#4 - Dracula Untold (2014)


(dir. Gary Shore)

Despite being about Dracula, this is much more of an action/adventure film than it is horror.  In fact, it has more in common with a superhero origin story than anything else.  When his kingdom is threatened by the Turks, Prince Vlad Tepes seeks out a dark power to help him overcome his enemies.  By drinking the blood of a local vampire, he temporarily gains the powers of the undead.  If he is able to resist the temptation of drinking human blood he will return to normal after three days, but if he succumbs he will remain a vampire forever.  You can probably guess what happens.

I'm a sucker for anything Dracula-related, so I picked this up despite the negative reviews.  This definitely isn't a great film, but I did enjoy it much more than I was expecting to.  The story doesn't always make sense, but the acting is very good, the sets and costuming are great, and the special effects are mostly pretty excellent.  In particular I really liked Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister from Game of Thrones) as the master vampire who turns Vlad.  Also from Game of Thrones is Art Parkinson (Rickon Stark) as Vlad's son.

As far as Dracula movies go, this isn't a bad one (and there are plenty of bad ones out there).  It isn't anything to write home about either, but I went in with zero expectations and ended up enjoying it well enough.

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