Death Battle Analysis: Dracula (Film)

Happy Halloween Everybody! It’s my Favorite Time of the Year Again, a time of festival, tricks, treats, fun, and Scaring the Ever Living Daylight out of one another. And in celebration of all things horror and in the Spirit of this Season, I’m blogging on a character who is arguably the most iconic monster in the past hundred years, Count Dracula. Since the original book version has already been covered extensively on Imp’s page, I decided to just have fun with it and bring us how powerful ol’ Drac is in the medium where he really shines, Film. Now Dracula has appeared in hundreds of films, ranging from as classic as Bela Lugosi, to the 1980’s porno film, ‘Gayracula’, which is a thing, apparently, so I had to make a few rules in what qualifies cause...I ain’t watching that.

• Includes only films that were theatrically released in America
• Films must not stray too far from the source material
• Drac has his VS information separated by continuity in the sections however for the summary section on it is all composited together
• Universal Canon = Dracula (1931), Dracula The Spanish Version, Dracula’s Daughter, Son Of Dracula, House Of Frankenstein, House Of Dracula, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Dracula (1979)
• Hammer Canon = Horror Of Dracula, The Brides of Dracula, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Scars of Dracula, Dracula AD 1972, The Satanic Rites of Dracula.

Background

He goes by many names, The Prince Of Darkness, Son of the Dragon, King of The Vampires, Evil Incarnate, and The Devil’s Kin. Count Dracula is a mysterious and terrifying being, infamous as one of the most famous villains in all of media, and as such he has been portrayed hundreds of times with various different backgrounds. What is always consistent is that he is an evil, unholy bane on humanity who will stop at nothing in his quest for human blood.

According to the Universal, Hammer, & Monster Squad Canons, Dracula hails from the realm of Limbo, a place without want or longing, where life and death are one and the same. However one of these being came to be with something the others did not know, desire. This led Dracula to escape this plain as he entered ours as the original vampire. Dracula first arrived on Earth in the early fourteen-hundreds in the Romanian state of Transylvania. Over the course of the next 5 centuries he became a Count of the land and established a home in a decrypted castle off of Borgo Pass. Having fed off the blood of the living Romanian and Hungarian people for all this time, Count Dracula became infamously feared as a Nosferatu to the locals but Dracula had also felt the life's blood of these people grow stale. It was on Walpurgis night, the night of evil, where Dracula departed to London, in search of a new fresh source of blood. Dracula has many wives, as well as cover names such as Count Alucard, Baron Latos and Prince Vlad. He has killed millions of victims and commanded entire nations, he even at some point gained control over Frankenstein himself.

On the other hand, Bram Stoker’s Dracula & Untold Canon tell the tale of how Dracula was once the real life human known famously as Vlad The Impaler. In 1462, Vlad was a Romanian’s Knight of the Order of the Dragon, known as he who pushed back the invasion of the Ottoman Empire against overwhelming odds, due in part to impaling his victims on giant wooden shafts to psychologically terrify the enemy. Vlad was too powerful for the Turks to deal with, so they resorted to dirty tactics. They launched a arrow into his castle carrying a false message claiming Vlad had died at their hands. In response, Vlad's bride, Elizabeth, committed suicide. This caused the Christian Vlad to renounced his faith and consume blood, transforming him into the first vampire, and he took the name Dracula.

Personality

“The strength of the vampire lies in the fact that he is unbelievable”

On the outside Dracula always appears as a well read, highly cultured, eccentric nobleman. He is a gracious host who often acts very mysterious and never drinks...wine. This often has people either fascinated or bothered by him both of which he will use to his advantage. When opposed in his objective, Dracula becomes extremely malevolent, violent and vengeful, killing all who stand in his way with little restraint, believing humans and other vampires to be beneath him. That is except for his beloved original wife Emily or her reincarnation Mina, both of which he longs for more than any blood.

“To die, truely die, that must be glorious, There are far worse things awaiting man than death”

-- Count Dracula

Intelligence

“Listen to them, the children of the night, what music they make”

Dracula has lived for over five centuries and has used that time well, he is an extremely intelligent monster in all forms. He will often spy on his enemies using his own powers to gain intel and set traps. He is a great and experienced battlefield tactician, who is clearly well read in many intellectual topics and knows enough about science to legitimately revive the Frankenstein Monster. Infact the highest compliment he can give to others is saying they are very wise, for one who has yet to live a single lifetime.

Powers

Universal Canon

As the most powerful vampire to exist, Dracula has an incredibly diverse and useful set of powers and hax to assist him in his evil goals of feeding on the living.

• Shapeshifting:

Dracula is famously able to transform his body into a variety of different forms including a Bat, which allows him to fly through the air, or a Wolf that increases his stats and adds claws and more dangerous teeth.

He can also turn his entire body into Smoke, which grants him flight, access to all not airtight spaces and logia, the ability to not take damage from normal physical hits due to having no definite shape.

