Who's Afraid of Dracula? (also known as Fracchia vs. Dracula, It. Fracchia contro Dracula) is a 1985 italian horror comedy directed by Neri Parenti.
Giandomenico Fracchia (Paolo Villaggio) is a shy, cowardly man working as an estate agent. His boss thinks he's useless, so the former threatens to fire him unless he's able to close a deal in 3 days. Unluckily for him, his only client his the accountant Arturo Filini (Gigi Reder), who wants to rent a huge mansion for 3 days with a measly budget of 4 millions lirenote . Asking help from his computer, Fracchia manages to find a suitable option for Filini, a castle in Transylvania owned by a certain count Vlad (Edmund Purdom).
For another film with Villaggio's character Giandomenico Fracchia as the protagonist, see Fracchia the Human Beast.
Tropes found in the film:
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Count Dracula and Frankenstein's monster force Fracchia and Filini to a deadly game of poker: The winner couple would get the hand of Dracula's sister (Frankenstein's monster, in the case of the first couple), the loser couple will be minced alive in a giant meat grinder.
- Accidental Murder: Fracchia accidentally kills count Dracula as the latter teleported in front of the former as he was attempting to flee from the vampire via parasol parachute and ends accidentally stabbed by Fracchia's umbrella, whose tip is made of ash wood.
- All Just a Dream: The film is revealed to be a dream Fracchia had after falling a sleep while watching a horror movie. Except count Dracula is shown to exist for real as he's another client of the cinema Fracchia went to.
- Animorphism: In a typical vampire fashion, Dracula and Oniria are able to transform into Bloodsucking Bats.
- Anticipatory Breath Spray: Fracchia uses this in his third date with Stefania. He also doesn't use it only for his breath, but also for his armpits and for his nether regions.
- Arranged Marriage: Oniria has been promised to Frankenstein's monster by Dracula, without her consent.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: The movie's antagonist are Oniria, who wants to force Fracchia to marry her under the threat of death, and count Dracula, Oniria's brother who already arranged a marriage between Oniria and Frankenstein's monster and doesn't want to go back on his words, who wants to kill Fracchia and Filini. They are also blood sucking-vampires who kill and assimilate their victims.
- Blatant Lies: Fracchia usually uses these in an attempt to please everyone who holds even just a bit of power over him. They work with Filini, mostly because the latter pities Fracchia.
- At the start of the film, Fracchia tells the woman he's dating that he isn't a scaredy cat and that he fears nothing, only for him to jump from a window as he sees a little girl wearing a mask.
- In an attempt to force his hand with Filini, who's about to call off the deal, Fracchia tells him that he found another client for Vlad's castle. Said "client" is actually a vampire hunter who just warned Fracchia not to go there and that makes no effort to back Fracchia's lie.
- For example, While Fracchia shows Filini what's obviously a torture chamber, the former tells the latter that a cage with a skeleton still inside is a chandelier.
- Later, while meeting the vampire hunter for the second time, still thinking of her as a vampire, Fracchia tells her that he's not a virgin and fakes to have had lot of partners, despite the fact that vampires like Oniria are able to recognize virgins (and she found out) and the fact he told himself to his psychologist at the start of the film.
- Blind Mistake:
- Dracula's butler is blind. Despite that, he's never learnt how to get around his disability, so he makes lots of mistakes, like accidentally cutting off Boris' hand, walking in a different direction that the one he's told (and once falling from the castle's roof), and usually speaks to someone while turned in the wrong direction or, when turned in the right direction, he's not in front of his interlocutor.
- Filini has poor eyesight. While usually functional enough, he once speaks with the aforementioned butler: The butler is talking with no one in front, while Filini talks to a pillar thinking that it is the butler.
- Breaking and Bloodsucking: Dracula breaks into the innkeeper's daughter's bedroom and attacks her and feeds on her.
- The Cameo: At the end of the film, one of the guests invited to the marriage between Oniria and Fracchia is Nosferatu.
- Crossover Cameo: Accountant Arturo Filini is originally a recurring character from Fantozzi, while also being the deuteragonist of this film.
- Dracula: The main antagonist of the movie is count Dracula himself.
- Extreme Doormat: Fracchia always try to please everyone around him, usually with the only result of him angering them more. He's always extremely reverential to those who hold power over him, and only tries to assert himself on those with no power about him.
- Fight Dracula: The premise of the movie is spineless, shy, sycophantic estate agent Fracchia somehow being pitted against Dracula.
- Fingore: Downplayed. Dracula accidentally gets his hand crushed by Fracchia while the latter and Filini opened his coffin and the former was slowly getting ready to attack them.
