''Dracula'', also known as ''Dracula's Curse'',
is a 2002
Italian two part
TV-miniseries written and directed by
Roger Young and starring
Patrick Bergin,
Giancarlo Giannini and
Stefania Rocca
Stefania Rocca (born 24 April 1971) is an Italian actress. She is best known for her roles in the films ''Nirvana'' (1997), ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' (1999) and ''Dracula'' (2002). Rocca also was the lead in Dario Argento's ''The Card Player''. ...
. It is based on the 1897
novel of the same name by
Bram Stoker
Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is celebrated for his 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and busine ...
, though it updates the events of the novel to the present day.
Plot
At a ballroom of a hospital charity party in
Budapest, the successful
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
lawyer Jonathan Harker suddenly proposes to his girlfriend Mina. He wants to marry her within the week. Their friends Lucy, Quincy, and Arthur have been invited by Jonathan and have just arrived for the wedding, all without Mina's awareness. Meanwhile, they meet the party's promoter, the psychiatrist Dr. Seward. Later in the same night, Jonathan is called by a rich client, Tepes, who hires him to prepare the inventory of his uncle's wealth, the count Vladislav Tepes, in
Romania. In his
Porsche
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...
, Jonathan travels to the
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...
, has an accident, and finally arrives in the count's old
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
.
Vlad Tepes, here calling himself Count Vladislav Tepes, decides to leave his castle and move to the west. He says he feels tired from Romania's decline and the seclusion of his life.
In Budapest, he discusses some illegal business with Harker. He also wants Jonathan's help to turn his collection of paintings, jewels, and gold deposits into cash. Jonathan's friends, businessman Quincey Morris, specialising in money swindles, and Arthur Holmwood, a British diplomat in debt, offer to help. Though Jonathan and Arthur doubt the deal, Quincey convinces them that money is all that matters, and it is one true power that makes the world go around.
Dracula gets very interested in those young people—the men, hungry for money and power; Lucy, who wants to sleep in many beds, in many cities, have new experiences and live forever; and Mina, who wants to change the world and end human suffering. Throughout the film, Dracula tries to seduce all five of them into his own world, making them wish to become vampires. Focusing again and again on how hypocritical morality is and promising them the loss of their consciences, he says survival of the fittest is the proper way, and even the strong cannot save the weak. He also references God's slaughters in the Bible to prove that humanity was created in his image, the image of a killer.
There to stop him is the researcher of the occult and Seward's teacher Dr. Enrico Valenzi, who believes that Dracula can be defeated when he faces a strong will empowered by faith. But throughout this film, he raises more and more self-doubts, and his will almost breaks by the end.
Mina, halfway through her transformation to a vampire, manages to make Dracula trust her and kills him as he holds her in an embrace. The film ends with Mina still having the vampire's mark, leaving her fate untold.
Cast
*
Patrick Bergin as
Vladislav Tepes
Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler ( ro, Vlad Țepeș ) or Vlad Dracula (; ro, Vlad Drăculea ; 1428/311476/77), was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in 1476/77. He is often considered one of the most imp ...
/
Dracula
''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...
*
Giancarlo Giannini as Dr. Enrico Valenzi
*
Hardy Krüger Jr. as
Jonathan Harker
Jonathan Harker is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. His journey to Transylvania and encounter with the vampire Count Dracula and his Brides at Castle Dracula consti ...
*
Stefania Rocca
Stefania Rocca (born 24 April 1971) is an Italian actress. She is best known for her roles in the films ''Nirvana'' (1997), ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' (1999) and ''Dracula'' (2002). Rocca also was the lead in Dario Argento's ''The Card Player''. ...
as Mina
*
Muriel Baumeister as Lucy
*
Kai Wiesinger as Dr. Seward
*
Alessio Boni as Quincey Morris
*
Conrad Hornby as
Arthur Holmwood
*
Brett Forest as Roenfield
*
Alessia Merz as Fair Woman
* Piroska Kiss as Dark Woman
* István Göz as Male Nurse
* Barna Illyés as Border Guard
* Csaba Pethes as Captain of the Tug
* Balázs Tardy as Tug Crew Member 1
* Levente Törköly as Tug Crew Member 2
* Ilona Kassai as Woman at the Hotel
* Imola Gáspár as Woman at the Manor
* Csilla Bakonnyi as Hungarian Woman
* Petra Hauman as Mother of the Boy
* Tibor Kenderesi as Man at the Hotel
*
Andrew Divoff
Andrew Daniel Divoff (born July 2, 1955) is a Venezuelan actor and producer.Lanyon, Mary-Justine"A 'Bad Guy' With a Heart of Gold", Lake Arrowhead Magazine (Winter 2015-16), pp. 41-43 retrieved June 30, 2020.
Divoff has played many villains in ...
as Doctor
Reception
Critical reaction to the film has been mixed to negative. David Johnson of ''DVD Verdict'' offered a positive review, saying: "Everyone involved commits to doing an okay job, and the production values and general atmosphere help shed the burden of the film stock and sad-sack effects. Bergin's Dracula is effectively crusty and malicious, and Muriel Baumeister has a good time hamming it up as the infected Lucy."
[DVD Verdict Review - Dracula's Curse](_blank)
/ref> Others were less positive: ''The SF, Horror, and Fantasy Film Review'' wrote, "While the film does an excellent job in updating ''Dracula'' to the midst of New Europe's nouveau riche, director Roger Young lets the show down considerably in the second half. ... The script does get caught up in some pretentious natterings ndthe performances are particularly uneven."
Noel Megahey of ''DVD Times'' said, "It's heawkwardness in the script and the dialogue that weighs heavily on the film, although the film actually does operate half-way successfully when it moves into the non-verbal action sequences. What really sinks the film in the end, though, is not the weakness of the special effects, but the performances and the delivery of the pan-European cast that struggles through their semi-dubbed English-language lines." David Hall of ''EatMyBrains.com'' said, "There have been far worse cinematic incarnations of Stoker's tale than this — but it must rank as one of the dreariest adaptations ever — a toothless bore shorn of any frisson of eroticism, with nary a drop of blood in sight."EAT MY BRAINS! - Dracula (aka Dracula's Curse) Review
/ref>
See also
* Vampire film
* List of vampire television series
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2002 films
2002 television films
2002 horror films
2000s Italian television miniseries
2000s German television miniseries
2000s Italian television series
2000s German television series
Italian supernatural horror films
German horror films
English-language Italian films
English-language German films
2000s Italian-language films
Films directed by Roger Young
Films scored by Harald Kloser
Dracula films
Dracula television shows
Films shot in Hungary
Horror television films
Works set in castles
2000s German films