Dracula goofs

The speech heard at the opening isn't medieval Romanian — it's contemporary Romanian deliberately styled to echo medieval English syntax.

As Dracula sinks his teeth into Mina, her 20th-century bikini-style knickers are visible beneath her sheer 19th-century nightdress.

Marie Curie, who is referenced in a film set in 1897, had not begun her scientific career by that year; her first paper was not published until July 1898.

When the ticker-tape displays the message Dr Seward sends to Van Helsing, the lettering looks like an OCR-style typeface — a font associated with optical character recognition that wasn't developed until 1968.

At the start it is evident that the lights on Dracula's carriage, as well as certain lights/candles in the castle, are 20th-century light bulbs, some of which are blue-glazed.

Although Vlad was in Transylvania in 1462, he was actually the Prince of Wallachia (part of modern-day Romania). The ruler of Transylvania at the time was Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, who later had Vlad seized to avoid being drawn into war with the Ottomans.

When Holmwood levels his pistol at Van Helsing's face in Lucy's crypt, Van Helsing outlines the nature of the undead. The camera then cuts to a view from behind Van Helsing, where his jaw continues to move even after he has stopped speaking.

On inspecting R.M. Renfield's "Royal Society of Solicitors" card, Dracula notices the name is misspelt as "R.N. Reinfeild."

During Jack Seward's interview with Renfield in his cell, Renfield attacks and sinks his teeth into the right-hand side of Seward's neck. As the orderlies rush in to restrain Renfield, Seward clutches the left-hand side of his own neck, as though in pain.

In the prologue, when Dracula returns to find Elisabeta's body, she is shown completely dry, her hair still permed and her crown still in place, even though the floor around her appears wet. The sole visible indication of her fatal leap into the river is a thin trickle of blood at her mouth and wrist.

When Mina is lying in bed with Dracula, her hair inexplicably changes position — one moment it's completely behind her shoulders and the next it's draped entirely in front — between takes.

After Jonathan escapes, Mina is reading the letters. She hurries up the stairs, clutching them tightly. However, when Van Helsing intercepts her and begins to dance with her, she no longer has the letters.

When the Count's carriage is first shown the wheels seem covered, but when Jonathan leans past them to peer down the cliff face they are revealed as "open".

After Van Helsing examines Mina's teeth on the train to Transylvania, Jonathan leans in towards her and is perspiring heavily. When his face reappears a few moments later, there is no trace of perspiration.

As Van Helsing attempts to open Lucy's coffin following her death, the hammer and the lamp swap places.

When Prince Vlad catches the fallen scent bottle, the hand that does so is holding a vessel of vivid yellow liquid (the colour contrasts sharply with the dark leather glove). In the same shot, the bottle in his other hand contains a much darker, nearly red fluid.

In the scene featuring the brides, Jonathan is shown bare-chested in two shots, yet in the subsequent wide shot he still has his shirt on.

In the farewell scene between Mina and Lucy, as Mina is about to leave she inches a vase of garlic flowers on the bedside table nearer to Lucy's bed. The camera cuts to a close-up of Mina's hand accidentally dislodging a hanging garland of garlic cloves that hadn't been there moments before, and the garland falls onto the bedside table. When the camera cuts back to a wider shot of the room and Lucy knocks the vase of flowers over, the garland of garlic cloves has again mysteriously disappeared from the bedside table.

Mina's hat sits at an angle while she stands before Dracula and the wolf, yet a moment afterwards it appears straight as she walks toward them. In the scene where Dracula introduces Mina to the wolf, her hat is clearly and repeatedly adjusted — at times tugged down over her brow, at others fastened to the back of her head.

When Harker steps into the brides' bedchamber, the bed and floor are shrouded in dry-ice fog. As soon as the camera angle shifts, all of the fog vanishes.

The placement of Lucy's nightdress during the transfusion.

As Harker hands Dracula the letters he requested, Dracula is shown holding them as he moves behind him. The camera immediately cuts to a bird's‑eye view and the letters have vanished.

During the prologue sequence, Dracula sets out to fight through the chapel's door, which opens onto the sky at sundown with his army arrayed before it. After the battle he re-enters the chapel by the same doorway, which now opens onto a much smaller space that ends in a stone wall.

During the brides' attack on Harker, his footwear alternates — he is first shown wearing boots, then barefoot, and finally back in boots.

In the campfire scene involving Mina, the professor's cross briefly vanishes.

In the shaving scene, as Dracula flinches at the reflection of Jonathan's crucifix in the mirror, Jonathan steps back towards the window and in that brief moment appears to go from mid‑shave with lather on his neck to completely shaved, rinsed and dried off by the time he looks back.

