's vision and Gary Oldman's terrific performance.
Not only a Costume's Parade Show (Adventures of Priscilla often fall in that category, too, and it's so much more!) but a deeply understanding of Bram Stoker's original book. This is the real Dracula. The Book of Love. Ok, the custumes shine for you.They burn for all to see!
For it it is the Drum of Drums, it is the Song of Songs, indeed.
I'm loving this series. My favorite random Oscar horror nomination would be Poltergeists's for Best Score.
It is a grand vision indeed, with some of the greatest costumes and set pieces of all time. I'll agree with others that cite the casting of Ryder and Reeves as a problem (what a strange stretch he had from GFIII through the 90s), but Waits, Campbell, Elwes, Hopkins and Oldman - boy are these so right.
I was confused by all of the different Dracula “looks.” Whatever did they mean?