Restored 1958 Dracula with unseen footage to premiere in Bradford
A 4K restoration of Hammer's 1958 Dracula, including about three minutes of unseen footage found in a Warner Brothers warehouse, will premiere at Bradford Science and Media Museum.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
A digitally restored version of Hammer's 1958 Dracula is to premiere in Bradford, with previously unseen footage included. The screening at the Science and Media Museum will take place on Thursday 15 October, ahead of Halloween.
The film was one of Hammer's first horror productions shot in colour and the first time Dracula appeared on screen in full colour. It shocked and delighted cinema audiences and is widely regarded as a horror masterpiece that influenced the genre.
The restoration is in 4K. It includes around three minutes of lost footage, discovered in a Warner Brothers warehouse. Even the team behind the restoration have not yet seen the material. The footage was reportedly deemed too gruesome for British and American audiences at the time.
The Bradford venue is a fitting host. The museum already holds artefacts linked to Phil Leakey and Roy Ashton, who worked on makeup for Hammer horror films. Items include a pool of blood and the fangs Christopher Lee wore as Count Dracula. The fangs were designed for close-up shots, with a plastic tube that released fake blood as the vampire bit his victims.
The original release carried an X certificate, meaning viewers had to be 16 to see it. It was the highest certification available at the time, and some scenes were considered too gruesome. The film's bright colour and blood-red imagery helped it stand out, and its influence can be seen in many later horror films.
Tickets for the Dracula screening remain available. The museum also plans more cult classics and family-friendly films for Halloween.
On screen
Stills are sampled automatically at 60-second intervals. Where shown, the still is the nearest available frame from the relevant broadcast segment and is included to show what was on screen during that part of the broadcast. A still may not correspond to the exact second of a quoted phrase.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| A 4K restoration of the 1958 film Dracula will premiere at the Bradford Science and Media Museum. | |
| The original film had an X certificate, meaning viewers had to be 16 to see it. | |
| The restored version includes about three minutes of unseen footage discovered in a Warner Brothers warehouse. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
BBC ONE West treated this as a regional culture story with a Halloween hook. It used the film's 4K restoration and unseen footage as the news peg, then spent time on the Bradford museum's Hammer horror artefacts and the original X certificate. The tone was light and accessible, with a tease that the item was not for the faint-hearted and a closing joke about movie weather.
- “Now this next one is not for the faint-hearted.”
- “It's now been restored in 4k and its premiere in the north of England will be here at Bradford Science and Media Museum.”
- “Tickets are still available for the screening of Dracula on Thursday the 15th of October.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.