From Count Dracula to El Conde: A Brief History of the Vampire Cinema of Latin America
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Authors
Gornicki, Owen
Issue Date
2025-04-03
Type
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
Description
In 1931, the feature film Dracula (dir. Tod Browning) released to mass critical and box office
success, forever cementing the eponymous vampire as a fixture of horror cinema and pop
culture. However, often overlooked in discussions of Dracula’s impact is a lesser-known film
sharing the same name and year of release–Dracula (dir. George Melford), is the
Spanish-language counterpart to the English-language feature, produced by Universal Pictures
using the same sets and equipment and a largely-identical script, but featuring a cast of
Spanish-speaking actors in an effort to connect with a Spanish-speaking audience. The Spanish
Dracula would go on to become just as iconic and influential within its linguistic territory as the
English version, laying the foundation for a rich Latin American vampire horror cinema that often
escapes the attention of Anglophone cinephiles.
In this presentation I will examine this film tradition, from Dracula to films that it inspired
including El vampiro (1952, dir. Fernando Méndez), Cronos (1992, dir. Guillermo del Toro), and
El conde (2022, dir. Pablo LarraÃn), in order to show how Latin American filmmakers adopted
and adapted conventions of the English-language vampire horror film genre to create a uniquely
Latin American cinema shaped by the the particular cultural forces at play in this region,
particularly by transforming the vampire into a symbol for the very real monsters of politics and
the colonial past. I will turn to close-reading of filmic elements and a review of the relevant
literature to support these points and further illustrate how these films (re)make genre and
identity.