St Mary's Church, Whitby arch is a Jacobean pew. There is a monument to Sir Richard Cholmley who died in 1631. Two significant land slips due to broken drainage and torrential rain, the first occurring in November 2012, have placed the churchyard, and properties below the cliff, in significant jeopardy. Whitby town councillor Steve Smith stated the church was in no danger, having been built on solid rock. Human remains have fallen onto the street below, and pathways on the cliff-side of the church have been closed. Bram Stoker used St Mary's Church graveyard as the setting for a scene in his novel, "Dracula":
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary ends, taking us along for a feverish theme-park ride." The film was also well-received as a "Dracula" adaptation. Matt Brunson wrote that "Not since Francis Coppola's sharp take on "Bram Stoker's Dracula" has there been a vampire flick as deliriously off the wall as Guy Maddin's" and Horror.com's Staci Layne wrote that "This is a fresh and surreally beautiful balletic interpretation of Bram Stoker's immortal novel, like nothing I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot of Dracula movies!)." Rosenbaum noted that even though [Maddin claims] he was bored by the Stoker novel, he was intrigued by the elements involving