Brides of Dracula
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For the 1960 Hammer film, see The Brides of Dracula
The Brides of Dracula are three seductive female vampires who make their first appearance in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. They live with Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania where he provides them with victims to feed upon, mainly infants and children.
Like Dracula, they are immortal shapeshifters repulsed by religious objects and vulnerable to the sun. In chapter three of the novel, two are described as dark haired and the other as blonde, though in some film adaptations one is red-headed, one is blonde, and one is brunette.
Jonathan Harker and Abraham Van Helsing are both attracted and repulsed by them. Harker yields to their seduction but is saved by Dracula and later manages to escape the castle. Van Helsing overcomes his initial attraction and kills the three vampires.
[edit] In film
Although missing from the silent film Nosferatu, the Brides made silent appearances in the 1931 film Dracula and the Spanish language Drácula. (The latter film, shot simultaneously on the same sets at night with a separate cast and crew, depicts the brides as more obviously sexual than in the more chaste English-language version.) Likewise the three brides were present but silent in the Jack Palance television adaptation. They had lines in the 1977 BBC production entitled Count Dracula.
Commonly all three brides appear, though some adaptations (such as the 1995 Dracula: Dead and Loving It) show less than three. They are usually depicted in flowing nightgowns, are extremely beautiful and act in a sexually aggressive manner. The blonde vampire is usually depicted as the "leader" of the three, as one of the brunettes describes in their encounter with Jonathon, "Yours is the right to begin," meaning that the blonde has first bite of any of their victims. The brides are powerful in their own right, but live in fear of Dracula, although the blonde vampire can be seen defying him when she demands to feed upon Jonathon.
In Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula, the brides (played by Monica Bellucci, Michaela Bercu and Florina Kendrick) converse with their master in Romanian and essentially rape Harker.
While the Brides usually remain nameless, they are called Marishka, Aleera, and Verona (played by actresses Josie Maran, Elena Anaya and Silvia Colloca, respectively) in the 2004 film Van Helsing. For the first time, the Brides are more than brief background, becoming important minions of Dracula and powerful combatants.
The concept was also present in the 1987 horror comedy The Monster Squad, where Dracula has abducted three teenage girls and turns them into his vampire brides. In Dracula 2000 the Brides are composed of Dracula's victims Solina, Valarie Sharpe, and Lucy Westerman. Each bride is destroyed in the end.
[edit] In literature
In the alternate history novel Anno Dracula, Dracula (instead of being killed by Van Helsing) becomes dominant in Britain and eventually weds Queen Victoria, becoming Prince Consort and Lord Protector. Despite being married to Victoria he keeps his retinue of brides, who despise the now-powerless and chained Victoria. It is mentioned that one of the brides is Barbara of Celje.
In the first sequel, The Bloody Red Baron, the Brides of Dracula are mentioned as including Mata Hari, Lady Marikova (from the novel The House of Dracula by Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes), Lola-Lola (from the film The Blue Angel), Sadie Thompson, Lemora, and the Baron Meinster (from the film The Brides of Dracula).
In the beginning of the second sequel, Judgment of Tears, a list of Dracula's official brides are given. They are: Elisabeta of Transylvania (from Bram Stoker's Dracula), 1448-1462; Ilona Szilagy (Vlad III's real-life second wife), 1466-1476; Marguerite Chopin of Courtempierre (from Vampyr), 1709-1711; Queen Victoria, 1886-1888; and Sari Gábor, 1948-1949. The plot surrounds Dracula's engagement to Princess Asa Vajda (from Black Sunday).
