The first part of Dracula is absolutely amazing. I read the book when I was a college film student, and I used to think about how I would film the book, and mainly I thought about those two chapters. I know just how I would film the first chapter with Dracula. I know how I would film the chapter in which the woman keeps mysteriously losing blood (modernized, so it could happen in a hospital, a striking contrast to the first scene in the crumbling castle.

As for the rest of the book, I figured I'd hire a writer to come up with something, because outside of the wonderful scenes with Renfield, there is nothing in the rest of the book worth filming, or reading.

Stoker created a great villain in Dracula, but after that first chapter he seems to have lost interest in him; Dracula is spoken of more than seen for the rest of the book. Instead, the story is given over to a bunch of stiffs, pasty Christians whose deaths are no sadder than the melting of a mannequin.