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Anachronisms (8) |
Audio/visual unsynchronised (1) |
Character error (5) |
Continuity (27) |
Crew or equipment visible (3) |
Errors in geography (1) |
Factual errors (1) |
Incorrectly regarded as goofs (1) |
Revealing mistakes (12) |
Spoilers (5)
Anachronisms
When Dracula bites Mina, her 20th century bikini briefs can be seen beneath her sheer 19th century night gown.
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In the beginning we can see that the lights of Dracula's carriage (as well as some of the castle lights/candles) are 20th century light bulbs, some with blue glaze.
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In the transfusion-scene, Van Helsing spoke of "Landsteiner's method". This was published in 1900, while the movie is set in 1897.
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When we see the ticker tape typing out the message sent to Van Helsing from Dr. Seward, the type appears to be OCR (optical character reader) font which was not created until 1968.
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Maria Sklodowska-Curie, who is mentioned in a film set in 1897, did not enter science until her first paper was published in July 1898.
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The language spoken in the beginning is not medieval Romanian - it is modern Romanian imitating medieval English syntax.
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When Mina and Vlad are at the cinematograph, the films shown in the background are moving too smoothly. 19th century films were projected at approximately 16 FPS with jerky movement.
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In the opening scene,it says Constantinople is captured by Turks in year 1462. Constantinople (Istanbul) is captured by Turks in 1453 not in 1462.
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Audio/visual unsynchronised
When Holmwood has the gun pointed in Van Helsing's face in Lucy's crypt, Van Helsing explains about the undead. Switch to a shot behind Van Helsing and his jaw is still moving even though he has stopped speaking.
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Character error
When Lucy shows Mina the illustrations in "Arabian Nights," the art is not Islamic but Indian; specifically, they are in the style of Mogul miniatures.
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Towards the beginning of the movie, we see Harker writing in his journal with his left hand (Keanu Reeves is left handed). Towards the end of the movie, however, we see a right hand that is supposed to be Harker's, writing.
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When Jack Seward is interviewing Renfield in his cell and is subsequently attacked by him, Renfield bites him on the right side of the neck. When the orderlies run in to restrain Renfield, Seward grabs the left side of his neck as if in pain.
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Professor Van Helsing's accent makes him sound more like a German than a Hollander.
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When Dracula looks at R.M. Renfield's "Royal Society of Solicitors" card, his name is incorrectly written as "R.N. Reinfeild."
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Continuity
When Mina is on the bed with Dracula, her hair moves from being all behind her shoulders to all in front between shots.
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Lucy's red gown is two different lengths in the garden before Dracula's first bite.
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The blood on Elisabeta's body.
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At Hillingam, Quincy is holding his hat in his hands as Jack Seward sits down. When Jack gets up, he takes Quincy's hat from underneath himself and apologizes for sitting on it.
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The glass lid on Lucy's coffin disappears midway through the scene. When the men look into the coffin, the lid is present, but when Lucy walks over to the coffin, she gets in without having to open the lid.
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After Jonathan escapes, Mina is reading letters. She runs up the steps holding them tightly. However, when Van Helsing intercepts her and starts to dance with her, she no longer has the letters.
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The hammer and the lamp switch positions when Van Helsing is trying to open Lucy's coffin after she has died.
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The position of Lucy's nightgown during the transfusion.
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The position of the Arabian Nights book in the scene with Lucy and Mina.
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The professor's cross in the campfire scene with Mina disappears for a moment.
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Lucy gives Mina her ring as a wedding gift but later we see it back on Lucy's hand.
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The first time we see the Count's carriage, the wheels are covered, but when Jonathan looks down past the wheels to look down the side of the cliff, they are "open".
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After Harker's escape from the castle, the nuns send a letter to Mina. She holds the letters in her hands as she approaches the stairs to Lucy's balcony. When she's climbing the stairs she no longer has them in her hands.
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After Van Helsing inspects Mina's teeth on the train to Transylvania, Jonathan leans toward her and he is sweating hard. When we next see his face, moments later, there is no sign of sweat.
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When Harker hands Dracula the letters he has requested, Dracula has them in his hand as he moves around behind him. The shot instantly switches to an overhead shot of the scene and the letters have disappeared.
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When Prince Vlad catches the dropped perfume bottle the hand that catches it is holding a bottle with a bright yellow fluid (the color shows up clearly against the dark leather glove). The other bottle in the second hand in the same shot, contains a much darker, almost red liquid.
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The vampire woman who rises between Jonathan's legs is at the foot of the bed. Jonathan is sitting on the bed's right-hand side, not at the foot.
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The vampire woman tears open Jonathan's shirt but it's previously shown to be already unbuttoned.
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Dracula buys a newspaper right before bumping into Mina but by the time she leads him to the cinema it's gone.
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Mina's hat is tilted when she's standing in front of Dracula and the wolf. It's straight when she walks toward them a moment later. Factually, in the scene where Dracula introduces Mina to the Wolf, Mina's hat was noticeably and repeatedly repositioned from the being pulled down on her forehead to being pinned on the back of her head.
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When vampire Lucy enters her vault, all of the candles spontaneously ignite. There are two five-branched candlesticks at the entrance of the vault, one of which is seen to ignite in two separate shots, taken from different angles, but edited in such a way to make it look as if those same candles have been lit and almost immediately re-lit.
