Dracula's brides

Dracula's brides, or the "Brides of Dracula", is the name attributed to any number of different characters, all of whom have a marital association to some degree with the infamous literary figure Dracula. Three such unnamed women were first referenced in the 1897 novel Dracula by author Bram Stoker.

In film, the Brides of Dracula first appeared in the 1931 movie adaptation, Dracula, directed by Tod Browning. These three vamps were seen inside of Castle Dracula in Transylvania in the first act of the film. They were portrayed by actresses Geraldine Dvorak, Cornelia Thaw, and Dorothy Tree. They were the undead wives of the vampire known as Dracula.

In the movie, the Brides of Dracula emerged from the coffins after the sun had set. Taking note of Dracula's guest, a solicitor from London named Renfield, they flew about one of the open windows of the castle as bats, and then assumed human form, whereupon they began creeping up on him with the intent of drinking his blood. Dracula appeared before them and waved them away. The Brides of Dracula later relocated with him to Carfax Abbey in Purfleet. Professor Van Helsing and a man named John Harker entered the lower crypts of the abbey before sunrise and drove wooden stakes into the vampire women's hearts, destroying them. This was a toned down version of their portrayal from the original novel.

A somewhat more detailed depiction of Dracula's brides was presented in the stylistic Francis Ford Coppola adaptation of the film in 1992 titled, Bram Stoker's Dracula. In this film, the so-called "Devil's concubines" were played by actresses Monica Bellucci, Michaela Bercu and Florina Kendrick. These women took on a more vampiric countenance and possessed bizarre supernatural abilities. They tormented the captured Jonathan Harker, violating him both mentally and sexually. When Dracula appeared before them, he was enraged to find them toying with his plaything. When asked whether they were to have anything of their own, Dracula dropped a live baby before them to snack on. Although the molesting of Jonathan Harker was intensified for the film, the scene involving the wives feeding off a newborn is taken right from the novel.