“Every bloodline has a beginning,” the tagline for Dracula Untold promises. The film, directed by Gary Shore, delivers a beginning that lasts 92 minutes and then stops.
Trailer, via Universal Pictures.
Vlad Tepes, Prince of Wallachia
Dracula Untold is a 2014 action horror film from Universal Pictures, released in regular and IMAX cinemas on October 10, 2014. Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless wrote the screenplay. Shore directs in his feature debut. The film grossed $217 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics.
It should not have. This is a film that mistakes motion for momentum.
Broken Tooth Mountain and the Master Vampire
The plot is an origin story, not an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In the 15th century, Vlad Dracula is Prince of Wallachia and Transylvania. As a boy he was an Ottoman royal ward, trained for the Sultan’s elite janissary corps. He became their most feared warrior, earning the name “Vlad the Impaler, Son of the Dragon.”
Sickened by his own exploits, he retires and rules in peace. Then he finds a helmet in a stream. Fearing an Ottoman scouting party, he follows the stream to a cave in Broken Tooth Mountain, where a humanoid creature kills his soldiers. Vlad barely escapes.
Brother Lucian, a Romanian Orthodox monk, tells him the creature is a vampire. It was once Caligula, a Roman general tricked by a demon for power, then trapped in the cave.
The Easter Feast and the Sultan’s Demand
At an Orthodox Christian Easter feast with his wife Mirena and son Ingeras, an Ottoman contingent arrives. The emissary demands a tribute of boys for Sultan Mehmed II, including Vlad’s son.
Desperate, Vlad returns to Broken Tooth Mountain. The Master Vampire offers him blood that grants its powers for three days. Resist the urge to drink human blood, and he turns back. Fail, and he stays a vampire forever — and the ancient vampire goes free.
Vlad drinks. He gains superhuman strength and the ability to become a cloud of bats. He returns to the castle, catches a squad of soldiers, and kills them all single-handedly. He sends most of the castle’s subjects to Cozia Monastery for safety.
Luke Evans and a Cast Left Standing
Luke Evans plays Vlad. Sarah Gadon is Mirena, and she also plays Mina in the present-day ending. Dominic Cooper is Mehmed II. Art Parkinson is Ingeras. Charles Dance is the Master Vampire.
The film has been in motion since 2010, when Sam Worthington was in negotiations to play Vlad and the release was set for 2011. Universal terminated its deal with director Alex Proyas in 2012. Worthington backed out. Evans replaced him in April 2013.
Baba Yaga and Bright Eyes, Cut Before Release
Filming began in Northern Ireland on August 5, 2013. Samantha Barks joined to play Baba Yaga, a beautiful young woman who becomes a savage witch. Her scenes were cut. Charlie Cox was cast as Caligula. His scenes were cut too.
The finished film keeps Charles Dance, Ferdinand Kingsley, William Houston and Thor Kristjansson. Kristjansson plays Bright Eyes, an Eastern European taken as a slave as a boy and now an assassin in the Ottoman Army. Zach McGowan plays Shkelgim, a Romani chief.
A Three-Day Clock That Never Ticks
Here is the film’s central problem. The three-day rule is the only engine Dracula Untold has, and Shore never makes the audience feel it. The countdown should tighten every scene. Instead the film races from one skirmish to the next, so the temptation that is supposed to define Vlad never gets room to breathe.
Evans is a credible physical presence. He is not given a character to play. Vlad’s transformation from war hero to monster is stated in the synopsis and asserted on screen, but the film skips the part where it would mean anything.
The Ending That Reaches for a Sequel
The present-day ending, with Gadon returning as Mina, is a setup for a franchise that never arrived. It is the most honest thing in the movie: a promise the film cannot keep.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 15th century | Vlad rules Wallachia and Transylvania |
| August 5, 2013 | Principal photography begins in Northern Ireland |
| October 10, 2014 | Universal releases the film in regular and IMAX cinemas |
What Dracula Untold Gets Wrong
The film wants to be a tragedy about a man who becomes the thing he hunted. It has all the parts: a family worth saving, a deadline, a monster who offers exactly the wrong deal. What it lacks is patience. Sazama and Sharpless build an origin story that explains Dracula without ever making him interesting.
A 92-minute runtime is not the issue. Plenty of short films carry weight. The issue is that Dracula Untold spends its minutes on battles and spends none on the man deciding to lose himself.
The premise is strong. The execution is a trailer stretched to feature length.
Dracula Untold: 4.0/10.
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