Since 1931 when Bela Lugosi first graced our screens in perpetual black and white glory, we've had the image of the three ghostly females slinking their way out of the darkness and into our collective minds. Referred to simply as The Brides, these characters have been more often overlooked in adapting Bram Stoker's Dracula from book to film.
When you mention the brides to most, only about three films come to mind. The 1931 version with Bela Lugosi, the 1992 version with Gary Oldman and the 2004 Van Helsing. The haunting black and white image from 1931 set the standard for what people would consider to be the sometimes all but forgotten female trio. Little more than background players in what would become iconic scenes, decked out in flimsy silk and chiffon nightgowns that dragged along the muddy floor as they walked nearly zombie like towards their victim. Oddly enough, that stark image of cold hungry pursuit would become the uniform for many of Dracula's female victims in hundreds of movies to come.
It wouldn't be until 1992 when Keanu Reeves's character of Johnathan Harker is seduced into fear by the scantily clad trio, that some real personality would be written for them. Each dressed in headdresses and dripping with jewels indicating time periods and locations they might be from when they were turned. Just the tiniest of glimpses into back stories that were hinted at but never told. There's a sense of real danger for the first time with these three brides. They arrive with a purpose and the attitude to back that up. One of the brides is even seen with snakes entangled within her hair, suggesting she has the powers of either illusion or can control animals or possibly both.
But, it would be another ten years before the trio would be expanded on again within the confines of Van Helsing and Wes Craven's Dracula 2000. Wes Craven's Dracula tried to make the brides relevant in it's own way, and very nearly succeeded.
The brides in Van Helsing became frightening half bat creatures with one purpose, to procreate. They were mothers who grieved for the loss of their stillborn children; but were still mindless in their hunger for blood. They struck the perfect balance between demonic warrior and parental protectors. This movie stands out in a lot of people's minds as being one of the first movies to not just give the brides something to do, but to give them names; where as many of the movies over the decades didn't bother to do that. This gives the three female vampires some restored humanity. Returning now to the three brides in Wes Craven's Dracula 2000; we see characters who at each act of the film represent the opening chapter of that act. Each with their own conflicts and independence before having been turned, their struggles as women in their chosen fields and how the men around them treated them before Dracula turns them. We have Solina the thief who coyotes Dracula to New Orleans, Valerie Sharpe the news reporter that introduces him to how the world has changed, and Lucy Westerman the boy obsessed roommate of the woman he's searching for. I always found this last choice of Lucy working at Virgin Records an ironic twist. As she's the virginal best friend/sister in the novel that invites him in.
Why do I feel these are characters that are overlooked more often than not? They just are. Unless turning one of the victims into a bride is used as a plot device to bait the movie's hero/hunter, they are either background noise or left out of the film all together. These three characters are very important in the novel, more so than even the more famous Renfield. And mirrored in the fact Lucy has three suitors of her own. Seward, Holmwood and Morris are the male versions to the three brides. Where the brides are the savaged focal point in the first half of the novel, the three suitors are the balance you find in the end of the novel. Each serving their purpose as the protectors of the novel's counterpoint. Both represent the levels and lengths someone will go to in the name of devotion. Blood is the bonded representation of marriage for both sets of trios; the three female brides of Dracula and the three male counterparts for Lucy. We can only assume that the women were seduced or taken in a brutal fashion by Dracula at different points in their backstory, while the men reluctantly give their transfusions. As far as the three men are concerned, you could almost say in an attempt of one upping each other in order to prove themselves worthy of her attention. After the final death of Lucy the men turn their affections then to Mina. These three "male brides" need to have a focal point for their devotion.
In the case of the 1992 film adaptation, the three brides are shown to have the same abilities to influence Mina as Dracula does. Once again, breaking the mold that had been expressed throughout most of the previous versions. For what seems like the first time, we see some real equality given. It's not hard to decipher that each film adaptation mirrored the era it was created in. As attitudes change, so does the evolution of these characters. From silent devotees to seductress, to mothers to career women; each version of the trio has reflected the way women have been regarded in their respected timeline.
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