Netflix Is Streaming Keanu Reeves' '90s Gothic Horror Masterpiece

Netflix is home to an ever-changing rotation of great legacy movies, but one of the best may be "Bram Stoker's Dracula," a Gothic horror masterpiece and one of the best vampire movies ever made. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Winona Ryder, and, yes, Keanu Reeves, the 1992 film doesn't exactly adhere to the structure of Stoker's 1897 novel, weaving in a plot about Mina Harker (Ryder) as the reincarnation of Dracula's long-dead wife Elisabeta. But its sets, costumes, props, and even its acting are all opulent — after all, two of the best English actors of all time, Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins, star as Dracula and Abraham Van Helsing, respectively.

Even though he is perhaps the most marketable member of the cast now, at the time Keanu Reeves was by far the weakest link in "Bram Stoker's Dracula." Reeves was clearly out of his depth as prim Englishman Jonathan Harker. Total Film observed, "You can visibly see Keanu attempting not to end every one of his lines with 'dude.' The result? A performance that looks like the young actor's perpetually constipated." Similarly, AskMen wrote, "It's one thing to cast Keanu Reeves as an esteemed British lawyer, but it's quite another to ask him to act alongside Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins. The two Oscar nominees ran circles around the poor Canuck, exposing his lack of range, shoddy accent and abysmal instincts for all to see." 

Even fans thought Reeves ruined the horror-fantasy classic. So while "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is maximalist filmmaking at its finest for many reasons, Reeves is unfortunately not one of them.

After more than three decades, one anecdote from the set of "Bram Stoker's Dracula" continues to bear fruit for Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves. In a 2018 press tour for romcom "Destination Wedding," in which Ryder and Reeves starred, Ryder brought up for the first time that she and Reeves may be husband and wife for real. There is a scene in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" in which the pair get married, and it turns out that Francis Ford Coppola brought in a real Romanian priest to do the job. "We shot the master and he did the whole thing. So I think we're married," Ryder told Entertainment Weekly. Though Reeves required some reminding, he went with the gag, concluding, "Oh my gosh, we're married."

The pair continue to delight in this. According to Variety, on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, Ryder said she and Reeves call each other husband and wife in text messages. She explained, "We always say who it is, even though it says it on the text. So like on his birthday I go: 'Happy birthday, my husband.' And then he's like, 'Hey, my wife, I love you. KR 57.' Like on each birthday he's like 'KR 57' or whatever his age is. He's always done that." While the duo weren't exactly lauded for their contributions to "Bram Stoker's Dracula," Ryder clearly thinks working with Reeves is special, and their "marriage" has continued to entertain both them and us for years.