Dracula Untold

Dir: Gary Shore

2014

***

2014’s Dracula Untold is actually pretty good considering all the problems it had. It’s not really a Dracula film in the classic sense and pretty much everyone was replaced who was meant to work on it but in all fairness, Gary Shore’s film debut is pretty impressive. That said, I didn’t love it. I like my Dracula films to have capes, spooky castles and heaving bosoms but I do like a period epic with battles in it and the combination of the two was a neat idea. I like the idea of Vlad the Impaler becoming a Dracula type character but it didn’t really feel like Dracula. I thought Luke Evens made a good Vlad but a less good vampire. Dominic Cooper played the film’s villain, Sultan Mehmed II and in many respects I think he would have played a much more authentic vampire but I think the real problem was with the story’s take on good and evil. Any film that suggests sympathy for a vampire has to be told right. Any film that tries to suggest sympathy towards Dracula himself needs to have a word with itself. Would you watch a film about Jaws coming to terms with his stubbornness or Nightmare on Elm Street 8: Freddy’s regret and journey of redemption? Of course you would, so would I, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make. What I’m trying to say is that Dracula is the king of vampires, he’s a bad dude, you cannot trust him, he is without soul and without heart. He is a bad guy. I don’t want Dracula portrayed as a victim, although I suppose he was technically. To put a finer point on it, I don’t think I want a version of old pointy-teeth that isn’t Bram Stocker’s. However, it is very easy to watch. Luke Evens, Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon and Paul Kaye are very good, Charles Dance’s performance as ‘Master vampire’ – the vampire that spreads vampirism to Dracula – is outstanding. He’s played vampire before, but this is one of the best representations of a vampire by anyone, anywhere in the history of cinema. Dracula Untold, which was meant to be Dracula: Year Zero, was in production before Universal Studios decided to build a cinematic universe based on their classic monster catalogue. Their ‘Dark Universe’ was an idea that came just before the film was completed, so when the producers caught wind of it, it was just in time to independently add a present-day epilogue that Universal could use if they wanted to. I personally think it could have worked and it would have also meant that we could have seen more of Charles Dance’s master Vampire character – who was by far the film’s secret weapon. I imagine Universal want a proper Dracula for their monster series and quite right too, the film also didn’t do as well as they’d hoped financially, but it is a damn shame we won’t see Charles Dance and his pointy teeth again. His character was said to be the one that tied all the new monster films together, which would make me sit down and watch each one alone, but it isn’t to be. Its best as a standalone film anyway, an interesting ‘what if?’ that serves as a genuinely interesting addition to the character and the genre.