Dracula (1897) begins with a young solicitor, Jonathan Harker, on his way to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula, who is buying property in London. Harker endures a nightmarish stay at Dracula's castle, which foreshadows some bizarre events in England.
First, a huge wolf-like creature is seen to leap from the deck of a Russian ship which has run aground on the shores of Whitby, its captain dead at the helm and its crew mysteriously absent; and then Lucy - a friend of Harker's fiancee, Mina - develops a strange wasting disease and red marks on her throat.
Vampire expert Professor Van Helsing convinces Harker and his friends that if Mina is not to share the same fate as poor 'undead' Lucy, Dracula must be caught and ritually killed.