Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula

I have always been fascinated by the history of Vlad Dracula, and am glad that someone finally decided to make a film of this fascinating man. Low budget or not, this film is a great interpretation of the history of the legend.

Not your typical Dracula film, this film tells the story of the real Dracula, who inspired the story by Bram Stoker. It shows his birth, to his reign as prince of Romania, to his death. Some of the scenes are based on fact, others, I'm sure, were written just for the film. I have quite a few historical books about the man, and yes, the atrocities shown in this movie, were in fact done by the man.

The film was filmed in Romania and Hungary, so that does add to the realism of the story. The film is low budget, but even so, the sword fights had excellent choreography, and the special effects were above par for the budget. The only drawback for me was the length. Only 90 minutes.

All in all, this movie is worth a rental by both historical buffs, and horror fans. Hopefully someone will make a big screen version of this story one day. It sure does deserve one.

This film is based on the known history of Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), son of Dracul (the name means either devil or dragon), who has come to be known through Bram Stoker's famous novel as Dracula. The film begins with Vlad confessing his life story to Greek Orthodox priests. He is caught in the weblike power struggles involving the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, Hungary, and the Moslem Turks. In the midst of all this, he tries to do what is best for his homeland.

The film illustrates the origins of the Dracula myth: blood drinking, impaling with stakes, fear of mirrors, rebellion against religion, and the doom of eternal life because he is cursed to be welcome in neither heaven nor hell. Vlad is presented historically as a Robin Hood freedom fighter, a George Washington of Romania, and a man who tries to bring peace and justice to his troubled land. Some see him as a Messiah while others believe he is the Anti-Christ. In some ways, Vlad can be viewed as a 15th Century Godfather.

The plot unfolds slowly but the movie is nicely photographed and well acted. Vlad himself is played as a moody, brooding, dark figure who easily gives life to the many legends that have become attached to his name.

This is another very well-executed TV-movie and is definitely worth watching. The fact that it premiered on Halloween night is appropriate because the atmosphere is quite spooky.

Some things...

1) Dracula's first wife (whose name has never been historically documented other than known to be a Transylvanian noblewoman) committed suicide in 1462, not 1464, when Dracula was already imprisoned by the King of Hungary anyway. Not sure why the film changed this, really.

2) The impalings... aren't accurate. The oiled stake is put in the buttocks and slowly moves out through the mouth. This takes days, the impalee dying a slow death. We don't see any actual impalings during the movie save one, and the guy slides down the stake like it's a flag pole.

3) While not necessarily portrayed as a nice guy, I was expecting a bit more brutality. Much of Vlad Tepes' acts are brushed aside in the framing story of Dracula being interrogated by the priests in 1476 as "stories" by Dracula himself and this just seems like a kind of cop-out. I realize we don't need to see Dracula cutting the breasts off of women and such, but there was PLENTY of more hard-hitting material that could have been put in there. Example: instead of Dracula just closing the doors and executing the boyars like he does in the film, wouldn't it be far more effective cinematically to follow what *really* happened and show Dracula and his men dragging the boyars to go and build (by themselves) Castle Dracula, which took years and basically worked the lot of them to death? Also would have been effective to show the scene of Dracula rounding up all the homeless and beggars into the grand hall, then having his men burn it to the ground. The only real story of Dracula that was included was the one with the golden goblet that wasn't touched by anyone... that's about it.

4) I realize it was done for dramatic purposes, but the film kept sticking Dracula's broth Radu in places/times he simply wasn't. Dracula was killed in 1476 by a man (a Turk) disguised as one of his own guards... in a MARSH somewhat near Snagov, not inside Snagov Chapel.

5) The ending is neither here or there... I'd rather they didn't go that route, but then the end of Vlad's life is a bit anti-climactic.

I would like to see more Dracula movies based on the actual person. This is the first one I have ever come across. It's nice to see an interpretation on the real person rather than the Hollywood version. Though i wouldn't rely on this movie for true and accurate history, it did appear to stretch it for drama sake. The atmosphere is perfect, dark and haunting in a medieval sort of way. I thought it was amusing how at certain points the movie there were allusions to the common vampire myth (two i recall are about mirrors and driving a stake through Dracula's heart). Those point do spark interest into the real customs and beliefs of that time that formed the myth. I would recommend this movie to those who are at the least mildly interested in history and Dracula. Though it's a little dull at times and the brutality is dumbed down (it is a TV movie), it's a good movie to see when its on TV.

I can't honestly say exactly what caught my eye about this movie at my local video rental store. Perhaps it was just the Dracula title or possibly that it sounded interesting and a very different twist on the Dracula story. Here in Canada the movie was called Dracula: Dark Prince rather than "The True Story Of..." but still it caught my attention. The movie was phenomenal. The acting of each character was flawless and excellent. Having previously seen the lead Character portray Dracula previously on Buffy The Vampire Slayer (which was just a terrible episode) I was glad he got the opportunity to portray the famed killer again because he looks the part and he has it nailed to perfection.

The story is not the Dracula we all remember. The story is of the very human Vlad Dracul or (Vlad The Impaler) as history knows him. The prince of Romania who's father is murdered after Vlad and his brother are kidnapped by the Turkish Sultan who takes over Romania with an iron fist. Vlad's brother gives the Sultan everything including his body (seems the Sultan has a soft spot for young boys) but through torture, and starving Vlad perseveres and refuses to bow down to the Sultan. Eventually Vlad is released and with an army of Romanian peasants they take back their land. Vlad is considered their savior although by some he is called the Anti-Christ of Biblical prophecy. Throughout the movie Vlad fights to hold peace in his country and hold his throne. Every minute of this movie is captivating and interesting.

Whether it's exactly historically accurate really doesn't matter. The story is entertaining and brilliant written, acted, and directed and having been filmed in Romania, adds to the story. It's dark, and scary, and a truly worthy film. The unfortunate side was the lack of budget. Apparently this movie was made for TV and it was not given half the chance it deserves. With a big budget, they could have done a brilliant first class movie that could have held it's own in the theaters not just on video. People everywhere will be talking about this movie and it's unfortunate that critics, and movie theater lovers might not get to see this film. The movie also goes through the familiar "Vampire/Dracula" folk lore and explains where each myth came from such as "not being able to see a Vampire in a mirror" and "their retraction to light" just to name a couple. My suggestion right now is to go out and rent this movie, you will not see a better movie on your shelves. 8.5/10 (with a big budget could have easily been a 10/10)