“Bonnie and Clyde meet Dracula? At a B&B? That sounds like the script for a campy horror movie?'” It is in fact, and it was shot at a real life B&B.
American film has a long tradition of famous people meeting monsters in movies. Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, the Three Stooges and Scooby-Doo and company have all squared off against Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Mummy and of course Dracula. Many people don’t know this, but bed and breakfasts have been a favorite haunt for vampires since Bram Stoker wrote Dracula in 1897.
Whitby, in the North of England near the Yorkshire moors (think Wuthering Heights) is a small seaside village with many B&Bs that has been a popular vacation resort for a very long time. The village is lorded over by the ruins of Whitby Abbey, a skeletal church constructed in 657 CE. Bram Stoker spent quite a bit of time in Whitby, and it was a huge inspiration to him while he wrote the novel. Cheney Anne Markun, modern B&B guest staying in Whitby, has written this outstanding account of experiencing a thunderstorm in a B&B in the village that gave us Dracula.
Oddly enough, a second link between B&Bs and Dracula made its’ way to us here at BnBFinder this morning. Recalcitrant gangsters Bonnie and Clyde have been living at the Whiskey Mansion, a B&B in St. Joseph Missouri. They’ve really been enjoying themselves there, relaxing in the hot tub, taking advantage of the free wi-fi and making a holiday of the whole thing. Sadly, Dracula is also a guest at the Whiskey Mansion, and he’s been complaining quite a bit. ‘There’s garlic in my omelet, I said no garlic!’ he explained to the frustrated innkeepers. Dracula has also taken issue with the window coverings in his room being much too thin to let in the sunlight, and thought that checkout time was 11pm, not am. OK, that’s not the plot exactly, but it’s the version an innkeeper would write.
Handily, the good folks at at Big Atom Productions were on hand to document everything, and have recently released Bonnie and Clyde vs. Dracula. The film was shot in part at the real life Whiskey Mansion, and this evening they’ll be opening up for tours and having some of the stars of the film over for tours that are open to the public. The cast and crew will be screening the film and doing a meet and great, so if you’re in the area it’s a great chance to see a fun film and get a tour of a wonderful B&B while you’re at it. For more details, just click on the link above for the Whiskey Mansion and they can fill you in. Here’s a link to the trailer for Bonnie and Clyde vs. Dracula.
