As a public domain character and one of the most enduring icons in all of pop culture, we’re going to be inundated with adaptations, variations, reimaginings, and reinventions of Bram Stoker’s seminal Dracula until the end of time.
The sheer volume of vampiric tales derived from the legendary source material has yielded results that range from the classic to the crushingly awful, but one of the very best without a shadow of a doubt is Francis Ford Coppola’s lavish adaptation. However, even the all-time greats are far from being perfect.
While the star-studded Gothic fantasy did net $215 million at the box office, scoop a trio of Academy Awards for its sumptuous technical wizardry, and instantly secure a reputation as one of Vlad’s finest live-action outings, there is one unforgivable sin that even the film’s staunchest of defenders cannot stomach to this day.
A Reddit thread asking the horror-loving masses what they think of 1992’s Dracula has brought an outpouring of nothing but the utmost admiration and undying adulation, with the sole exception of Keanu Reeves’ accent. Easily one of the worst and most laughably bad brogues you’ll ever hear in your lifetime, it’s still being widely ridiculed over 30 years later.
It speaks volumes about just how egregiously awful the actor’s disastrous attempt at mastering the English affectation turned out to be when the overriding sentiment to this day is basically “awesome movie, but Keanu’s accent still sucks,” which is also an entirely fair and justified opinion to have.