As October rears its eerie head, it takes fantastic restraint to withhold from bundling up and going to the cinema as many times as your wallet will allow. For those of us slightly less fond of scary films, it seems we may have found our month of financial respite. Dublin cinemas have filled their calendar this season with both contemporary horror and timeless re-releases, films we can’t help but return to for that rush of “oh, god no” within the comfort of our cozy seats.
Monumentally, Terence Fisher’s 1958 film “Dracula” has been restored in 4k by Hammer Film Productions and will be back in cinemas in a few weeks at both Light House Cinema and the Irish Film Institute (IFI). This will be the film’s first major theatrical run since its release in 1958 and early 1959, and will feature about three extra minutes of previously censored, gory footage only before seen in Japanese theatres.
Hammer Film Productions owner John Gore describes the discovery of the film in an interview with Deadline. “So Warner Brothers, they have this massive, massive storage near LAX where everything from the 1920s onwards is there. I mean, there’s like 10 Batmobiles and God knows what. And they found the director’s cut of the original 1958 Dracula.”
A film that today has defined some of the most classic elements of horror cinema initially had its bloodiest moments cut short on account of its shock factor. “It was the fangs that scared them,” Gore notes. “People were screaming, which was the point.”
At the core of some of the film’s most climatic moments of violence came a striking sexual atmosphere that was also deemed salacious at the time of its release: “A bit that’s so famous, it’s where Christopher Lee descends on the woman and is about to bite her,” says Gore. “It’s so sexual and they had to trim that because it just looked like it was nothing to do with vampires.”
“Dracula” is being released at Light House on Sunday, October 25th as part of the massive Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival, which celebrates all things gothic and ghostly from October 23–26th. The IFI is releasing the film as part of its 2026 Horrorthon festival, this year with an emphasis on folk horror. Horrorthon, running from October 22–26th, has a slew of classic rereleases — a few highlights being “The Wicker Man” (1973) — the wonderful Christopher Lee of “Dracula” makes a return in this paganistic horror fifteen years later — Richard Donner’s “The Omen” (1976) and Brian De Palma’s “Carrie” (1976) — both celebrating their fiftieth anniversaries this year.
Light House Cinema is also showing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (Jim Sharman, 1975) — a truly camp and fabulous classic that must be rewatched with a degree of reverence after the passing of Tim Curry this summer — Andrzej Żuławski’s “Possession” (1981) — psychological slasher meets octopus sex — and Andrew Fleming’s “The Craft” (1996) — witchy schoolgirls with a thirst for revenge turn alarmingly sinister.
If you’ve found that you have endured “Practical Magic 2” (Susanne Bier, 2026) or covered your eyes through all of “Resident Evil” (Zach Cregger, 2026) and are looking for unfailingly solid cinema, it might be worth considering delving into one or two of these classics this autumn.
