- A new 4K restoration of Hammer’s Dracula is coming to theaters and Blu-ray in October 2026
- Uncensored and with new footage believed to be lost forever
- Compiled from ‘the best original archival material sourced from around the world’
Here’s a tale you can really sink your teeth into: Hammer Films has “carefully restored” (pun intended, I assume) the original 1958 Draculaadds “long lost” footage and delivers an uncensored clip in full 4K. It will hit theaters and home entertainment in October 2026.
This is not a remaster. It is a resurrection. It contains footage that was believed to be lost for over six decades and was only ever seen by Japanese moviegoers in the 1950s. The restored material is “from the best original archival materials sourced from around the world” and has never been released in the US or UK, nor is it available for home viewing in either country.
Dracula was the second on-screen pairing of Peter Cushing, who plays Dr. Van Helsing, and Christopher Lee playing… I’m just checking my notes here… Dracula.
Picture 1 of 5
Fangs for the memories
There have been many Dracula films, but the 1958 one delivered the definitive Drac: As Hammer Films says, Lee’s portrayal introduced “the bloodshot eyes, fangs and visceral physicality that became the blueprint for modern vampire mythology, and whose influence can still be seen across horror films today.”
It is difficult to exaggerate Dracula‘s influence. Everything you’d expect from a Dracula movie – the fangs, the stretched breasts, the wooden stakes, the suggestion that some women might actually enjoy having their necks bitten by a charismatic counter – is here, and the film has often been included in the best movies and horror movies of all time.
As director Terence Fisher explained to our friends at SFX Magazine, this was the movie that made vampires sexy. “My biggest contribution to the Dracula mythos was bringing out the underlying sexual element in the story… The moment he bites, it’s the culmination of a sexual experience.”
As you can see from the stills above, the restored version looks absolutely spectacular. And the film itself is a masterpiece. As Empire wrote in its retrospective review: “It was garish, it was sexy, and it was never afraid to go bloody. And with its spectacular ending—where the Count’s flesh peels away and crumbles to dust as it is caught in the first rays of the morning sun—Dracula created one of the classic images of horror movies.”
According to the wonderfully named John Gore, CEO of Hammer Films and Executive Chairman of John Gore Studios: “Bringing Dracula back to audiences in 4K goes far beyond a piece of film restoration work. This is the recovery of a piece of British film history that audiences thought was lost forever. To see Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing together after how is it again in such a unique reminder of a film that is close to its original release.”
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