Dracula Untold
The thousand faces of Dracula
It is curious how the legend becomes much larger than the real character, although the different versions of its stories tend to confuse the viewer, not knowing where reality ends and fiction begins. Cinema, in turn, contributes a lot to this, since there is no commitment to the historical point of view, but to the profits first. This is the case of “Dracula Untold” (USA, 2014).)
If there is a character who is worshipped in the cinema it is certainly Dracula, the vampire, and all his congeners, derivatives and similars. At the time of silent cinema Murnau already frightened audiences with “Nosferatu” (“Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens”, GER, 1922). The vampire has already been experienced on screen by Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman, Leslie Nielsen, Jack Palance, George Hamilton, Boris Karloff, and a host of others in nearly three hundred titles listed on the IMDB website.
On this same site, there is reference to 3438 movies and series with the keyword “vampire”. It is in this cake that we will find titles as disparate as “Blade” (USA, 1998), “Interview with the Vampire” (USA, 1994) and “Dance of the Vampires” (UK/USA, 1967) to “Twilight” (USA, 2008), not forgetting the cult-movies “The Hunger” (UK, 1983) and “Fright Night” (USA, 1985).
The vast majority of these films and series are inspired by the character created by irish writer Bram Stoker, who imagined a monstrous being, who had made a pact with the Devil, and who fed on the blood of human beings. Interestingly, it wasn’t until he completed “The Vampire Count” that Stoker heard about the historical character called “Voivode Dracula”, and what caught his attention was that in Romanian Dracula means devil. It was enough for him to change his character’s name and locate him in Transylvania, where he himself never set foot.
Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, was better known as Vlad Tepes, or the Impaler, for the unfriendly habit of sticking prisoners of war and criminals on the ground. He was also known as Draculea, which means Son of the Dragon.
In the time of Vlad, Wallachia was a small princedom located where Romania is now and lived squeezed between the powerful Ottoman Empire, and the no less powerful Hungary. Over and over the little kingdom was forced to switch sides by pressure from its powerful neighbors.
Due to the political back-and-forth, when he had just returned to his land, along with his well-known ferocity against enemies, Vlad created around him an aura of mystery and even immortality. The fact that his tomb was opened after centuries and was empty further reinforced these legends.
In the film “Dracula Untold”, we find Vlad (Luke Evans) ruling his country after returning from a long exile in the Ottoman Empire, to which he had been taken hostage as a child. His fame as a fierce warrior had yielded him the fame of Impaler.
Although all he wanted was to live in peace, along with his wife Mirena (Sarah Gadon) and son (Art Parkinson), new threats seem to emerge. While hearing rumors of a Turkish invasion, he discovered the existence of a monstrous being who inhabited a cave on a mountain, whose powers had demonic origin.
At the same time, Turkish emissaries demand from Vlad to deliver 1,000 children from Transylvania to be trained in the army of Sultan Mehmed (Dominic Cooper), including the prince’s only son.
Revolted, Vlad confronts the sultan’s men and flees with his people to a monastery in the mountains. He returns to the cave where the mysterious being hide, intending to obtain similar powers, to face the Turks.
The creature (Charles Dance) offers him his blood so that he can drink and acquire the powers he desires. However, he says that in the next three days Vlad will feel an insatiable blood thirst, and if he gives in to this impulse, he will become a monster like him.
To save his people and his family, Vlad accepts the challenge, and becomes a kind of superman, with an immense strength and ability to command animals and even the time around him. However, the obstacles he faces will require more than these powers, and may imply the sacrifice of what he deemed most important, his own immortal soul.
As one might expect, the film brings a good deal of special effects, with great battle scenes and visual effects in the hero’s transformations. Some traditional aspects are remembered, such as the effect of sunlight on vampires, although silver had more to do with werewolves. There was no mention of mirrors or garlic.
A tribute to Bram Stoker’s work was made at the end of the movie, when Dracula meets Mina Harker, and already arouses the fury of Dr. Van Helsing.
After all this salad, where we don’t have either the historical persona or the character created by Stoker, what’s left is an adventure movie, with lots of action and special effects, for the consumption of current audiences. In my humble opinion, Dracula’s story continues without being told.
I’d have two other suggestions about vampire movies. The first is the classic “Dracula” (UK/USA, 1992) by Francis Ford Coppola, which most closely resembles Bram Stoker’s book. The second is diametrically opposed, the interesting Swedish film “Let the Right One In” (“Låt den rätte komma in”, SUE, 2008), which tells about a vampire girl. This film spawned the American remake “Let Me In” (USA, 2010) and the series “Let the Right One In” (USA, 2022).
“Dracula Untold” can be watched on Apple TV, STARZ and Paramount Plus streaming services.