The Curse of Dracular (Stop-Motion Short Film)

Claymation short film by Jack Paterson.

The Curse of Dracular is a claymation film I produced for my final year of University, based on a story my Dad wrote when he was a child (around nine years old). He discovered it a few years ago after finding that his mum had kept a collection of his old schoolwork. Upon reading it, it becomes clear that the story was heavily inspired by the classic Hammer Horror films he would catch late at night as a child. We both found his story hilarious, and I thought it would be the perfect basis for a short film.

I should note that one detail I found particularly funny was the fact he had misspelled the name Dracula as "Dracular", hence the title.

Although the film is comical, it comes from a very personal place as my Dad has been a continuous inspiration to me for as long as I can remember, and I credit a lot of my love of film and animation to him. Thus, this film is in large part a tribute to him. Claymation is also our favourite form of animation, and some of my oldest memories were us sculpting various characters and creatures out of Play-Doh and Plasticine.

The Curse of Dracular has since won two awards from the RTS East Student Television Awards, Undergraduate Craft Skills: Production Design at the Student Television Awards 2024, and was awarded Best Stop Motion (sponsored by Aardman) at Animation Dingle. It has also been screened at Manchester Film Festival and Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology amongst others.

This claymation film is the culmination of months of work, and was filmed primarily in my dining room. Being a one-man crew, the production of this film has been quite the journey, so I'm very excited to finally share it with the world.

So sit back and enter the deadly domain of the dastardly Count Dracular!