- Improvised Cross: Parodied. Fracchia, scared of Dracula, after a failed attempt of buttering him up, threatens the vampire with a chair, but accidentally smashes it against the wall behind it and only a cross-shaped piece remains in Fracchia's hands. At this point Dracula is repelled, slowly taking steps back as Fracchia advances, but Fracchia mistakes Dracula being scared of the cross for being scared of his threat, so he soon discards the cross, and Dracula advances towards Fracchia once again.
- Intimidation Demonstration: Count Dracula attempts to have Oniria change her idea about marrying Fracchia by showing her and Fracchia his strength by generating strong gusts of wind in Fracchia's room.
- Lots of Luggage: Filini takes what he thinks is "basic necessities" for him when Fracchia drives him to see the castle. Said "basic necessities" are a pile of luggages and a TV. Even funnier is the fact he's taking with him a pile of luggages just to inspect the castle, as he's still undecided on wether renting it or not.
- Love Redeems: Boris pulls off a Heel–Face Turn due to his love of Luna the vampire hunter, helping her, Filini and Fracchia to escape Vlad's castle.
- Morton's Fork: Played with. Fracchia attempts to pull one on Dracula. They are playing a deadly game of tag team poker with Filini and the Frankenstein's monster respectively. The game has lasted long and Fracchia is about to lose when the butler tells Dracula that the sun's rising. Being Fracchia's turn, Fracchia decides to waste time with his hand, and Dracula finds himself with two options: waiting for Fracchia to play his hand risking being incinerated by the sun or forfeiting and, by the rules of the game, being minced alive by a giant meat grinder, either way. Despite the fact that Dracula could have had Frankenstein's monster continuing playing in his stead too since he's immune to sunlight, an enraged Dracula opts for the latter, but as Fracchia and Filini hold no power over him, he simply walks off. At least Fracchia and Filini manage to avoid an almost certain death.
- Primal Fear: Frankenstein's monster has a strong fear of fire. He panics and attempts to cover his face when Fracchia uses a lighter.
- Revenge: Luna becomes a vampire hunter and infiltrates Dracula's castle in order to kill him and avenge the brother who died by the latter's sister's hands.
- Running Gag: Boris losing his right hand in various accidents: Mainly being cut off by the blind butler, accidentally throwing it together with a ball and detached by horses not bound to a cart.
- Self-Defenestration:
- Fracchia jumps off the window of the apartment building his date lives as he's scared of a little girl wearing a mask.
- A drunkard jumps off the window of a pub when Fracchia asks him where he can meet count Dracula.
- Travel Montage: Fracchia and Filini's travel by car from Rome to Transylvania is represented by a dot moving on a map. The travel course ends up being unnecessarily long and, at some point, they end up driving under the sea.
- The Unintelligible: Frankenstein's monster only speaks with grunts. He, however, also has a very expressive body language.
- Vampire Hunter:
- Kaspar is a vampire hunter obsessed with killing count Dracula. His weapons are an instrument able to emit light that only harms vampires and a huge collection of wooden stakes of different sizes.
- Luna becomes a vampire hunter too after finding out his brother died in order to get revenge.
- Vampires Sleep in Coffins: Both Dracula and his sister Oniria, vampires, sleeps in coffins.
- Vampiric Draining: Dracula and Oniria routinely suck blood out of people, especially virginal ones, with the side effect of killing them and assimilating their abilities.
- Villainous Crush:
- Oniria, Dracula's sister, develops a crush for Fracchia, mainly because he's a virgin.
- Boris, Dracula's butler's assistant, develops a crush on Luna the vampire hunter.
- Visual Pun: Fracchia marks the destination on his map with an X sign. After a very long travel in his car, Fracchia and Filini arrive at the destination marked on the map, which is also marke by a giant X in real life.
- Voice Changeling: Dracula has the ability to assimilate his victims' characteristics. While giving a musical show to his guests, Dracula starts singing with the innkeeper's daughter's voice. This tips Fracchia that Dracula is a vampire and is the one who attacked the girl.
- The Voiceless: Boris never speaks.
- Weakened by the Light: Sunlight is fatal for vampires. Fracchia attempts to exploit it by buying time in his poker game against Dracula and Frankenstein's monster (as he was almost losing) hoping for the duo to surrender in order to avoid being ground alive if he loses.
- Wooden Stake: Vampires can be killed by being stabbed in the heart with a pole made of ash wood. Dracula is accidentally killed by Fracchia when the latter accidentally stabs the former with his umbrella, which has the tip made of ash wood.