My first console was a second-hand Super Nintendo, and before I was even old enough to process what a “videogame” was, I was already begging my parents for more “playable movies” to put on the TV. While that’s a pretty reductive way of looking at gaming, it’s also not entirely inaccurate. In fact, legendary developer Hitoshi Akamatsu once said that he approached the creation of the original Castlevania as if it were an interactive film, using cinematic references as visual shorthand in order to tell a classic tale of gothic terror.
That’s why I’d like to use Castlevania‘s 35th anniversary as an excuse to unpack the horror movie influences behind the franchise. These games have a long history of borrowing elements from popular media in order to craft their own original take on interactive horror, and I think that these cleverly chosen references are partly responsible for their massive success.
Back in 1986, horror games weren’t exactly unheard of, with everything from arcade cabinets to the Atari 2600 boasting at least a handful of spooky titles, but none of these would have the staying power of Castlevania. In some ways, I’d chalk this up to the game’s brilliant simplicity. With cover art promising that a whip-wielding Conan the Barbarian is on his way to beat up Count Dracula (which almost makes sense, given that Conan has faced off against literal Lovecraftian entities in the past), and a finished game that actually lives up to that premise, it’s no wonder that Castlevania is still regarded as a classic.
Of course, despite his similarity to Schwarzenegger’s legendary incarnation of Conan, Simon Belmont is allegedly meant to be an amalgamation of Bram Stoker‘s Van Helsing and Harrison Ford‘s Indiana Jones. The game’s depiction of Dracula is also more reminiscent of his Bela Lugosi incarnation than Stoker’s original description, settling for Universal Studios’ interpretation of an elegant nobleman with sinister intentions. While this would vary in later games, with some of them suggesting that Dracula was literally the real-world Vlad Tepes and others remodeling him to look like an anime version of Gary Oldman, the evil Count would remain a constant threat throughout the series.
Where it all began.
In fact, before there were any talks about a sequel, Akamatsu was already planting the seeds for Dracula’s inevitable resurrection, once again staying true to the spirit of classic horror flicks where the antagonist is destined to return again and again like a cyclical curse. The developer apparently insisted that the final boss’s exploding body parts were meant to imply that the villain would one day be reassembled (with future games borrowing the Hammer Horror approach of having cult-like followers attempt to bring back the vampire lord through occult rituals).
The game’s other main antagonists also heavily reference cinematic icons, with Universal Studios providing a template for many of the game’s bosses through their classic monsters. With a loosely connected cinematic universe already holding these characters together, it’s no surprise that Akamatsu would turn to crossovers like Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and House of Dracula when thinking of how to populate the world of Castlevania.
With bosses like Frankenstein’s Monster and The Mummy, not to mention the Wolfman and Carmilla in later entries, horror fans were in for a treat as they whipped their way through the game’s thrilling levels. Hell, even the Medusa boss was clearly inspired by Ray Harryhausen‘s stop-motion incarnation of the creature in Clash of the Titans (even more so with her full-bodied design in the sequels). This is all just further evidence that Castlevania was developed by a team of cinephiles who wanted their game world to be a little less abstract than your usual mushroom kingdoms and non-descript labyrinths.
Common enemies boast a cinematic influence as well, with the shambling zombie hordes obviously owing a lot to George Romero while the Fishmen are a clear allusion to Creature from the Black Lagoon (and possibly a reference to H.P. Lovecraft’s The Deep Ones). Even the Hunchback enemies were meant to recall one of Universal’s original creations, as the boss battle against Frankenstein’s Monster features a specific Hunchback named Igor that aids the creature in his fight against the player. While these references would become less frequent as the franchise developed its own identity, they would never really stop, with even future protagonist Alucard being inspired by Universal’s 1942 sequel Son of Dracula. Unfortunately for fans of this sexy vampire, Lon Chaney Jr. doesn’t sport the character’s now-iconic hairdo in that film.
There’s a lot of effort behind those pixels.
Naturally, it’s not just the enemies and characters that reference classic movies, as the original game’s level design was almost certainly meant to evoke the decadent crypts and gothic dining rooms of Roger Corman‘s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. Not only did films like House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum launch the career of genre legend Vincent Price, but they were also obvious sources of inspiration when designing the look and feel of Dracula’s 8-bit castle. Even the game’s secondary weapons took inspiration from horror tropes, featuring holy water and crosses alongside traditional weapons like knives and axes, as if Simon Belmont would somehow stumble upon an exorcism while wandering the castle.
Of course, with nearly 40 games and (hopefully) counting, this is far from a comprehensive guide to all the horror movie references that the developers have snuck into the Castlevania series over the years. However, from the movie reel start screen to the humorous end credits parodying famous horror artists, there’s no doubt that this iconic franchise was created by horror movie fans for horror movie fans, and I think that’s a huge reason why these games took off.
While I personally love how weird the Castlevania games became after getting lost in their own convoluted timelines and in-depth lore, I think that this simple love of classic horror is something that future games should try to keep in mind should Konami ever consider reviving the old Count for another round of monster-slaying adventures. After all, the horror genre has been through a lot since the Universal Monsters, and I’d love to see what a new generation of passionate developers could bring to Dracula’s dinner table.