Bram Stoker's Dracula

Thursday 10th September at 9pm

You've got to hand it to Gary Oldman. Dracula was hardly the freshest of screen characters when he took on the role, but he managed to breathe new life (or should that be unlife?) into the old bloodsucker. In fact we get two Draculas for the price of one here: a hideously wizened old castle dweller and later, rejuvenated by blood, a decadent Victorian goth with flowing ebony locks and a way with the ladies.

Right from the first scene, we know this is no ordinary vampire tale. Deliberately going against the old Bela Lugosi and Hammer horror versions, director Francis Ford Coppola gives us a film so lavish and gorgeously sinister, it's like entering a cathedral filled with huge oil paintings. At night. Whilst being stalked by the undead.

Whilst going back to Bram Stoker's original plot, Coppola also adds a tragic love story to the heady mix – this Dracula isn't just a cursed creature of the night - he's also a romantic figure brooding over a lost love.

And then there's Anthony Hopkins as the heroic Dr Van Helsing, portrayed here as almost as strange and unpredictable as Dracula himself. As if the incredible visuals, rampant bloodletting and heated eroticism wasn't enough, there's also some (unintentional) comedy in the form of Keanu Reeves's English accent. But that's forgivable when you consider the cast also includes Richard E Grant and Tom Waits.

Endlessly imaginative, with staggering special effects and a ravishing soundtrack, nightmares don't come much more compelling than this.