Dracula

The book presented new research on the production and reception of Hammer’s 1958 version of Dracula, as well as a detailed textual analysis of the film itself. The book challenged previous interpretations of Dracula, especially those that viewed it as a conservative text, and also related the film to both national and international contexts. The book was published as part of I. B. Tauris’s ‘British Film Guide’ series. It was the first book-length study of Hammer’s Dracula. The book’s concern with the relation between the British and international forms of the horror genre relates to research undertaken for an earlier chapter dealing with the Amicus company –‘The Amicus House of Horror’ in Steve Chibnall & Julian Petley, ed., British Horror Cinema (Routledge, 2001) – and another chapter dealing with the British fan response to the Italian horror director Dario Argento – ‘The Argento Effect’ in Julian Stringer et al, ed., Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste (Manchester University Press, 2003). Hutchings’ research on British horror has since been developed further in the journal article ‘Uncanny Landscapes in British Film and Television’, Visual Culture in Britain, volume 5, no. 2, 2004 and two book chapters, ‘American Vampires in Britain: Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend and Hammer’s The Night Creatures’ in Dan North, ed. Unfinished British Films (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008) and ‘Theatres of Blood: Shakespeare and Horror Cinema’ in Dale Townsend & John Drakakis, ed., Gothic Shakespeare (Routledge, 2008). Preparation of the book was supported by a period of study leave granted by Northumbria University.