''Dracula 3D'' (also known as ''Dario Argento’s Dracula'') is a 2012 vampire horror film co-written and directed by

Dario Argento Dario Argento (; born 7 September 1940) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and film critic, critic. His influential work in the horror film, horror genre during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the subgenre known as ...

and starring

Thomas Kretschmann Thomas Kretschmann (; born 8 September 1962) is a German actor who has appeared in many European and American films. His notable roles include Lieutenant Hans von Witzland in '' Stalingrad'' (1993), Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in '' The Pianist'' ( ...

Rutger Hauer Rutger Oelsen Hauer (; 23 January 1944 – 19 July 2019) was a Dutch actor. In 1999, he was named by the Dutch public as the Best Dutch Actor of the Century. Hauer's career began in 1969 with the title role in the Dutch television series ' ...

Marta Gastini Marta Gastini (born 2 October 1989) is an Italian actress, best known for playing Giulia Farnese in '' Borgia'' and for starring in the film '' The Rite''. Life and career After receiving an elementary education, she debuted as an actress on I ...

, and

Unax Ugalde Unax Ugalde Gutiérrez (born 27 November 1978) is a Spanish-Basque actor. Early life Unax Ugalde Gutiérrez was born on 27 November 1978, in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country. He is the son of a worker at the Altos Hornos and a housewife. While ...

. An Italian-Spanish-French co-production, the film is Argento's first

3D film 3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of special glasses worn by viewers. They have existed in some form since 1915, but had been largely relegated to a niche in the motion pict ...

. Kretschmann took the role of Dracula; he later played Abraham van Helsing in the Budapest-shot television series ''

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 ...

''.

Plot

During the

Walpurgis Night Walpurgis Night (), an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in ...

in the woods adjacent to the village of Passo Borgo, located at the foot of 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 ...

, a couple of young lovers, Tania and Milos, secretly meet and make love. After fighting, Tania removes the cross Milos had given her. On her way home, Tania is chased by a supernatural owl that kills her. Sometime later, Jonathan Harker, a young

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

hired by

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by som ...

, a

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteristi ...

from the area, arrives at the village. Tania's body mysteriously disappears from the cemetery. In the meantime, Harker, before going to Count Dracula's

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 ...

, takes the opportunity to visit Lucy Kisslinger, his wife Mina's best friend as well as the daughter of the local mayor. Upon arriving at the castle, Harker is greeted by Tania, reanimated as a vampire, who tries from the very beginning to seduce him; however, they are interrupted by Dracula's entrance welcoming Harker. Dracula shows Harker the library he is to catalogue. The following night Tania, having burnt Harker's photo of his wife Mina, tries again to seduce and bite Harker, partially undressing in front of him, but a furious Dracula intervenes, throwing her across the room. Dracula bites Harker's neck but allows him to live. Dracula meanwhile visits Renfield in his cell and frees him from his chains; Renfield acknowledges Dracula as "Master." That night Harker glimpses Dracula climbing unnaturally up the outside wall of the castle. The following day, a weakened but still conscious Harker attempts to escape, but as soon as he is outside the castle, a large wolf with a white lock changes into Dracula, who savages him. Meanwhile, Mina, Harker's wife, arrives in the village and is a guest for a few days at the home of her dearest friend Lucy Kisslinger, who also gets bitten and turned. The day after, Mina, worried about her husband, goes to Count Dracula's castle. Their encounter makes her forget what happened during her visit. She is completely under the count's influence; the count had orchestrated the events leading up to their encounter; in fact Mina looks exactly like his beloved Dolingen de Gratz, who died some centuries ago. Returning to the Kisslinger house, Mina learns of the death of her dear friend Lucy. The sequence of such strange and dramatic events summons the aid of

Van Helsing A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

, vampire expert of the techniques used to eliminate them. Being aware of the circumstances, Van Helsing decides to act swiftly and prepares the tools needed to combat vampires. He inspects Lucy's

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

and finds it empty, then kills the undead Lucy as she tries to attack Mina. He then directs himself to the center of evil, Count Dracula's castle. Meanwhile, Dracula goes to the village and kills a group of men gathered at the tavern who plotted to betray him. At the same time, Van Helsing, inside the castle, is able to definitively kill Tania, Renfield, and a now-undead Harker. Dracula, intent on his desire to reunite with his beloved wife, leads Mina, completely hypnotized, to the castle where Van Helsing is waiting. He has decided to engage in a deadly fight with his evil foe. During the struggle, Van Helsing loses his gun loaded with a silver bullet coated in garlic, but Mina, shaking off Dracula's spell, picks up the gun and kills Dracula with it. The special

silver bullet In folklore, a bullet cast from silver is often one of the few weapons that are effective against a werewolf or witch. The term ''silver bullet'' is also a metaphor for a simple, seemingly magical, solution to a difficult problem: for example, pe ...

transforms Dracula into ashes, and Mina limps out of the

graveyard A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

, Van Helsing along with her. After they leave, however, Dracula's spirit lifts the ashes into the air and, uniting, they shape into a large wolf that leaps forward.

