List RulesVote up the Draculas who truly rule the night.
There have been a lot of versions of Dracula over the years. From TV to movies to comics to radio to stage, the vampire gets around. What we're interested in are the most powerful versions of Dracula to hit screens. He's basically a supervillain going up against normal human beings, so there are plenty of versions that certainly have a pretty high power level. That's kind of a basic point of fact for the character.
Though iconic versions of the character like the ones portrayed by Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee were unquestionably strong, more recent adaptations have turned up the power level a bit. Projects like Netflix's Castlevania and the 2014 film Dracula Untold make the character into a certified beast of a baddie. So get those voting fingers ready and be wary of spoilers because we're running through the most powerful movie and television versions of Dracula.
Gary Oldman is an extremely talented actor, and we love watching him vamp it up (literally) in 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula. Say what you want about Keanu Reeves's performance - and plenty has been said - but this film is most often remembered for Oldman's take on the classic character. This Dracula is an expert swordsman who is just as at home on the battlefield as he is at the dinner table.
He may be older than you can imagine, but he is very fast, very strong, and can turn into a wolf-like creature. Oh yeah, and he can bite with the best of them, as well. Don't let his demise at the end of the film fool you - he was no slouch in a fight.
Honestly, with the popularity of the Castlevania video game series since the 1980s, we're sort of surprised that it took until 2017 to get a film or television adaptation of it off the ground. And Netflix's Castlevania anime didn't disappoint. This Dracula swears revenge upon humanity after his wife is slain, and though he is as powerful as any other Dracula in film and television history, there is a human element to the character that makes him stand out a bit.
When he allows his son, Alucard, to stake him through the heart, it is a genuinely moving moment. It doesn't mean he didn't deserve what was coming to him, though.
Dracula Untold is a 2014 big-budget reimagining of the Dracula story that reinvents the character as a heroic protagonist who only took on his vampiric powers to defend those he loved from the Ottoman Empire. And this Dracula certainly is powerful to boot.
He's an expert fighter, has superhuman speed, can turn into a massive swarm of bats, and he also is as good-looking as Luke Evans, which is a benefit. He and his vampire army end up taking out Sultan Mehmed II's massive army at the end of the film. Is it a great movie? Not really. Is he a powerful Dracula? Absolutely.
If there is a big-screen Dracula who can rival the fame and popularity of Bela Lugosi's version of the character, it is Christopher Lee's. Younger filmgoers will undoubtedly recognize Lee as Star Wars' Count Dooku or Lord of the Rings' Saruman, but film fans of a certain age will always and forever remember Lee for the role that brought him his initial fame: Dracula.
Lee played Hammer's version of the character in seven different films, and he really made the role his own. Slow, stoic, and menacing, Lee's Dracula would stare you down, and there was nothing you could do - you were gonna get bitten.
T.W. Mitchell
