favourite short exchange from the film. really encapsulates the spirit of dracula; one of its key themes — the clash of a dark and ancient folk legend with hard materialist modernity, and everything that entails. it’s THE most fin de siècle novel in that respect, thrumming with a nervous anticipation of the coming 20th century (“he is coming, he is coming,” resounds the simple ominous refrain, like the unstoppable chugging of a steam train along tracks) and all the inconcievable atrocities that lie in wait for the future.
robert eggers understands this intimately: there couldn’t have been a better candidate for writing and directing this remake, what with his trademark fixation on history and cultural fears peculiar to a specific time period that supernatural horrors always end up representing.
my point being, there really isn’t a better story than dracula and all its variations to demonstrate the idea that ‘all horror is folk horror’