By Keri O’Shea
The Dracula story continues to be a source of inspiration for filmmakers, although to what degree they incorporate Bram Stoker’s novel into the resulting film has always been a sticking point, with many now either not bothering whatsoever or going off on such a wild tangent that old Bram himself wouldn’t recognise his character. Dracula Untold does something a bit different altogether, seemingly with the lofty aim of melding both the vampire myth of Stoker’s Dracula with the historical story of real-life voivod Vlad Tepes; the results are, as you might expect, a little ‘busy’, but there’s bugger all wrong with having a bit of ambition – and undeniably, if you’re willing to check your brain at the door, this is a really fun film in the spirit of that love-it-or-loathe-it epic Van Helsing.
The film begins by recounting Prince Vlad’s early years: given to the conquering Turks as a token of affiliation and peace by his father, the ruler of Transylvania, young Vlad is raised in the Sultan’s court, spending his boyhood alongside the soon-to-be Sultan Mehmet II. So far, so reasonably historically accurate. Vlad is then released as an adult, and permitted to rule over his lands permitted he pays a large tribute to the sultan every year. From here on in, any mention of the real Vlad’s atrocities are skirted over in order to paint our cinematic Vlad (played by valleys boy Luke Evans) as a doting husband and father. He’s also a good prince, though: when he finds a Turkish helmet sans owner near his castle, he assumes that his great foes are up to no good again, so he sets off with a couple of companions to scout around, see if he can find the Turkish army which surely must be encamped nearby.
Instead, him and his men find some sort of hideous entity in a cave, a bloodthirsty creature (Charles Dance) which dispatches Vlad’s men and narrowly misses getting him, too. Yet, when the Turks arrive for their tribute and in addition demand a thousand Transylvanian boys to join the sultan’s forces, Vlad decides to revisit whatever-it-is that is hiding in his lands. After all, he knows it can kill Turks, and that’s just what he’ll need now that he has refused the sultan’s request…
Not a bad idea really, is it? In terms of drawing together Vlad Tepes and Count Dracula, it has to be said that this is a likeable yarn with a fair few ideas. Throughout, the film felt to me like a graphic novel; the way in which it takes a classic story, develops a high-action back story and then lets it play out in spectacular style would be just as much at home on illustrated pages as in a film. Of course, the downside to this is that some people could get frustrated with the way that it nearly does the Vlad epic that’s surely waiting to be made and also nearly makes a solid monster movie; I’ve already drawn a comparison with Van Helsing, but to say more I’d say it has similar issues, it too can feel like it’s being dragged in a lot of different directions. Personally, in both films I could just forget about this and go with it. Here, you’ll see Charles Dance looking superb as a truly abhorrent, ghoulish bloodsucker, you’ll ponder Evans’ abdominal muscles and decide he has been designed by a benevolent God with the use of a set square, you’ll see a man routinely exploding into an army of bats which must be made of lead, and you can play ‘spot the scene’, identifying every bit of the film they’ve more or less lifted from either Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, Game of Thrones or The Crow, all of which you can find. Oh, and lest we forget, Mehmet II is played here by what looks like a preening car salesman, replete with goatee. What’s the fucking problem?
Still, in terms of scale, this is a nice piece of work, very easy on the eye: the CGI is well-handled and there are nice touches throughout, with the vast Turkish army looking particularly impressive. They also add in – briefly, mind – a forest of the impaled, something which we know did go on and which looks all the more devastating because of this. Evans gets a challenging task in terms of being expected to play a family man as well as a warlord, and he does reasonably well – although there’s something about him which means he’s not the epic lead man he ought to be; he doesn’t quite have the charisma, which is a shame. Charles Dance is great mind you, albeit in a bit-part role, and the rest of the supporting cast all manage to be engaging enough.
Judging by the (rather tacked on) ending, the intention is to make Dracula Untold the first part of a franchise it seems. Given the success of the comic adaptations of recent years, perhaps horror is going to attempt to follow suit? The thought certainly doesn’t bother me; big-budget monster movies are always good fun, so perhaps we’re ready for it now in a way which we weren’t when Van Helsing first came out. Dracula Untold has a diverting blend of big bucks and appealing ideas, and all told, it’s a good Friday night movie. Sometimes that’s all you want.