Tags:
Film: Dracula 3D
Year: 2012
Director: Dario Argento
Writer: Dario Argento, Enrique Cerezo, Stefano Piani and Antonio Tentori
Starring: Thomas Kretschmann, Marta Gastini and Asia Argento
Review:
This film begins with a young woman, played by Miriam Giovanelli. She lives with her mother, played by Maria Cristina Heller. Giovanelli sneaks off to meet with her married lover. They make love, but Giovanelli thinks that she hears something. He convinces her that it is nothing. At the end, she wants him to walk her home, but he refuses for fear of them being caught together. She keeps up her pace and she is attacked by an owl. There is a man that pulls out a gun, looking to help her, but the owl becomes a man. This is actually Count Dracula played by Thomas Kretschmann. He bites her neck.
We then shift to the train station where a man is exiting a train, played by Unax Ugalde. He is there to take a job at the castle in the library. He comes to the town and meets with an old friend, played by Asia Argento. They haven’t seen each other since his wedding and she is excited to see his wife who will be joining him soon. We also see that he is friends with her father, who is played by Augusto Zucchi.
Ugalde stays in a local inn where he gets food and drink. At another table, there is a group of men that are talking about something. They end up leaving and dig up the grave of Giovanelli. They have stakes with them, but they are attacked by a strong, crazed man played by Giovanni Franzoni. He bites the ear off one of them and then kills another with a shovel. He is taken out by an officer that was helping them, but they realize that Giovanelli is gone. Franzoni is arrested.
There is no coach to take Ugalde to the castle, so he has to buy a horse. He rides it through the woods and there are a group of wolves that chase him. They disappear though as he approaches the castle. Upon arriving, he meets with Kretschmann. He is given a tour of where he will work and Ugalde notices something odd. Kretschmann doesn’t cast a shadow. Giovanelli comes on to Ugalde and is upset to see a picture of his wife, who is played by Marta Gastini. That night, she takes off her dress and Ugalde tries to resist. She bites his neck and Kretschmann enters. He throws her off and bites his neck himself.
We then see Gastini arrive in town. She goes to meet with Argento who tells her that Ugalde was unable to get away from work and is awaiting her at the castle. Argento and Zucchi are both excited to see her.
That night, Kretschmann comes to visit Argento. They dance together and he bites her. Also Heller goes to flee town and she is stopped by a man played by Giuseppe Lo Console. It appears that he is there to stop her from talking and kills her with an ax.
The following morning, Argento is not feeling well. She tells Gastini that if she wants a message sent to Ugalde, the best way is to give it to Console who takes supplies to the castle. She finds him and gives him the message.
Back at his house, Zucchi is concerned that Argento has been turned into a vampire, but he doesn’t see bite marks on her neck. Gastini ends up deciding to go to the castle, where she meets with Kretschmann, but not her husband. He tells her that her husband is back in town and that she should go back.
Soon after we then meet Van Helsing, who is played by Rutger Hauer. He has dealt with Kretschmann in an asylum he worked in, but didn’t kill him. He is here to kill off all of the vampires and try to save the town from Kretschmann. The problem though is that many of the townspeople know what Kretschmann is and have a pact with him. What will happen? Can Hauer defeat him? Or will he continue to rule over this town?
This is an interesting take on the story of Dracula from Dario Argento, director and father of one of the stars of this film. This one solely takes place in Transylvania, where the original novel moves to London. What also makes this interesting to me is that many of the townspeople know that he is a vampire and they have a pact with him. He has used his money to help rebuild the town, so they made a deal with the devil to do as he pleases. This film has kept that Dracula has the ability to different forms. This film does have some solid actors in it as well with Kretschmann, Asia and Hauer who have had a lot of success. We also get to see Asia and Giovanelli nude as well, just as a heads up.
This film does come with its issues though. The first one that I had problems with was the use of CGI. This is Dario’s first attempt at using 3D from what I read and I think he shouldn’t use it again. I hated seeing some of the backgrounds, some use of bugs and other things similar to this. It looks completely fake and it takes me out of the film when I try to watch it. I also hated that Dracula becomes things like cockroaches, a giant praying mantis and an owl. The original novel allowed him to become mist, bat and wolf. Now they kept the wolf part, but didn’t like the changes made for this. This film is also boring to me as the story has lulls where nothing is happening.
Now with that said, I would avoid this version of Dracula. Dario is a horror film icon, but this one is cheesy and doesn’t live up to some of his classics. This has some solid actors in Kretschmann, Asia and Hauer, but they can’t do enough to save this film. This one takes the original story and does something different by keeping it all in Transylvania, but doesn’t do enough to make it exciting. The CGI definitely hurts this film for me and the changes made to what Dracula can become were horrible to me. There are much better versions of this film that are much more worth your time.
My Rating: 3 out of 10