I’m not a fan of vampire movies. The genre does not interest me at all, and there must be other good reasons to have me sit in front of a screen to see a movie that belongs to it. One of these reasons is the promise that the movie says something new about the origin of the character, invented by Bram Stoker and modeled on the deformation of Vlad Tepes’ historical personality. It’s what ‘Dracula Untold‘ promised (‘Untold’ like in the untold story). A promise that is far from accomplished. The film directed by Gary Shore is an acceptable entertainment film, not a masterpiece and not as bad as it could have been.
Historically, everything is a mess. Vlad is moved from Wallachia to Transylvania, the Cozia monastery (also moved over the mountains) becomes a fortress but with walls painted on the outside as in Bucovina, nothing in the film resembles Transylvania from then or now, which is no wonder as filming was made in Northern Ireland, and the cinematography is more like that of ‘Lord of the Rings’. But there are pleasant surprises also. If we put aside any historical pretext, Vlad is portrayed as a charismatic and moral character, ready to sacrifice his humanity to save his country. The lead role actor, Luke Evans, is very good, making to look credible some of the most incredible scenes. After all, we are in an imaginary world where comics style meets vampire stories on big screens with computer graphics.
Director Gary Shore (well-known from advertising films) is at his first feature film, but this is not felt at any time. He builds the story intelligently, focusing on the main character and his evolution. The film has rhythm and the graphic effects are of good quality. The end even hints to a possible sequel, although I have not heard about one having been produced or in plans. The historical pretext is totally missed, the film does not say anything about the history behind the Dracula historical character, possibly just suggesting an alternative to the origin of Bram Stoker’s fictional character. The line in the end credits that officially informs us that the characters and action of the film have nothing to do with real characters, now or in history, has never been more true.