The game starts out innocuous enough. Then you meet freaky monster thing Grant, and find out that Dracula turned him into a megafreak for the lulz. And there's hints that Sypha-the-statue was conscious in spite of being, you know, a rock. There's also the music in the catacombs where you find Alucard (appropriately titled "Nightmare").
The JP version doesn't pull aaaaaany punches about Sypha. She says roughly "thank you for helping me, it was starting to seem like I was in danger of being trapped like that forever." Sypha was aware the whole time, and you don't know how long she's been there.
Dracula's second form is a ghastly cluster of giant, hideous faces that vomit out a thick, bloody discharge as they float around the chamber. The faces are each reduced to a skull as you kill them off, with their scream sounding higher-pitched and more deranged compared to the death roar of prior bosses you defeated.
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