HallowScream - Dracula Untold (2014)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, given how this year's HallowScream has been predominantly focused on vampires, it's only appropriate that I talk about the most legendary of vampires: Dracula. Coming from the book by Bram Stoker, Dracula has been viewed as the most iconic vampire in fiction for many years. Now, while I do intend to talk about the 1931 classic Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, that review is being saved for Halloween Day. Today, however, I'm looking at a more recent Dracula film, Dracula Untold.

         Released in October of 2014, Universal and Legendary Pictures' Dracula Untold takes the Marvel superhero route in telling the origin story of the vampire Dracula, mixing in the real life legend of Vlad the Impaler. In fact, we start off seeing Vlad as a boy taken to be trained in the Janissary army of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He also befriends the Ottoman prince, Mehmed II, and over time gains a reputation and becomes known as Vlad the Impaler. 

        Years later, and Vlad is now the prince of Transylvania and Wallachia, and is informed of a trail of Ottoman troops that leads to Broken Tooth Mountain, which has a cave near the top that houses a vampire named Caligula. Caligula attacks Vlad's men, but Vlad himself escapes. Some time later, and an emissary from the Ottoman Empire arrives, informing Vlad that Mehmed II is now Sultan, and he seeks a tribute of 1,000 boys to be trained as Janissaries. Vlad attempts to offer himself instead, but Mehmed refuses, and now demands Vlad's son in addition to the already demanded 1,000. 

       Unfortunately, Vlad defies his former friend, and seeks the power to protect his family and his people. So, he goes to the cave Atop Broken Tooth Mountain, where Caligula gives him just a taste of the power he seeks. But, with said power comes a challenge: if he can withhold the consumption of human blood for three days, he'll return to being a human. If he can't do that, and he feeds on human blood before the sun sets on the third day, he'll be a vampire forever, and Caligula will be freed from his prison. Vlad agrees, and he is given supernatural abilities, including the power to transform into a cloud of bats. Cool. 

        With his new power, Vlad moves as many as he can to a nearby monastery for safety, while Vlad is easily able to defeat Ottoman troops that come near. Vlad's secret, however, is discovered by his wife Mirena, and she ultimately agrees to keep his secret safe, as he's been holding silver to weaken himself around his men as to avoid his curse becoming known. Unfortunately, Ottoman troops do show up at the monastery, and begin killing many. Mirena tries to protect her son, but the boy is taken anyway, and Mirena sent plummeting to her death. Vlad tries to save her, but as he's about to lose his powers by sunrise, she begs him to drink her blood. Vlad does so, and is now permanently a vampire. Also, Caligula is freed from his imprisonment atop Broken Tooth Mountain. Uh-oh.

         Deciding to go after Mehmed and rescue his son, Vlad walks among his surviving subjects, some of whom are mortally wounded, and turns them into vampires, and soon summons a dark cloud to blot out the sun. So, Vlad and his vampires attack the Ottoman forces, with Vlad going straight after Mehmed, who has surrounded himself with silver. Preparing to kill him, Vlad turns into a swarm of bats, takes on the name "Dracula," and kills Mehmed. Vlad, now Dracula, send his son away from him, and dispels the clouds to allow the sun to destroy the vampires, including Dracula himself. However, Dracula is saved by a man who knew of his nature earlier, and is restored with some of the man's blood. With Vlad presumed dead, his son is formally crowned as Prince of Wallachia. We then jump ahead into the modern era, where Dracula meets a young woman, Mina, who resembles his wife Mirena. From afar, Caligula observes Dracula, and walks off remarking "Let the games begin." 

        Now, something that is worth noting is that Dracula Untold was intended to kick start a cinematic universe consisting of Universal's iconic monsters. Dracula, the Mummy, Frankenstein, and so forth. Unfortunately, the film didn't meet expectations of critics and audiences at the time, despite making a decent profit at the box office, and so Universal moved on, reworking their 2017 reboot of The Mummy into the first chapter of a cinematic universe called the "Dark Universe." But, we're not going to get into THAT cinematic fart anytime soon, so let's just talk about Dracula Untold.

       So, I think that this movie got a bit of a bum wrap when it came out, and is a bit underrated as far as Dracula moves go. I think that director Gary Shore has a vision for this movie that is not only different, but really fleshes out cinema's most famous vampire in a way that really stands out. Maybe not in the best way, but in a interesting way to say the least. 

        The performances were fantastic, with Luke Evans leading the pack as Vlad/Dracula. Honestly, after hearing that Luke was cast as Dracula in this movie, I was pretty much sold. And, not only did Luke give a phenomenal performance as Dracula, quite arguably the best since Bela Lugosi, but if Dracula was real, he'd probably look a lot like Luke Evans. I also enjoyed Sarah Gadon as Mirena. I think her character really helped to humanize Dracula, as it gave him motivation. Giving Dracula a wife and son made the stakes more personal, and thus showing his willingness to become a monster. Dominic Cooper was a decent villain as Mehmed II, and his Turkish accent was memorable but just bordered on being cartoonish. But, much like his performance as Thomas in Underworld: Awakening, Charles Dance was easily the most memorable part of the movie in the role as Caligula. And honestly, I absolutely bought him as the vampire that made Dracula into a vampire. 

         The visual effects, especially for the swarms of bats, were absolutely amazing. Some of the vampire transformations and the vampire deaths were pretty intense, with some mild amounts of gore, but not enough to get an R-rating. Which, to some, may be problematic, as a movie like this almost begs for an R-rating as opposed to the PG-13 rating it ultimately got. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed Dracula Untold, and I give it a rating of 4/5. 

       Alright guys, this is Chuck signing off. And HallowScream will be taking a bit of a break from vampires to instead talk about the new movie Five Nights at Freddy's.