Hammer films releasing definitive Dracula uncensored 4K restoration in time for Halloween

The Dracula the censors tried to bury! Wait, they thought burying a vampire was permanent? Don’t they even watch movies?

The classic 1958 film Dracula, starring horror legends Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, is getting a re-release this autumn, featuring long lost footage believed missing for 60 years – in the definitive restoration of one of the most influential horror films ever made.

Hammer Films are re-issuing Dracula in UK cinemas nationwide from 16th October, with a 4K Limited Collector’s Edition Boxset out in the UK from 26^th October – so you can make it the perfect start to your spooky season movie watching. Find a screening of Dracula near you.

Courtesy of Hammer Films

Deemed too shocking for audiences at the time and previously seen only during the film’s original Japanese theatrical release in 1958, the recovered material has never been released before in full in the UK or US.

The new Dracula Limited Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray box set includes over 15 hours of exclusive extra features, including the Dracula workprint. This rough, work-in-progress version of the film was the one assembled during post-production and is almost certainly the element that went back and forth between Hammer and the BBFC as they haggled over cuts. Scroll down for the long list of everything included with the boxset.

The 1958 classic has been meticulously restored by Hammer Films and Silver Salt Restoration in collaboration with The Warner Archive Collection. Silver Salt’s restoration involved high-resolution scanning, frame-by-frame repair, stabilisation and colour work, with particular attention to recreating Hammer’s original Technicolor palette.

Watch the Dracula trailer now and check out stills from the movie, below:

Other exclusive new features on the new Dracula Limited Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray box set:

New documentary Proving Them Wrong: The Christopher Lee that people saw in interviews was what he wanted the public to see – but that was not the man himself. Dame Harriet Walter, actor and Lee’s niece, in conversation with Lee’s biographer Jonathan Rigby, discuss their own experiences of this complex man, his life and his ambitions.
New documentary The Road to Dracula: Tony Dalton, author of Terence Fisher: Master of Gothic Cinema, writer Stephen Laws, Hammer expert and writer Wayne Kinsey and Little Shoppe of Horrors publisher Dick Klemensen examine Terence Fisher’s pre-1957 work and the path he trod that lead him inexorably to Castle Dracula.
New documentary The Sound of Dracula: James Bernard’s biographer David Huckvale examines the man, his influences, his initial struggles and his relationship with both Hammer and the shadowy figure that followed him from childhood through to his final composed work: Dracula.
New essay Victim of His Imagination: written in the early 1970s, this Hammer script treatment about Dracula creator Bram Stoker remained unfilmed – until now. Adapted by actor/writer James Swanton, this dramatised reading channels the blood-and-thunder melodrama of a Henry Irving performance, bringing to life a tantalising what-if from Hammer’s archive.
New commentaries for each version of the film and new programmes on Terence Fisher as auteur, interviews with Janina Faye and Paul Cole (sole surviving actors from the film), Bram Stoker, the female characters of Dracula, Dracula censorship, Syd Pearson model-maker, 8mm versions and much, much more – approximately fifteen hours of additional content, most of it brand-new to this release.
And yes there’s more! Including a wealth of rare archival materials.

The book features:

200-page book featuring brand-new essays on the making of this definitive Hammer horror, Hammer’s design team, the script treatment Victim of His Imagination, a comparison of the final film with the original script and much more.

The Dracula Limited Collector’s Edition includes:

Seven discs in a stylish digipak: two UHDs and five Blu-rays, with the UHD content duplicated on Blu-ray.
Five iterations of Dracula: uncensored UK version, UK theatrical version, uncensored US version (Horror of Dracula), US theatrical version, editor’s workprint.
Brand-new 5.1 mix for both sets of uncensored and theatrical versions of the film alongside the original mono film soundtrack.
Packaged in a high-end, leather-feel slipcase with debossed foil titling.
Rigid inner box featuring new artwork by illustrator and artist Robert Sammelin.
Double-sided poster.
Eight art cards featuring facsimiles of the original cinema lobby cards.
200-page book featuring new articles on the film, cast and crew.
60-page comic featuring a reprint of the comic strip from legendary 1970s magazine The House of Hammer.
English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Japanese subtitles on each version of the film.