Dracula Untold (previously known as Dracula: Year Zero) is a 2014 American dark fantasy action horror film directed by Gary Shore in his feature film debut and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. Rather than focus on Irish novelist Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, the film creates an origin story for its title character, Count Dracula, by re-imagining the story of Vlad the Impaler.
Cast:
Luke Evans as Vlad III Țepeș, the man who becomes the mythological DraculaSarah Gadon as Mirena / Mina Murray, wife of Vlad
Dominic Cooper as Mehmed II
Art Parkinson as Ingeras, son of Vlad / Dracula
Charles Dance as Master Vampire, the one who turns Vlad into a vampire. Charlie Cox was originally cast in the role but was replaced by Charles Dance and as a result his scenes as Master Vampire were reshot.
William Houston as Cazan
Ferdinand Kingsley as Hamza Bey
Noah Huntley as Captain Petru
Paul Kaye as Brother Lucian
Zach McGowan as Shkelgim, a gypsy chief
Ronan Vibert as Simion "The Wise"
Diarmaid Murtagh as Dumitru
Thor Kristjansson as Bright Eyes, a former slave who is now an assassin in the Ottoman Army
Joseph Long as Ömer
Samantha Barks as Baba Yaga; her scenes were later cut from the film
The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)
In the Middle Ages, Vlad the Impaler is the prince of Transylvania. As a child, he was enslaved by the Turkish Empire and trained to be a soldier in the Sultan's elite Janissary corp, where he became their most feared warrior, nicknamed the Impaler, after slaughtering thousands. Eventually sickened by his acts, he put aside his past and returned to rule Transylvania in peace. One day in the forest, Vlad and his soldiers discover a Turkish helmet in a stream, and fear that a Turkish scouting party is preparing the way for invasion. They follow the stream to a high mountain cave. Inside, the ground is carpeted in crushed bone, and they are attacked in the dark by an unknown creature. While his men are killed, Vlad escapes the cave into the sunlight, and the creature does not follow. Returning to his castle, Vlad finds out from a local monk that the creature is a vampire, once a man who made a pact with a demon in return for special powers.The next day, as Vlad celebrates Easter with his wife Mirena, his son Ingeras, and his subjects, a Turkish contingent arrives unexpectedly at the castle. Vlad offers them the usual tribute payment of silver coins, but the emissary notes that a battalion of Turkish scouts has gone missing, implying that Vlad has had them killed, and demands an additional tribute of 1,000 boys for the Janissaries. Vlad refuses, but his army is small and no match for the Turks. He approaches the Turkish Sultan, Mehmed the Conqueror, offering himself in place of the boys, but the Sultan refuses, and demands Vlad's son in addition. In desperation, Vlad returns to the vampire's cave to seek help. The vampire offers him some of his blood, which will temporarily give Vlad the powers of a vampire. If he resists the intense urge to drink blood, after three days, he will turn back into a human. Otherwise, he will remain a vampire forever, and will one day be called upon to help his maker. Vlad accepts the offer and drinks the vampire's blood.
Waking up in the forest afterwards, Vlad discovers he has been granted heightened senses, increased strength, and the ability to transform into a flock of bats, but his skin slowly burns in direct sunlight. When he returns to Castle Dracula, the Turkish army attack, but Vlad single-handedly kills them all. He then sends most of the castle's subjects to Cozia Monastery, which is situated on the edge of a mountain. During the journey, Mirena learns of Vlad's curse, but accepts that he will regain his mortality once the Turks are defeated. A gypsy named Shkelgim, who knows Vlad is a vampire, proclaims himself as his servant and offers his own blood, but Vlad resists. As they near the monastery, the Transylvanians are ambushed by Turkish soldiers, and while Vlad and his men successfully repel them, Vlad's sudden increased strength arouses suspicion among his subjects. The next day at the monastery, a monk learns of the curse and leads the Transylvanians to turn on Vlad, trapping him in a burning building. Black smoke blocks out the sun, allowing an outraged Vlad to escape the fire, and he angrily reveals that he became a vampire for the sole purpose of protecting his people from the Turks.
