Dracula Untold (2014)

"Men don't fear swords. They fear monsters."

The untold story of a story that’s been flogged to death already…

The film, on a whole, wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Probably not the response the filmmakers went for with this one but in truth, with modern cinema cluttered with so many re-imaginings, prequels, sequels and trilogies, I wasn’t expecting much from it. I’d love to see that featured as a review on the poster, the filmmakers desperately trying to drag the audience in to see another retelling of a vampire story -

Facing threats to his kingdom and his family from the Turks, Vlad Tepes makes a deal with a demonic force to help him save his kingdom - whilst trying to avoid succumbing to the darkness himself...

The biggest issue I had with the film was the fact that, being a prequel to Dracula, there was no tension. The whole conflict of the movie is whether or not he can survive three days without drinking human blood to save his kingdom otherwise he will become the monster forever. The main problem with this is that, sorry to spoil Dracula for anyone who has been living under a rock for the last century, we all know that Dracula is a vampire. This causes a real roadblock for the rest of the film because any tension they are trying to create with the "will-he-won’t-he" situation is diffused because we know the end result. This wouldn’t have been such a problem if it didn’t focus too much on the predicament of the three day blood rule but it’s a major plot point. If they had shifted the focus onto how he became Dracula rather than will he turn into Dracula it may have saved it. I feel that if they hadn’t given it the title 'Dracula Untold’ and revealed his real identity at the end as a sort of twist in the tale then it could have been a more tense and exciting film for the audience.

Most will know Luke Evans from his role as Bard in ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’. He does a really good job playing Dracula and after thinking about it, I can’t name another actor who could have played the role better so credit to him. With a name like “Vlad the impaler” you have to be a pretty hardcore dude and Luke Evan’s makes you believe he is a decorated warrior and leader. When it’s all going down, Vlad is definitely the guy who you’d not want to see coming at you with something that might impale you. Just saying.

This being said, his character lacks a large amount of common sense. This is going to sound like a spoiler but trust me it’s not - we see Vlad kicking some serious Turk ass with his new dark powers so when the army is coming to destroy his kingdom (as we see from the trailer) I can’t help but feel like he should just go and take them all out? We know what he is capable of but we spend a good chunk of the film with him waiting around for them to reach him, why doesn’t he just be proactive and meet them? It’s dark, there’s no sun and he’s against the clock so why risk it all waiting around?

Charles Dance plays the master vampire that Vlad makes his deal with and, despite not being able to talk properly with his false teeth in, he really delivers a strong performance as the tormented and dangerous force in Vlad’s kingdom. I enjoyed the mythology of his origins which was ironic as I was more interested in that than in the origins of Dracula that I was watching…

The special effects were impressive, which is something I will rarely specifically point out but most of them are done really well that it’s hard not to be swept up in the spectacle. There is a scene in the film (that you see in the trailer) with an almighty horde of bats that Dracula can command, this scene was exciting because we see the full potential of Dracula’s powers as he crashes into the Turkish army. This is a side you don’t really see of Dracula which, good or bad, was interesting as you begin to explore the full extent of the prince of darkness’ powers.

The fashion in “re-imagining” a story in Hollywood is wearing thin nowadays. How vampires are depicted in the modern stories are so detached from what they were originally. Vampires are horrific, terrifying walkers of the night that nowadays either sparkle or hold a machine gun… I long for the day when we see a real horror masterpiece going back to the roots of what makes vampires scary. Not a re-imagining, not a prequel or with a “modern twist". A real 'back to basics’ telling of the Dracula legend. When we look at the 1931 telling of Dracula today, we get a flavour of what could be done with it today. What was done 83 years ago is still haunting today and puts to shame most of what has been released in the proceeding years since.

Overall, if you’ve seen the trailer then you haven’t missed much not seeing the film, everything you need is in there anyway. I think that if you enjoy vampire films, a bit of action and you have some time to kill then it will keep your attention for the duration and this is how I felt coming out of this film. I didn’t want to demand my money back and I was pleasantly entertained but I can’t see myself rushing out to purchase my own copy. 

Not a film to sink your teeth into... as it were.