DRACULA UNTOLD

by “The Cansinos”

SUMMARY: The movie is about a man named Vlad. When Vlad was a young boy, Turks, by the orders of their sultan, took him from his home, Transylvania, to be trained to fight for them. When he grew up, he returned home to Transylvania and claimed his throne as prince. During the Easter celebration of the Transylvanians, a Turkish soldier arrives unexpectedly and Vlad offers the usual tribute of silver coins but then the soldier declares that the sultan demands an additional tribute of 1,000 boys. Vlad refuses but his army is weak compared to the Turkish army so he approaches the Turkish sultan, Mehmed, and offers himself in place of the boys. The sultan refuses and demands Vlad’s son in addition.

Out of desperation, Vlad goes up into a high mountain cave to seek help from the vampire who cannot leave the cave. The vampire gives Vlad his blood and tells him drinking it would give him the powers of a vampire for three days but will also give him an intense thirst for human blood. The vampire tells Vlad that if resists the urge to drink human blood in those three days, he will turn back to a human but if he does drink blood, the vampire will be free from the cave and Vlad will forever be a vampire.

Vlad returns home and uses his powers to defeat the incoming Turks then he sends his people to a monastery to escape from them. During the journey through the forest, his wife learns of his curse but accepts that he will regain his mortality after defeating the Turks. Then, a mysterious man appears and proclaims himself Vlad’s servant and offers his blood but Vlad resists the urge and leaves the man alone. As the people near the monastery, they are ambushed by the Turks but Vlad and his men successfully drive the Turks away.

The next night, the Turkish army marches on the monastery and Vlad uses an enormous swarm of bats to repel them but the army turns out to be a decoy so several Turkish soldiers could infiltrate the monastery and take his son. His wife tries to defend their son but falls from the edge of the monastery wall and Vlad, even with his superhuman powers, fails to save his wife. His dying wife successfully pleads with him to drink her blood before the sun rises and he loses his powers so he could save their son. He permanently becomes a vampire and goes back to the monastery and turns a small group of survivors into vampires and together, they storm the Turkish camp with black clouds covering the skies. They vanquish the Turkish army and Vlad kills Mehmed and saves his son. The vampires confront Vlad and demands his son be killed for he is human but a monk keeps them at bay with the Christian cross. Vlad orders the monk to take his son and uses his power to clear the black clouds in the sky. The sunlight turns the vampires to dust and Vlad into a burned corpse.

Then the mysterious man from the forest who seemingly knew about Vlad’s curse takes him into the shadows and revives him. In the present day, Vlad meets a woman with a striking resemblance to his wife and they have a conversation about a line of poetry they have in common. The vampire who cursed Vlad watches him from afar and anticipates his future saying, “Let the games begin.”

Adrian’s rating: 4/5 stars

REVIEW: The movie doesn’t tell Dracula’s story but remakes it and Dracula himself. The movie changes Dracula from an evil bloodsucking monster into a good prince and a loving and caring father and husband who would do anything to protect his family and his kingdom. Aside from that, the plot was good. The actors really acted out their part really well and the special effects looked real.          

5/5 starsArvin’s rating:

REVIEW: The movie portrays a side of Dracula that isn’t seen in its other adaptations. For one, the movie focuses on Dracula’s humanity more than his monstrous side that people commonly know about him. He is a father who loves his family to the point that he risked the safety of his kingdom just so his son wouldn’t suffer as he did. In the movie, Dracula has shown fear and desperation, both very human emotions that other interpretations normally don’t portray him having. He showed fear that the Turks will attack his kingdom and fear that his family would get hurt. Yet, he also showed desperation when he confronted the vampire in the cave in order to gain the power to save his kingdom, and more importantly, his family.

                Near the end, the movie showed Dracula “dying” since he didn’t want to be a monster. This is a contrast from other adaptations and even the text since Dracula was previously portrayed to love being a vampire and not someone who wants to die. In my opinion, this more human side of Dracula was refreshing and made Dracula Untold unique compared to other interpretations of Dracula.