That night, the Turkish army marches on the monastery. Vlad commands an enormous swarm of bats to repel them; however, the soldiers are actually a decoy force, allowing a handful of Turks to infiltrate the monastery and kidnap Ingeras. Mirena tries to defend her son, and falls from the edge of the monastery wall. Dying, Mirena pleads with Vlad to drink her blood before the sun rises to give him the strength to save their son. Vlad reluctantly drinks her blood, triggering his final transformation into a full-blooded vampire and granting him even greater powers. Vlad returns to the monastery and turns a small group of survivors into vampires as well. At the Turkish camp, Mehmed prepares for a massive invasion of Europe. Vlad's vampires arrive and massacre the soldiers, while Vlad himself goes after Mehmed, who is holding Ingeras captive. Aware that vampires are weakened by silver, Mehmed has lined the floor of his tent with silver coins and fights Vlad with a silver sword. He overpowers Vlad and prepares to impale his heart with a wooden stake, but Vlad turns into a flock of bats and evades him. Taking the name "Dracula, Son of the Devil", he kills Mehmed and drinks his blood.
As they leave Mehmed's tent, Dracula and Ingeras are confronted by the other vampires, who demand that his son be killed because he is human. The monk who had previously led the Transylvanians against Vlad appears and keeps the vampires at bay with the Christian Cross. Dracula orders the monk to take Ingeras away, then uses his power to clear the black clouds in the sky. The sunlight burns the vampires into dust, while Dracula collapses into a charred corpse. With Europe saved from invasion, Ingeras is crowned the new Prince of Transylvania, and Vlad the Impaler is presumed dead. However, Shkelgim secretly takes Dracula into the shadows and revives him with his blood.
In the present day, Vlad meets a woman named Mina, who strikingly resembles Mirena, in the streets of a modern city, and they have a conversation about a line of poetry they have in common. The vampire who cursed Vlad watches them from afar, and anticipates what he has planned for Dracula in the future, saying, "Let the games begin".
The Verdict:
Let's watch that awesome trailer for this film one more time before I get to the actual review:Now that's out of the way, let's get down to business shall we? Don't worry this review is going to be a quickie - short and sweet.
Pros
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| Insert some iconic Castlevania music and give Luke Evans a whip and we have a film adaptation of Castlevania on our hands... |
Dracula Untold is a film that doesn't drag along nor beat around the brush. It has a tight, cohesive narrative that gets straight to the point without any filler or unnecessary bullshit to extend the runtime. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Transformers: Age of Extinction. However, any gamer who has played Mercurysteam's Castlevania: Lords of Shadow trilogy that featured Hideo Kojima's personal reimagining of the classic Castlevania lore, you can easily identify a lot of the influences on this narrative. I refuse to believe that this film was made out of pure coincidence when there are far too many similarities to Dracula's origin story here and Gabriel Belmont's fall from grace in that video game. I would love to know how Hideo Kojima felt about this film.
You cannot help but adore Luke Evans and Sarah Gadon's natural romantic chemistry onscreen. The duo makes a charming yet captivating couple that assists in drawing viewers into their romance. Luke Evans effortlessly swaps from between a merciless warrior to compassionate and loving husband as Vlad/Dracula throughout each scene while Sarah Gadon's Mirena acts his emotional anchor to aid him in maintaining the last remnants of his humanity. When Mirena is lost, that is when Vlad truly transforms into a monster - mind, body, and soul.
Luke Evans makes completely believable Dracula. He is empathetic as anti-hero and terrifying as a villain when needed. That being said, this film had a great cast from top to bottom. Marvel's Agent Carter and Captain America: The First Avenger's own Dominic Cooper stars as the villainous Mehmed II in this film while Game of Thrones' Charles Dance rounds off this stellar cast.
Cons
The film is a little TOO short. It barely comes close to a 90 min. runtime, leaving a huge "That's it??" impression on most viewers.Sadly, the narrative is VERY predictable, especially if you have ever seen a Dracula film over the last 30+ decades you know how his origin plays out. From the start, viewers should know that you have known this film wouldn't have a "happy" ending.
Last but not least, the film's ending/cliffhanger teaser shows next to NO originality. Whether you are in the same boat as me with this film ripping off elements from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow or not, the teaser just confirms that any possible sequels will just merely recycle more Dracula/Nosferatu lore and literature that has been done over and over again by Hollywood. I don't know about anyone else, but I was looking for something a bit more fresh here in terms of a tease for a sequel. A part of me was quietly craving that they would confirm the connection to the Castlevania video game franchise and make the sequel an appropriate live adaptation of that video game.
Hey... that's a MUCH better idea than those rumors of letting Paul W.S. Anderson direct a possible Castlevania film... (shudders)
Buy It, Rent It, Or Don't Bother?
I'm honestly floating between rent it or don't bother. It's a rather short film and I'm pretty sure it would be shown on television in no time, but if you want that vampire fix that doesn't involve the "sparkly" vampires of Twilight then give this a shot.
The cliffhanger ending teases a sequel, so it wouldn't hurt to see this first entry in a potential trilogy.
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