Dracula: The Dark Prince

This is a low budget film about how Dracula came to be after his love, Elizabeth, was murdered. After his change, he sets his mind to finding the "Lightbringer", the scythe that Cain used to kill his brother Abel. It is with this scythe that Dracula, a descendant of Abel, will be able to prevent death to anyone he chooses essentially making himself a god. He runs into a problem when he finds what he believes to be the reincarnation of Elizabeth in Alina, a demon slaying woman. He tries to woo her into remembering the life they once shared while a group of Alina's fellow demon slayers both search for her and seek to kill Dracula.

I liked it. That's not to say that it didn't need work but overall I found the story interesting. Again, it is low budget so you get so-so acting, shaky scripting and action that needs some choreographic help. I've seen much worse though. This is one that you just have to give it a chance to play out all the way and then make your decision as to how good you think it is.

Is the main actress hot? Does it really matter to the movie watching experience you are about to have? The first question I think most will tend to answer with a yes. The second one though ... well I don't think many will swing to a yes vote for that. The CGI is not really great, but that is to be expected with the budget this movie has. It does look like a million other movies with a C-budget (or is it D?).

The fact that they can release this under the Dracula banner is almost an insult I guess. Especially when you think that really good movies had no rights to the name (see Nosferatu amongst others). But if you really have too much time and love those sorts of movies, I won't stop you from watching it. Don't say I didn't warn you (and you waved it away like all those traveling through Transylvania)

In the Sixteenth Century, a group of warriors are vanquished by Wrath (Vasilescu Valentin) and other demons in Romania. The teenagers Alina (Kelly Wenham) and her sister Esme (Holly Earl) flee with a box, but they are surprised the a group of thieves commanded by the young Lucian (Ben Robson) that wants the box. They disclose that inside the box there is the Lightbringer, the only weapon capable to kill Dracula (Luke Roberts). Soon the vampire hunter Leonardo Van Helsing (Jon Voight) comes to the camping of the thieves and when he is explaining the power of the Lightbringer, Wrath returns with the creatures and attack the group. They are defeated but Wrath kidnaps Aline and brings her to Dracula in his invisible castle. Her resemblance with Dracula's bride that was killed by traitors one century ago makes him believe that she is her reincarnation. Now Dracula wants to seduce Alina and he asks his assistant Renfield (Stephen Hogan) to take care of Alina. Meanwhile Van Helsing and Esme team up with Lucian and the hunter Andros (Richard Ashton) that seeks out Dracula to revenge the death of his sister Demetria (Poppy Corby-Tuech) and the unlikable group heads to the castle using a compass in the Lightbringer to rescue Alina from the vampire.

"Dracula: The Dark Prince" might have been an entertaining movie with improvements. Dracula blonde is ridiculous; the decrepit Jon Voight is annoying and also pathetic in the role of a vampire hunter. The two "Xenas" protecting the valuable box is also terrible. The modern haircut of Lucian is laughable. The female vampires in Dracula's harem seem to be in a fashion parade or beer advertisement. But the movie is watchable and makes laugh. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Drácula - O Príncipe das Trevas" ("Dracula - The Dark Prince")

Ok, so we have a mashup of low budget medieval adventure and Beauty and the Beast but with vampires.

Lets not forget the terrible costume design, the way they ripped off Dracula's look from Castlevania and the soft porn scenes that add nothing to the plot.

If you are like me and will watch any tv show/movie with vampires just for the sake of it then go ahead. But if you are looking for a good adventure/horror movie just skip this one.

One thing that can be said confidently is that there has never been any shortage of Dracula themed movies. Even after Hammer Horror were laid to rest we got wall to wall films cashing in on the popularity of the worlds favorite Transylvanian.

This is one of those efforts that presents him as almost an anti-hero, forced into the darkness through anger at the loss of his true love.

Trouble is this one simply isn't very good, it's a combination of classic mythology and modern nonsense that simply doesn't work.

It looks shoddy, it sounds poor and poor Jon Voight looks very out of place.

With a blonde dracula, practically no bites/blood/vamperic action and more Christian references than a priest could shake his tallywacker at this is a poor piece of Dracula cinema.

The Good:

A few decent designs here and there

The Bad:

Far too much christianity

Incredibly dull

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Jon Voight must have lost a bet