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When Harker steps into the brides' bedchamber, the bed/floor is covered in dry ice smoke. When the camera view changes, all the smoke disappears instantly.
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When the hunters are preparing to attack Carfax Abbey, two exterior shots of Renfield shouting at his cell window can be seen. The window bars are arranged differently in these shots. Furthermore, when we see inside his cell in the following scene, the window is located in a high position and deeply set into the wall, making the action of the previous scene (Renfield clutching the bars and being pulled away by attendants) extremely implausible.
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During the prologue sequence, Dracula heads out to battle through the chapel door, which opens onto a scene of the sky (a backdrop) at sunset, his army assembled before it. After the battle, he re-enters the chapel through the same door, which now opens onto a smaller space that terminates in a stone wall.
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During the scene with the brides, two shots can be seen of Jonathan shirtless yet when a wide shot is shown of him he is still wearing his shirt.
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In the prologue when Dracula returns to find Elisabeta's dead body she is seen as completely dry with her hair still permed and still wearing her crown, though the surrounding floor around her seems to be wet. The only real evidence of her traumatic jump into the river to her death is the trickle of blood from her mouth and wrist.
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In the scene where we are introduced to the men courting Lucy, we see Dr. Seward sitting in the sofa, while Quincy Morris is standing besides him. Quincy is clearly holding his hat in his hands. Moments later, when Holmowood enters the room, Dr. Seward rises and reveals that he has been sitting on Quincy's hat.
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Crew or equipment visible
When Mina and Lucy are running back to the house after the monster rapes Lucy, you can see the shadow of one or two stage lights on Mina's dress.
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When Harker arrives at the castle and Vlad's shadow is seen to emerge from the left on the hallway wall, the puppeteer manipulating the puppet casting the shadow can be seen near the end of that effect. NOTE: This error seems to have been fixed for the Special Edition DVD, released in 2007.
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When Lucy is sleeping and Arthur is guarding her, Dracula appears at the window and Arthur looks up and sees him. Just before he looks up, a female voice can be heard off-screen saying "Now" to cue him to look up. (Note: This has been corrected for the 2007 DVD release.)
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Errors in geography
Dracula says that his wife, Elisabeta, drowned in a river named Arges, this is not possible because Arges does not flow through Transylvania (situated in the Northern part of Romania) but through Tara Romaneasca (situated in the Southern part of the country).
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Factual errors
Varna was/is a Bulgarian port, not a Romanian port.
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Incorrectly regarded as goofs
After Jonathan's hair turns gray, throughout the rest of the film, it goes back to being dark again, with very little gray, and switches back to gray. However, this is an effect of Jonathan having been subjected to predation by vampires under Dracula's aura, so it's not a surprise if his hair color changes at the same rate of Dracula's shape and power.
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Revealing mistakes
When Lucy is lying in the glass coffin at the funeral, her chest can be seen rising and falling due to her breathing.
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When Lord Arthur Holmwood is sitting at watch beside Lucy's bed, the cable that hoists Holmwood up is visible as Dracula's werewolf-like persona bursts through the glass into the room.
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When Dracula flies into the room during the vampire orgy, you can see the moving platform that is carrying him.
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Soon-to-be puncture wounds are visible when Dracula is about to bite Lucy for the first time.
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Elisabeta's eyebrows and eyelids twitch visibly when Prince Vlad stumbles down to view her dead body.
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When Arthur is thrown backwards in his chair by Dracula in the bedroom, the wire pulling the actor is visible.
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The shaving scene: when Dracula creeps up behind Harker, a trick mirror is used (to give the impression of Dracula having no reflection). The trick mirror is larger, and has a thicker frame than the real mirror used in the other shots of this scene.
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The shadow-puppet effect of Dracula's shadow miming the strangling of Jonathan is slightly spoiled by Gary Oldman's real shadow, cast on the wall at the far right of the set.
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When Dracula laughs about Harker and sort of claps his hands, there's no hair (and/or makeup) in the palm of his hands.
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In shaving scene, the movements of Keanu Reeves and his double are not synchronized. When Reeves lowers his hand with the razor his double (standing back to the camera) still holds the razor near his cheek.
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In the scene where Jonathan makes love with the three Brides of Dracula, one of the women's eyes is shown in a closeup revealing the outlines of contact lenses being worn.
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When Renfield attacks Seward in the cell after talking about the cat, Seward holds his neck on the wrong side.
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Spoilers
Anachronisms
Modern Lighting (light bulbs in lamps) at the Inn/Restaurant when they are eating after cutting off Lucys' head.Share this
Continuity
The confrontation between Dracula and the hunters, following Mina's "initiation": Quincey Morris shoots the bat-demon form of Dracula towards the end of this scene, causing a wound to his chest. Presumably due to retakes and editing, the costume already appears in a damaged and blood-stained condition earlier in the scene, prior to the actual gunshot (visible from when Van Helsing repels Dracula, following the line "You must pay for your crimes").Share this
Revealing mistakes
After Jonathan escapes, Mina is climbing a set of stairs. Van Helsing can be seen to her left, waiting for his cue to step out.Share this
Revealing mistakes
Harker slices Dracula's throat with a knife but before the knife touches Dracula's neck you can see the cut already there.Share this
Revealing mistakes
In the prologue when Dracula returns to find Elisabeta's dead body, as he drops down beside her you can see her eyelids flinch.Share this
