The Devil Flew Away

The first motion picture ever to feature the character of Dracula was Dracula's Death, a Hungarian silent film made in 1921. It was not based on Bram Stoker's novel, but rather it was an original story about a young woman who encounters the famous vampire during her stay at a mental asylum.

The movie, just like so many others from the silent film era, is considered lost. 

The Devil Flew Away is a deep dive into the history of Dracula's Death. It features the English translation of every known article that followed the film’s production and release between 1920-1924, provides some much needed historical context, and introduces the creative team behind this slice of horror history.

There only two surviving set photos from Dracula's Death. One shows Mary, the film's heroine, as Dracula enters her room in the middle of the night...

...and the other one depicts the unholy wedding he forces her into once he takes her to his castle.

Austrian actor Paul Askonas seen in his Dracula makeup in this publicity photo published in 1921:

If you want to learn more about this slice of horror history, you can download The Devil Flew Away for free! 

You can  also download a supplemental PDF titled Dracula's Death Research Collection. It contains the scans of every known article released between 1920 and 1927 related to  the making and the release of the movie. They're in Hungarian, aside from one brief report that's in German. 

Around the world, libraries and archives are digitizing more and more of their collections. Even just in the last three years since I published The Devil Flew Away some incredible new discoveries were made. If you're aware of something I missed, please reach out to me!

Just a reminder that I published an English translation of the novelization of Dracula's Death, and you can buy it here! It's illustrated by Hungarian comic book legend Jozsef Svab, and it also contains The Devil Flew Away.