Nadja

Cast:  Elina Lowensohn, Peter Fonda, Karl Geary

Director:  Michael Almereyda

1994


Nadja came in the mid 90's, attempting to play off the success of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Interview With The Vampire but with a low budget, indie, arthouse feel.  It's producer was David Lynch, a well know name for mystery and suspense and his unusual surreal visions, hot off the success of Twin Peaks, the high point of his career.  Nadja is part a modernized version of Bram Stoker's Dracula and part the classic Dracula's Daughter.  The entire film was shot in black & white and some shorter sequences were shot by a toy camera from Fisher Price to give an even more pixelated look.  The film's only familiar face is Peter Fonda as the modern Van Helsing.

Story:  Dracula has just been killed by Van Helsing.  Now his daughter and her sickly twin brother set out for a new lease on life.

Gay Factor:  Lesbian vampires

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Cast:  Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Anthony Hopkins

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

1992




This was a hugely successful film in 1992, earning $215 Million worldwide and drawing on the growing goth fad.  Based on Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, first published in 1897 and adapted by filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.

Story:  In 1462, following a bloody battle against the Turks, Vlad returns to discover his love, Elisabeta, has committed suicide after a false report of his death.  In anger, Vlad renounces God and gives himself to the powers of darkness.

Centuries later, in 1897, a young clerk, Jonathan Harker, is sent to travel to Transylvania to close a property aquisition from the Count Dracula, who is purchasing 10 properties in London.  Dracula entraps Jonathan in his castle and then leaves to London to seduce Jonathan's fiance, Mina, whom he believes is the reincarnation of his lost love, Elisabeta.


Gay Factor:  Small bits of veiled homoeroticism (much more obvious in the book); 2 girls kissing twice in the film; In the 90's there were vast unconfirmed rumors of Keanu Reeves being bisexual.  Keanu Reeves starred in Gus Van Sant's gay film, My Own Private Idaho.