Cast

Abraham Van Helsing Professor Abraham Van Helsing, a fictional character from the 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula'', is an aged Dutch polymath doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his ...

as Mina *

Asia Argento Asia Argento (; born Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento; 20 September 1975) is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with a ...

as Lucy Kisslinger *

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 ...

Miriam Giovanelli Miriam Giovanelli (born 28 April 1989) is an Italian-Spanish actress and model. Biography Miriam Giovanelli was born in Rome, Italy to an Italian father and Spanish mother. Personal life On 23 September 2017 she married the Spanish archite ...

Tania Tania is usually a given name. It may refer to: Given name * Tânia Alves, Brazilian actress and singer * Tania Brishty, Bangladesh actress and model * Princess Tania de Bourbon Parme, French designer * Tania de Jong, Dutch-born Australian sopran ...

* Giovanni Franzoni as

Renfield R. M. Renfield is a fictional character who appears in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. ...

Production

Prior to the production of the film Argento had wanted to film a version of Dracula but he "could not find the way into it." With the advances in 3D technology Argento revisited the idea as he felt he could offer a fresh take on the story in 3D. The project was first announced on 20 May 2010 at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

, along with a teaser poster. with the first set images were released on 10 July 2011.

Release

''Dracula 3D''

premiered A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...

at the Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2012. It was released theatrically in France on 27 November 2013.

Reception

''Dracula'' received generally negative reviews, currently holding an 14% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

; the consensus states: "Schlocky and gross but far from bad enough to be good, ''Argento's Dracula 3D'' bites and sucks in all the wrong ways." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a 23/100 rating, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' gave the film a negative review, noting that the "first of many unintentional laughs in Dario Argento's ''Dracula 3D'' comes on the opening credits" and "this is a tired rehash that adds little to the canon aside from such outré touches as having Drac shapeshift into a swarm of flies or a giant grasshopper in one howler of a scene." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' also gave the film a negative review, stating, "director Argento half-heartedly mixes schlocky 3D f/x with one-dimensional characters for a near-two-hour joke that ought to have been funnier." ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave the film a D rating and criticized the film's "inept pacing, clunky cinematographic staging, shoddy sets." ''

Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...

'' noted that "it is so lushly loopy that against all odds it could become something of a 3D cult title, and certainly for those of us who have 'experienced' it there is a certain 'I was there' badge of honour to go alongside having been at the Cannes screenings of '' The Brave'' or ''

Southland Tales ''Southland Tales'' is a 2006 American dystopian comedy thriller film written and directed by Richard Kelly. The film features an ensemble cast including Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, and Justin ...

''." Peter Sobczynski of '' RogerEbert.com'' also gave an unfavorable review, criticizing Argento for delivering "a version f Draculathat plays like a choppy condensation based on hazy memories of the book", and described Thomas Kretschmann's performance as "perhaps the least terrifying version of Dracula to come along since

Leslie Nielsen Leslie William Nielsen (11 February 192628 November 2010) was a Canadian actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters. Nielsen was bo ...

." The film was also criticized for its look and visual effects, with ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' opining that "despite some attractive costumes and sets, ''Argento's Dracula'' is a sparse, cheap-looking movie, with visual effects that would have been rejected on ''

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...

''." Likewise, ''Fangoria'' faulted the film for containing "some of the worst visual FX for a film of this stature in recent memory."

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dracula 3D Dracula films 2012 films 2012 3D films 2012 horror films Italian supernatural horror films French horror films Spanish horror films English-language Italian films English-language French films English-language Spanish films Films directed by Dario Argento Films based on horror novels Films shot in Budapest Films shot in Hungary Italian independent films French independent films Spanish independent films Films scored by Claudio Simonetti Films with screenplays by Dario Argento Filmax films Films set in castles 2010s English-language films 2010s French films Enrique Cerezo PC films 2010s Spanish films 2010s Italian films