The Prince of Darkness is back on the big screen and, in some ways, is bigger than ever. But in this case, the prince in question isn’t the subject of Dracula 3D, but revered horror director, Dario Argento, whose take on the Bram Stoker tale hit theaters and On-Demand internet video sites in the US this month.
As the director of such low rent, gory classics as Suspiria and Trauma and as the producer of the Demons franchise, Argento’s work is held close in the hearts of many a ghoul and goblin. His images of darkness, terror and extremity have entered the Horror Zeitgeist and are now featured in everything from big budget slasher films to music videos. In an entertainment landscape as jaded and hardened as we find in 2013, Argento still stands alone as a horror creator with the power to shock an audience.
And while, his directorial output has lessened greatly in recent years, the mix of the traditional Dracula story and Argento’s track record of pushing the envelope would seem to be the ingredients for a tasty brew. And all in 3D! (Though sadly, no 3D showings of the film were available to me)
It sounds like a grindfest miracle waiting to happen.
And if that’s what you’re looking for…. Well, let’s just say, you’re going to get to the end of this feature still looking for that movie.
Teamed with three other screenwriters, Argento adapts the Stoker novel with surprising clarity. The familiar faces are all in their places with Thomas Kretschmann as Count Dracula, Marta Gastini as Mina, Asia Argento as Lucy and everyone’s favorite noir Dutchman, Rutger Hauer as Van Helsing.
Again, the movie follows classic form as Jonathan Harker (Unax Ugalde) is lured to the castle of the Count by promise of employment and sucked into the world of vampirism (pun alert). Also in short-string Italian horror style, instead of Dracula going to the rest of his victims, this time, they come to him in his Italian rustic village posing as psudeo-Germanic rustic fiefdom.
Despite that alteration of the plot, Dracula 3D unfolds with the familiar Stoker markers. Harker is entrapped, Lucy gets turned, Mina encounters the Count, Dracula recalls his dead wife… You know the drill.
And that’s the problem. As another take on the Stoker story, Dracula 3D isn’t bad. In fact, it’s very passable and somewhat cleverly done. But as a film that we have come to expect from Dario Argento… Well, in that regard, it can only be described as… Safe.
That’s the watchword for this film as far as what we get in the American release. The characters are safe, the bloodletting is nondescript, the death scenes are typical for a vampire movie. The most transgressive aspect of the whole film is the tendency for Asia Argento to keep turning up naked in her father’s film.
This isn’t to say the film is without horrific merit. The performances are solid, Kretschmann is somewhat sympathetic as Dracula and Hauer’s soberly played Van Helsing chews less scenery than Anthony Hopkins and has less gratuitous muscle flexing than Hugh Jackman. The pacing is fine and the movie even has one noteworthy bizzaro scene where Dracula kills Lucy’s father as a giant praying mantis (yes, you just read that correctly).
But Argento fans, hopeful to receive another ultra-violence masterpiece will certainly blow the raspberry at this film, mostly because what they hope for is in no way delivered.
The ultimate verdict against Dracula 3D is, if it had been a film made by Roger Corman or Terrence Fisher in the 60’s, it might have had legs. But who would have believed that Dario Argento in 2013 would make a Dracula film less provocative than Francis Ford Coppola’s?
It just shows in the world of the Undead, if you hang in the shadows long enough, anything can happen.
3 Stars