Cat’s Reviews > Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold on Us > Status Update

Dracula (1931), meanwhile, was specifically targeted at women, positioned as a dark, doomed and ‘strange’ love story, promising a dangerous kind of titillation. It was released on Valentine’s Day and made Bela Lugosi into a bona fide sex symbol, setting up Dracula as an erotic icon far removed from the pointy-eared creature in Nosferatu.