Dracula director Terence Fisher on the power of good and evil in his movies
In a crowded horror field, Fisher stood out for his movies' clarity.
An earnest question, posed to you, dear reader: Did movies become too complicated somewhere down the road?
It seems there are no more villains. When was the last time you saw a film where the baddie was just a baddie? Every movie nowadays must justify the villainy. Why, nobody can be an evil cretin anymore! They must have some motivation saved for a third-act reveal that exposes their true humanity. Even comic book movies have lost their way, with antagonists inhabiting some strange, morally gray areas.
You know who got it right, though? Those old Dracula pictures. Now there's a villain for villain's sake!
According to Hammer director Terence Fisher, this was no coincidence, either. Instead, he saw it as the best part. In a 1973 interview conducted by Cinefantastique writer Chris Knight, Fisher laid bare the chief black-and-white tension that propelled his movies.
"I would say that certainly the great strength of Hammer Films is that the writing— the question of vampirism, and even with Frankenstein— emphasizes fundamentally a conflict between the power of good and the power of evil. Which, I love to say, has to be strong within a story for it to succeed. I have endeavored, in the actors' performances and in the interpretation of the material scene by scene, to underline, wherever possible, that conflict, to bring to the audience's attention this conflict between the power of good and the power of evil.
This fundamental understanding of what audiences wanted out of his movies was what separated Fisher from many of his peers. Rather than rely on cinematic tricks of the trade, Fisher instead leaned into a clear moral alignment in his characters. There was no sympathizing with Dracula. He was there to suck your blood.
"I've seen other people's films along the same lines and with the same fundamentals as those I have made, and I've always found that there was a tendency to discard this aspect of the story and concentrate on the sensationalism of the story. I've tried to underline within the scene. And if you search for it, you can always find within the writing of these subjects a chance to underline or throw away a certain angle or approach of the writers. I've always pushed this fundamental of the story— the fight between a power of good and a power of evil— tried to emphasize that and get away from the sensationalism as being the prime factor."
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