Dracula: The Original Living Vampire

Ugh, well of course it had to happen. The Asylum breaks out another can of mockbuster, and this time it is the upcoming "Morbius: The Living Vampire" movie that gets the treatment in "Dracula: The Original Living Vampire".

When I saw the movie's poster and read the movie's title, I was immediately aware of this being another The Asylum movie, without a doubt, and yet I opted to sit down and watch this 2022 movie from writer Michael Varrati and director Maximilian Elfeldt. And I will say, actually, that this movie wasn't actually all that bad.

Sure, you are not in for an evening of Shakespearian cinema here, but at least The Asylum upped their game tremendously in terms of budget, production and effects. So it was a pleasant surprise to watch "Dracula: The Original Living Vampire" actually, despite of the insanely lazy writing from Michael Varrati, as it was essentially just the classic Bram Stoker story "Dracula" with slight modifications to the story, and with some not-so-subtle-shoved-into-the-stage Woke mentality as well.

I wasn't familiar with a single performer on the cast list in "Dracula: The Original Living Vampire", aside from Michael Ironside, which is something I actually do enjoy when I watch movies. And I will say that the performances put on by the actors and actresses were actually quite good.

The production in "Dracula: The Original Living Vampire" was great, and actually felt like a proper movie, instead of the usual rubbish low budget attempts of making a movie that The Asylum has been pushing out by the dozens each year. So that was a great accomplishment.

And the visuals too were greatly improved, which impressed me, because The Asylum usually have questionable and dubious special effects, but not in "Dracula: The Original Living Vampire". Thumbs up on that accomplishment.

Ultimately, then I was definitely pleasantly surprised with "Dracula: The Original Living Vampire" and found it to be a watchable movie and entertaining enough for what it was.

My rating of "Dracula: The Original Living Vampire" lands on a five out of ten stars.

The story line has nothing new to add to the countless Dracula movies that have been done over the years. From that standpoint there's really no need to watch. There are a couple of aspects that raise it above a one-star movie. First, the set designs were actually good. With a few notable exceptions things seemed pretty consistent with a late 19th century setting it claimed to be. The telephone and electric fan, though old, were not that old. Second, for a cast of mostly no-name actors, the acting wasn't the worst I've seen. No future Oscar winners here, but the acting wasn't bad enough to be a distraction.

The acting was terrible. The storyline was just an excuse for showing boobs. Did I mention terrible acting. Don't waste your time. This movie used the names in the original Dracula but had none of the excitement, intelligence or suspense. Garbage.

What was Michael Ironside thinking when agreeing to be in this movie.

Absolutely terrible. Horrible special effects. Terrible acting. This should never have been made. This is a insult to not only the Dracula story but also cinema as a whole.

Avoid like the plague.

This is a very poor adaptation of a classic story; throwing in "modern" twists such as same sex relationships is a pathetic attempt to bring a different slant on it. A female lead investigator is also not sufficient to add a new slant. The acting is at best wooden, the script lacks depth and the whole thing is almost incongruous.

The direction is non-existent; special effects are OK but even on a budget this film is a let down.

This film is really not worth watching other than to show film students how NOT to make films. I'm unsure what they were thinking when producers gave a green light to this production but clearly ot wasn't logic!!!