- Directed by: Luc Besson
- Written by: Luc Besson, Bram Stoker
- Stars: Caleb Landry Jones, Christoph Waltz, Zoe Bleu
- Run Time: 2 Hours, 9 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w05UztF-3xY
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is a big budget production with elaborate costuming, amazing sets, and excellent makeup and special effects. I kept reminding us of 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” but even more so. If you’re a fan of Dracula and vampire movies, you really should check this one out. It’s great.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s 1480 AD, and Vlad and Elisabeta are in love, either that or it’s a teenage slumber party, it looks about the same. Soldiers come to the door and need King Vlad to lead them into battle. He gets all armored up and goes with them after getting a blessing from the priest. Vlad makes a deal with the priest to watch over Elisabeta while he’s gone. While he goes off to battle, she’s taken across the country to a safe place, but the party is ambushed.
Vlad rushes to the rescue, but she dies in his arms; he is not happy. He goes home and blames the priest. This goes badly for the priest– very badly. Vlad renounces God and bad things happen.
Four hundred years later, in Paris, Dr. Dumont welcomes the priest to his church. Dumont has a very strange medical case that he needs help with in his mental asylum. He has a woman, Maria, whom he thinks is possessed. She’s got fangs and glowy eyes. She’s a vampire. She’s the first one taken into captivity, but the priest has seen them before. The doctor finds it all a little hard to believe, but it’s obviously true. The church has been looking for the Master for 400 years. She says the master is coming to Paris to take a princess soon.
We cut to Jonathan Harker, who is visiting Count Dracula’s castle. It’s surprisingly nice inside, and Prince Vlad is looking extremely old– but not monstrous. He has a habit of moving things without using his hands, which Jonathan finds very entertaining.
The priest goes to see Henry Spencer, Maria’s husband. He goes through the woman’s bedroom looking for clues, like a detective. She has a page torn out of the book that Jonathan is reading back in the castle; it’s a drawing of Princess Elisabeta.
Meanwhile, in the castle, Jonathan explores the place and finds Dracula’s tomb. He’s attacked by living gargoyles. Vlad explains himself to Jonathan, and we get a flashback to the rest of his origin story. Vlad’s been waiting for Elisabeta to be reincarnated, and it’s been a hard search. He developed a fragrance into a perfume that made all women love him, as well as some of the men from the look of it. There’s a montage of him combining his mind control with the power of the perfume to make rooms full of people in different eras dance to his tune as he searches for her. That didn’t work out so well for him or the entire court of France. He turned them all into servants and sent them out to look for her. Since then, he’s waited in that castle. Jonathan shows Vlad a picture of his own fiance, Mina, and guess who she looks like?
Back in Paris, the priest explains the vampire curse to Dr. Dumont. Dumont’s assistant points out that Mina is in the next room. She’s a friend of Maria, and tells the story of what happened to her. She admits that she’s engaged to Jonathan, but also that she feels like she doesn’t really belong in this time.
Meanwhile Dracula gets a bite of food on the road; he drains an entire convent full of nuns. He then travels to Paris, looking much younger now after feasting, and heads straight to the asylum where Maria is held prisoner. He breaks her out and feeds the orderly to her as a reward for her help. The priest and the doctor rush to warn Mina.
Meanwhile, Maria goes to Mina and says she’s been released from the hospital. They go to a hotel where she meets Dracula. He tags along with them around the carnival like a stalker. It’s all surprisingly romantic, and just maybe it’ll work out for Dracula this time. During their date, she gets repeated flashbacks to her earlier life.
When Mina goes home that evening, she finds Jonathan there along with the priest and doctor. The priest explains the facts about Dracula to Mina. Dracula shows up to convince her about his side of the story and about who she really is. She immediately wants him to bite her, and he does.
The priest, doctor, and Jonathan go to visit Henry, but Maria has gotten to him first. The group works together to kill Maria, but then they have to go to Transylvania, where the count has taken Mina. They bring the whole army with them, cannons and all.
There’s soon an all-out battle between soldiers, gargoyles, and Dracula himself, who’s very efficient at killing soldiers. Soon, it’s just Dracula and the priest, and they talk about motives and philosophy. The priest says Dracula can repent and the curse will end. He needs to let Mina live. There are more troops coming in, and more cannon fire.
Mina’s in danger, so Dracula goes to her. He talks about her being free if he dies, as if he knows what’s coming. He goes back out to the priest and surrenders. The priest stakes Dracula, who, after saying how much he loves Mina, turns to dust.
Brian’s Commentary
What could they have told the Transylvanian army to have them bring cannons to the castle?
There’s a lot of borrowing from “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), and I mean a lot. Even the music seems to steal from that film. I expected to rag on this for being a ripoff, but well, this is actually really good.
This one has a lot of intentional humor mixed in, which is probably the best thing about it. I didn’t like the CGI gargoyles at first, but they grew on me. The sets and makeup are impressive. The actors, with the exception of Caleb Landry Jones, are all Europeans, and everyone does the proper accents, unlike the earlier film.
This was exceptional, and we’ll certainly be talking about it again in our “Best of the Year” episode in January.
Kevin’s Commentary
I too recognized some elements from 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” but this version dials it up to 11. The sets, costumes, and makeup are all very impressive. They don’t shirk at showing the full extent of Dracula’s fighting abilities and powers.
I do wonder how the small band of heroes who go to Romania to strike at Dracula when he and Mina get back to his castle persuaded the military to join them in a multi-troop heavily armed assault. “You see, general, he’s a vampire. No really. He is. And we need your help to take him down.”
Overall, I’d rank it as one of my favorite Dracula movies. Awesome.