• Intangibility:

Dracula’s best defense, his intangibility activates automatically to defend from all manner of attacks, the only normal things that he can’t phase through are crosses, holy water, wooden stakes, wolfsbane and other noted vampire weaknesses, everything else passes through him harmlessly.

• Hypnosis:

Clearly Dracula’s favorite power, he is able to hypnotize virtually anyone he comes across by merely gazing at them. Once they are under his power, Dracula can force them to do unspeakable acts in his name, or have them willingly allow him to drain their blood or otherwise kill them, he can even make them seem to want to do it. This power also lets him induce unconscious, insanity, nightmares and hallucinations upon people. Furthermore, Dracula has Telepathy, the ability to communicate with people using only his mind.

• Telekinesis:

Dracula can telekinetically lift, throw and manipulate objects using only his mind.

• Pyrokinesis:

Dracula can summon fire at will on to objects and control how the blaze spreads.

• Invisibility:

Dracula can turn completely invisible at will.

• Super Stamina:

Dracula has largely superhuman stamina, having flown great distances and fought for very long periods of time without ever showing signs of fatigue.

• Blood Draining:

Drains blood from a victim's throat through his fangs, drinking blood brings him back to full physical condition. Drac can also inject some of his own blood into a victim through this same method, this generally will cause them to die and then turn into a vampire themself and be totally subservient to him.

He can even somehow continue to control their mind even after Dracula himself has been destroyed, to the point of possessing their body instead.

• Regeneration:

Dracula can instantaneously heal from wounds that would result in large scars, and his regeneration factor goes far beyond that. Once after dying from a wooden stake through the heart, and decomposing into a skeleton, he regrew his entire body mass and returned to life in seconds of the stake being taken from his rib cage. Making Dracula’s regen High-Mid so long as it isn't being nullified by one of his weaknesses.

• Wallcrawling:

Can climb on walls and ceilings like Spider-Man

• Mind Trapping:

Possesses a ring that displays glimpses into the realm of limbo, the ring can lock itself onto a wearer and and trap them in a hypnotic state

Hammer Canon

Hammer showcases several powers both new and familiar.

• Fear Aura:

Dracula has the ability to cast fear upon anyone he comes across, in most cases crippling them from doing anything to stop him out of sheer terror. This ability is so potent that the mere shadow of his castle prevented a whole village from attending church or going out at night for 10 years, despite Dracula being dead that whole time and the village knowing it. This only ceased when a Bishop performed an exorcism on the castle.

• Added Regeneration:

Can Regenerate from nothing more than a pile of ash when exposed to blood, meaning with the addition of Blood Dracula’s regen is Mid-High.

• Power Over Animals:

Drac can control all kinds of different animals, though his favorite is breed of very large, demonic looking Bat Creatures. These creatures can generate blood from their mouths and can and will use this to resurrect Dracula if need be. Dracula can see and hear through the Bats, acting like a constant surveillance system over a forest wide area. Dracula also likes to have these creatures attack foes independently, just four of these creatures slaughtered an entire church full of women without a single survivor, and any blood they drink goes directly to him.

• Blood Draining
• Hypnosis
• Mid Regeneration
• Telekinesis
• Shapeshifting
• Pyrokinesis
• Wallcrawling

Monster Squad

• Magical Blasts:

Can blast beams of energy from his hands.

• Teleportation:

He can teleport at will.

• Added Intangibility:

Can now make other people and objects intangible by maintaining contact with them.

• Shapeshifting
• Wallcrawling
• Blood Draining
• Pyrokinesis
• Levitation
• Mid Regeneration
• Intangibility

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

• Added Shapeshifting:

He now additionally has forms with elasticity, large monstrous wolf or bat like creatures, fog, and even a swarm of rats, which separates out his consciousness into dozens of different  bodies, he only needs one rat alive to turn back.

• Umbrakinesis:

Dracula can manipulate his shadow, it can affect the physical plane but doesn’t seem to be affected BY it.

• Extreme Melee Combat Skills:

Even when he was human he casually defeated hundreds of soldiers on his own simultaneously.

• Hemokinesis:

Can control and manipulate his own blood as a weapon.

• Massive Fog Creation:

Can create massive amounts of fog, so much it can make a ship chasing his own, become lost for days.

• Added Hypnosis:

Can now additionally erase memories and read people's minds from a distance.

• X-Ray Vision:

Can See a person's circulatory system.

• Death Hax:

Can cause plants and animals to die from his mere presence.

• Super Senses:

The senses of animals like wolves and bats.

• Sunlight Resistance:

Can resist the sunlight though he is much weaker when exposed.

• Strom Creation:

Can create massive storms over a large area able to capsize large ships and casually move clouds to block out the sun.

