Best Horror Movies

Jonathan Harker arrives at the castle of Count Dracula, posing as a librarian. He is startled inside the castle by a young woman begging for help, claiming to be a prisoner. The woman looks horrified at the sight of Dracula on the stairs and runs out. Dracula then greets Jonathan and guides him to his room, where he locks him in. Jonathan starts to write in his diary and his true intentions are revealed — he is here to kill Dracula.

The woman begs Jonathan to help the next evening and clutches at him. She leans against him as if crying but then tries to bite him. Dracula arrives and yanks her off and fights with her. Jonathan tries to protect her but is overpowered by Dracula and bitten. The pair depart and Jonathan is worried he might become a vampire. Jonathan descends to the coffin room, where he finds Dracula and the woman in their coffins for sunrise. Armed with a stake, he impales the woman first. When Jonathan turns to Dracula’s coffin, it is empty — and Dracula is waiting by the door for him.

Dr. Van Helsing then arrives looking for Jonathan. He is horrified when he discovers Jonathan lying in a coffin as a vampire. Staking his friend, he leaves to deliver the grim news in person to Jonathan’s fiancée Lucy, her brother Arthur Holmwood and his wife Mina.

Arthur is quick to dismiss Van Helsing, but soon seeks his aid when Lucy falls ill. Van Helsing suggests that Dracula wishes to replace the woman Jonathan took from him with Lucy. Lucy becomes a vampire and tries to lure a young niece to her but the girl is saved by Van Helsing and Arthur. Van Helsing suggests using Lucy as a means to find Dracula but Arthur refuses and so Van Helsing stakes Lucy in her coffin.

Van Helsing and Arthur try to track down the destination of Dracula’s coffin (which had left the castle just as Van Helsing was arriving there), resorting to bribery. Meanwhile, Mina is called away from home by a message telling her to meet Arthur at a certain address. The next morning, they find Mina in a strange state. Determined to find the coffin they plan to leave again but not before Arthur begs Mina to take a cross. Mina is very reluctant and when Arthur presses it into her hand she screams, jumps up and faints. A cross-shaped burn mark is found on her hand. Arthur and Van Helsing then leave for the location they found out (the very same address Mina was called to – not by Arthur but Dracula) but when they arrive there the coffin has vanished.

During the night, Van Helsing and Arthur guard both of Mina’s windows against a return of Dracula, but he visits and bites her nonetheless. A remark by the maid leads Van Helsing to the coffin’s location: the basement of the Holmwoods’ house. He places a cross inside it, while Dracula locks him in the basement and takes Mina with him. Arthur frees Dr. Van Helsing. A chase then begins as Dracula rushes to return home before sunrise. He attempts to bury Mina in the soil and finds Dr. Van Helsing and Arthur close behind and dashes into his home.

Inside Van Helsing and Dracula battle it out, with Dracula quickly gaining the upper hand. Van Helsing fakes a faint and escapes from Dracula’s clutches. He tears open the curtain to let in the sunlight and, forming a cross of candlesticks, he forces Dracula into it.

Dracula crumbles into dust, as Van Helsing watches in horror. Mina regains her humanity, the cross-shaped scar fading from her hand as Dracula turns to ash and leaves only a ring behind.