When vampire Lucy steps into her vault, all of the candles spontaneously ignite. Two five-branched candlesticks stand at the vault's entrance; one of them is shown catching fire in two separate shots from different angles, but the editing is arranged so that it seems the same candles are lit and then almost immediately re-lit.

Where the Arabian Nights volume is situated in the scene involving Lucy and Mina.

The blood staining Elisabeta's body.

In the transfusion scene, Lucy's breast repeatedly switches between being exposed and being covered.

Dracula notices the crucifix Jonathan is wearing beneath his unfastened shirt. In the next shot, after Dracula has pushed Jonathan away, Jonathan's shirt is buttoned up.

As Lucy and Mina run through the maze in the rain, members of the crew can be seen behind Lucy during one of her laughing close-ups.

When Mina and Lucy hurry back towards the house after the creature attacks Lucy, the shadow of one or two stage lights can be seen on Mina's dress.

At the film's opening it is claimed that the Turks captured Constantinople in 1462; in fact, the city fell to them on 29 May 1453.

Varna is a Bulgarian harbour, not a Romanian one.

Upon his arrival in London, Dracula and Mina attend a French cinematograph film. The London police would almost certainly have shut down such an erotic screening for public indecency under the laws of the time, and Mina, as a proper Victorian young lady, would have been appalled by the images rather than appearing indifferent.

In the opening garden scene with Mina and Jonathan, set in early May, a purple wisteria vine, heavy with blooms, is draped over Lucy's bedroom doors. Yet in a later sequence, said to take place in August or September, when Mina hurries up the garden steps to Lucy's room, the wisteria is still shown in full flower; wisterias only flower for about three weeks in late spring, so the vine should not be bearing blossoms in August or September.

During the transfusion scene, Van Helsing refers to "Landsteiner's method". Although Landsteiner did not publish his findings until 1897, Van Helsing may well have been familiar with both the man and his technique.

After Jonathan's hair first turns grey, it later darkens again for much of the remainder of the film — showing only a hint of grey — and then reverts to grey once more. This fluctuation is a consequence of Jonathan having been preyed upon by vampires operating under Dracula's aura, so it’s unsurprising that his hair colour shifts in step with Dracula’s form and strength.

Lucy appears to have to open the coffin and the tomb to seize the young girl, yet everything is shown sealed and the men are seen prising the tomb open as if it had never been opened before. However, as Van Helsing remarks earlier in the film, vampires can take the form of mist, vapour and fog, so it is entirely plausible that Lucy left the tomb without opening anything. This is consistent with the novel, which suggests Lucy can slip through the smallest of cracks.

Lucy's red gown appears to be two different lengths as she walks through the garden maze at night: initially it reaches her feet, but when the skirt is lifted by the breeze it seems to be knee-length.

However, the skirt gradually settles back down and by the end of the scene it is clear the dress still reaches her feet.

When Van Helsing crosses himself during his confrontation with Dracula, he does so in the Eastern Orthodox manner (right shoulder first). Were he Swiss, he would more likely make the sign in the Roman Catholic way (left shoulder first).

Nowhere is it stated that Van Helsing is Roman Catholic or that he must use the Roman Catholic form. He is well versed in Eastern European mythology and folklore, and because Dracula comes from that region, Van Helsing employs the Eastern Orthodox method as it holds greater relevance and significance in relation to Dracula.

Vampires are walking corpses that do not possess a pulse, so if they are stabbed or decapitated, one would not expect blood to spurt from the wounds.

As fictional constructs, the specifics of a vampire's physiology are determined by the filmmakers of each individual film.

It beggars belief that Harker would recognise Dracula's younger self straightaway upon arriving in London — he looks distinctly different and many years younger.

Jonathan can sense Dracula's malevolence without more than a fleeting glimpse of his form in the street.

The ticker tape contains a misspelt phrase, "At Once, Do Not Loose an Hour", which most likely should read "Do Not Lose an Hour", referring to a summons for Van Helsing to attend.

Elisabeta's brows and eyelids give a noticeable twitch as Prince Vlad stumbles down to view her lifeless body.

In the opening scene, as Dracula kneels beside the body of Elisabeta, Winona Ryder's face is clearly seen twitching.

While Lord Arthur Holmwood keeps vigil at Lucy's bedside, the cable used to hoist him is visible as Dracula's werewolf-like persona bursts through the glass into the room.

The shadow-puppet effect of Dracula's shadow miming Jonathan's strangulation is slightly marred by Gary Oldman's real shadow, projected onto the wall at the far right of the set.

When Jonathan encounters Dracula's three brides, a close-up of one woman's eye reveals the outline of the contact lens she is wearing.

In the bedroom scene where Dracula propels Arthur backwards in his chair, the wire used to pull the actor can be seen.

Blood is visible on Van Helsing's face prior to the undead Lucy being killed, and she spits blood onto his face.