• Pyrokinesis
• Telekinesis
• Levitation
• Intangibility
• Teleportation
• Wallcrawling
• Power Over Animals
• Invisibility

Dead And Loving It

• Umbrakinesis
• Intangibility
• Hypnosis
• Can turn into a bat
• Levitation
• Blood Draining
• Telekinesis
• Wallcrawling

Untold

• Added Shapeshifting:

Can Turn into an entire swarm of bats

• Added Super Senses:

Can now hear spiders from far away, see animal's circulatory systems, gaze through fog and spot distant stars.

• Mid Regeneration
• Power over animals
• Storm Creation
• Blood Draining
• Extreme Melee Combat Skills
• Teleportation

Feats

Universal Canon

• Fought totally on par with the Wolfman for a long period of time. The Wolfman is significantly faster and more agile than Frankenstein, in addition to being strong enough to damage him, as evident by their famous battle in Frankenstein meets the Wolfman.

For the record, Frankenstein is durable enough to tank a large Building busting

explosion and fast enough to both time and move in tandem with lightning from the

sky. This makes Dracula a building level character with speeds in the Mach 200 range.

• Flew at the speed of a galloping horse
• Completely unaffected by standing on a ship which was nearly capsizing
• Murdered an entire ships crew
• Bent iron bars like they were cheese
• Lifted Frankenstein’s monster
• Broke through wood and tore a man's throat out
• At one point killed Van Hellsing

Hammer Canon

• Can easily defeat other Vampires
• Snapped a sword in 2 with his bare hands
• Opened, climbed out of and comley stood next to his coffin before the lid hit the ground or a nearby human could react
• He was erased from existence, still came back
• Managed to endure a wooden cross through the heart

Monster Squad

• Can fly at the same speed as jet aircraft
• Tanked the explosion of 3 sticks of dynamite
• Tore off a car door with his bare hand
• Defeated an entire squad of Police

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

• Created a massive hurricane like storm
• Shattered a wooden crate while weakened from sunlight

• In Wolf Form could run at speeds too fast for human eyesight
• Is said to have the strength of 20 men
• Moved clouds at MHS speed to block out the sun

Dead And Loving It

• No-Sold falling down the stairs
• Killed a whole ships crew
• Bent metal bars like they were cheese

Untold

• Created massive impacts that threw a whole army to the ground
• Is said to have the strength of 100 men and the speed of a falling star
• Casually Defeated 1000 soldiers in a couple minutes
• Made Massive storms
• Moved clouds to block the sun

Weaknesses

For all Dracula’s great feats and powers, he has a TON of weaknesses as well. As everyone knows, the sun is a vampires mortal enemy, in every canon, Dracula is at least highly weakened from exposure to sunlight. In canons like Universal & Hammer, even a small amount of sunlight is enough to not only kill him, but reduce him to a skeleton or in some cases just ash. In every canon, Dracula can also be killed by having a Wooden stake driven through his heart, though sometimes the addition of prayer or decapitation is needed. There are also several things that can weaken a vampire, Holy items such as Crosses and Holy Water, as well as natural deterrents like Garlic and Wolfsbane keep him at bay, contact with these items will burn him like a powerful acid. Dracula’s intangibility to everything includes natural light, which means he won’t show up in mirrors and photographs, and his hypnosis can be overcome by a strong enough will like that of Wolfman.

Then there's the notoriously easy to kill, Hammer Canon Dracula, who in addition to everything above, can’t enter a place uninvited and can also be killed by Fire, Silver a Hawthorn Tree and Running water. I’m also pretty sure you can just make up a weakness, and it would still work on Hammer Drac.

Summary

Advantages

• Large Building level Strength and Durability
• Island Level DC (via Weather manipulation and what not)
• Mach 200+ Speeds
• High Combat Skill
• 500+ Years of Experience
• Super Senses
• High Stamina
• Flight
• Mind Hax
• Fear Hax
• Death Hax
• Intangibility
• High-Mid to Low-High Regen
• Shapeshifting
• Logia
• Can Control and create assistants
• Can divide or swap his conscious to save himself from something fatal
• Invisibility
• Tele, Pyro, Umbra & Hemokinesis
• Teleportation
• Magic Blasts
• Weather Control
• Still Gets Girls with THIS hair

Disadvantages

• Sunlight and Wooden Stakes can kill him nullifying his powers
• Holy Objects, Garlic and Wolfsbane can harm him, also nullifying his powers
• Grown accustomed to relying on Hax
• A strong enough will can resist Mind, Fear or even Death Hax
• Weakened in daylight
• Doesn’t know what happened to his Transylvania Twist

Recommended Opponents

Blade (Marvel)

Blade can compete with Dracula’s stats and has been dealing with similar hax and powers to Drac for an incredibly long time. In addition he can heal from injuries and can resistant the influence of vampires. Unfortunately the Marvel Dracula is out of his league but the film version is a very fair fight. Plus the thematics are great, the world's most famous vampire vs the world’s most famous dhampir. A dark battle of Evil Vs Good.

Next Time