Missing the Pearl in the Oyster.

As previously noted, I’m finally getting around to reading Dracula. To be honest, I’m not finding it at all horrific so far. It’s no more horrific than the many film versions I’ve seen. To me, the vampire is the second least frightening monster after those daft zombies. The Count is portrayed as more Machiavelli than monster, his handmaidens come over as mere pouting, selfish girlies, and even the children of the night – the wolves – hardly inspire the terror they ought to.

And yet there is one episode in what I’ve read so far that is truly horrific, and it’s one I haven’t seen used in any of the films. Jonathan has gone exploring in the castle and has encountered the girlies. One of them (the blonde, for some reason that was probably highly significant to Victorians) has taken a shine to his neck and is about to take a bite, when the Count steps angrily in and prevents her. That much is commonly used, but what comes next isn’t. Dracula has been out and about, and has brought a little pressie back for the ladies. It’s a bag, and something is moving in the bag, and although Stoker (rather cleverly for once) doesn’t let the reader see what it is, Jonathan’s journal account leaves us in no doubt that it’s a live child. The girlies are duly delighted and take it away to meet whatever pleasure impulses are driving them. They are unspecified at that point, but one thing’s for sure: an innocent child has been taken from its home and is about to meet a singularly unpleasant end from which there is no escape.

This is chilling in the extreme. It echoes the feeding of live food to predatory pets, of tethering a goat to attract the tiger to the gun, of lowering a live cow into a pen to tempt the dinosaur in Jurassic Park. It’s all about being hopelessly trapped while awaiting a dreadful fate.

So why don’t any of the western scriptwriters pick it up? You tell me. Do they fear it would be going too far, or do they not understand the nature of the horror? Is it too subtle perhaps – not obvious enough, not enough noise, blood or snarling? I’m sure the Japanese would have understood, and I’m sure they would have had no qualms about using it. There’s an interesting parallel in the famous scene from The Audition in which the carpet bag suddenly moves and grunts. There’s obviously something in there, something hidden from the viewer, something awaiting its fate. Yet Stoker has written a piece of genuine psychological horror in his book, and Hollywood has consistently missed it. And so, as far as I recall, did Murnau in Nosferatu. I wonder why.

And I’m developing yet another theory as to what Dracula is all about. I’ll let you know if I still hold it when I finish the book.