The classic Universal horror film Dracula’s Daughter deserves a reboot for its fascinating female lead, Countess Marya Zaleska. The 1936 monster movie is the sequel to Dracula — but unlike Bela Lugosi’s unapologetically evil Dracula, Countess Zaleska, played by Gloria Holden, is a tragic figure desperate to live a normal life. With the success of 2020’s female-centered The Invisible Man reboot reigniting interest in the Dark Universe, Countess Zaleska’s story has the potential to offer a fresh take on Dracula, one of the most adapted characters in media.
Inspired by J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s novel Carmilla and “Dracula’s Guest,” a “deleted chapter” of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (published as a short story in the collection Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Stories), Dracula’s Daughter begins moments after the previous movie ends. However, due to copyright restrictions, the movie was limited to only using characters from Dracula who appeared in “Dracula’s Guest.” As a result, the action is mainly focused on Countess Marya Zaleska, who is trying to overcome her “unnatural desires.” Eventually, she gives up — accepting her “monstrosity” — and lures the psychiatrist Dr. Garth to Dracula’s castle by kidnapping his secretary, Janet. He agrees to trade his life for Janet’s, only for Zaleska’s manservant to turn on her before Scotland Yard kills him. Garth and Janet are reunited and live happily ever after.
At seventy minutes, the Universal classic horror movie is short but reveals a lot of potential for the character of Countess Zaleska. It portrays her as a tragic figure fighting against her nature, but still leaves plenty of room for writers and directors to fill in the gaps in her history. Little is known about her relationship with Dracula since he couldn’t be prominently featured in the movie. Fleshing out their dynamic offers an opportunity to show a rarely seen-side of Dracula while also giving him a rival who is his equal. Female vampires are often relegated to subservient roles in the Dracula stories, often characterized as his demonic “wives” with very little depth. Dracula’s Daughter could subvert that by making the story about the Countess, with Dracula taking up the supporting (or even antagonist) role.
Dracula’s Daughter is also notable for its lesbian subtext, which is surprisingly overt for a film made during the Hays Code. Fundamentally, Dracula’s Daughter is the story of a woman trying to fight her “unnatural desires” through both religious rituals and modern psychiatry. In 1936, it presented a clear analogy for the experience of being homosexual in America — and the subtext was not lost on the gay community. Zaleska has since become an icon of queer cinema, and she deserves to be celebrated for that in an updated version of Dracula’s Daughter. A reboot could thus offer a more modern perspective on the Dracula story while honoring the Countess’ queer legacy: such an approach could eschew some of the problematic aspects of linking her queerness to her vampirism and instead tell a story about self-acceptance. With the right writers, Zaleska can become as much of a romantic hero as Dracula in some of his most recent interpretations.
A Dracula’s Daughter reboot has the potential to be a strong entry into the Universal Dark Universe while also adding some much-needed female monsters. A Bride of Frankenstein reboot was previously in the works, and the much-maligned The Mummy reboot featured a female take on the classic monster, so remaking a fascinating female vampire would follow the established trend — and may be the perfect addition to the team.
