Dracula

Bram Stoker was born in 1847, and Dracula, his first and best known novel, was published in 1897. The story itself takes place some time in the last decade of the 19th century, probably 1893. Instead of a write-up of specific facts concerning Dracula's creation and rise to fame, which would only echo others' research, check out Dracula's Homepage, put together by a scholar and author who studies the work, and is the president of the Canadian chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula. I think that makes it count as Dracula's Homepage!

There have been hundreds of adaptations and retellings of the original story. I've only chipped the surface of what's out there, but out of what I've seen and read, here are my recommendations.

Nosferatu

This is the earliest surviving film version of Dracula, a silent movie made in 1922. The creators didn't have the rights to adapt the text, which was then still copyrighted, so they changed the names of the characters. It's really a transparent adaptation, though, and didn't fly with Stoker's wife, but eventually that became a moot point.
The film is a creepy, well done take on the story. I don't remember the changed names of the characters, but the one who filled Mina's role was especially interesting. Her strength is really brought out by the changes made to the ending, which I enjoyed.
The make-up design on the Count was awesome, and definetly disturbing, especially his hands. The rat/plague associations were a nice touch, as was the use of shadow.

Dracula (1931)

This is the Bela Lugosi's first film appearance in his famous role, and the first speaking version of the film. A Spanish version was made along side this one, because dubbing technology wasn't developed enough to simply translate the movie. I haven't seen that one, and have read that it's the superior of the two.

Among the cast, Lugosi, of course, shines. Edward van Sloan is a rather stern Van Helsing. Renfield, played by Dwight Frye, is, I think, the best actor in the whole lot, and really makes the movie. Plus, the thing was made by a guy named Tod. You can't go wrong with that. ;)

The Horror of Dracula

This is the first film with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing playing Dracula and Van Helsing, respectably. The two went on the play the same characters over and over and over. Lee's played Dracula more often than any other actor, and both ended up in Star Wars. A New Hope is a lot funnier right after seeing this movie, I tell you.

Cushing really does a good job, but his performance misses the lighter aspects of the professor's personality. His gentleness and sense of humor are missing from many adaptations. In this movie, his intelligence, drive and bluntness are not. He's more on top of the situation in Horror of Dracula than any other adaptation I've seen. That makes the movie funny to watch if you know the story, because in order for Van Helsing to know that Dracula's a vampire, and be actively after him from the very beginning, everyone else needs to be really stupid. And they are. Jonathan Harker dies fairly early in the movie. The bungling of the Lucy situation is especially... bungled. It's great. So's the scene with Van Helsing reeling of the vampire's weaknesses in his tape recorder, I guess so he won't forget later. There's a lot of random changes to the plot, enough that there's some surprises, even if you've overanalysed the book to death, like I have.

Dracula: Dead and Loving It

The problem with this movie is that it tries to be funny while also trying to be true to (at least) the various well known film versions of the story. The jokes, to me, anyway, often fall flat, and there's long spaces of boredom between the really great parts – but the parts that're great are -great-. The 'yes, we have nosferatu' joke is perhaps my favorite pun ever, and for some reason, doesn't get old to me. I appologize for that. By the way, if anyone has a .wav of that line, and hopefully the whole exchange, please, please, send it to me or direct me to it. I can't find it online anywhere.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

The 1992 version of this film tried to draw from the original source material over previous film adaptations, but then went and changed a bunch of new stuff, resulting in my mixed feelings about this film. My major beef, I think, is that they tried to make Dracula into too sympathetic a character with the reincarnated-dead-girlfriend bit, but it did help to define his motivation, so it worked within the context of the movie.
The casting, however, is brilliant. Gary Oldman, when he's playing Old Creepy Dracula, is rather close to how I picture the character. I used to say that Keanu Reeves was the perfect Jonathan Harker... in plowing through the comic, I've changed my mind, but he does capture Harker's confusion and obliviousness rather well. He just doesn't do anything -else- with the character. Winona Ryder is charming as Mina, and the guy playing Renfield does a great job, even if his reason for being there doesn't go beyond 'people expect Renfield to be in this movie'.
Anthony Hopkins plays the best Van Helsing I've seen, hands down. First of all, he actually has an accent. The cheesy Dutch accent is important, and so's the weird sense of humor/inappropriate comment thing. The part where he's telling Mina and Jonathan about Lucy's death is especially great. (Incidentally, if anyone has a .wav file of -that-, or the autopsy line, let me know?) Because he's Anthony Hopkins, he's also vaguely creepy, and the character comes across as eccentric and possibly untrustworthy, which, really, he should be – he's babbling about the undead and wants to cut off people's heads. That's strange stuff.

Hellsing

Hellsing is a manga by Kohta Hirano, which runs in the Japanese anthology Young King Ours, and is being translated in America by Dark Horse Comics. They've put out the first issue, with the second in the works. It's also an anime, which is also available translated.
The story is a modern continuation of Dracula, among other things. It's about the Hellsing agency, a secret organization dedicated to keeping the undead out of England, run by the descendant of Abraham van Helsing. The agency has a pet vampire, bound by blood to said descendant, and may or may not be Dracula. In the anime, his identity is blatant, but in the manga, I've seen people interpret things any number of ways. Since I can only read the translated version, I can't say. The comic is definetly heavily inspired by Dracula, and H.P. Lovecraft, and the show is definetly worth watching, even if you don't normally watch anime. There's no annoying pet. It's all good.

Duckula

All I have to say is that, upon further thought, this show is probably why Van Helsing's my favorite character. I only vaguely remember it, though. And the themesong. I remember the themesong...