This Dracula is all about family
Turns out the old bloodsucker is just a misunderstood fella trying to make his way in a medieval world
Forget everything you read in those lying history books. Turns out Vlad the Impaler was a nice guy after all.
Sure, he skewered a lot of folk like kebab, but that’s no reason to hate a family man who was just trying to be a responsible parent and loving husband during the Middle Ages.
Times were tough for those medieval heroes, what with indentured servitude, unreasonable tax laws and constant bickering over belief systems. Not to mention all those heavy swords and all that restrictive clothing woven from unstretchy fibres.
Even royalty wasn’t treated so well, especially if they were forced to surrender male children to the perpetually invading Turkish army looking to conquer all of Europe.
Now, the history books tell us it was the knights and Crusaders who stopped the Islamic conquest. But in this version of events, it was really Count Dracula — a. k. a. Vlad the Impaler.
An origin story that was begging to be written ever since Bram Stoker hauled an old coffin into daylight and pried open the popular psyche, unleashing the idea of a batlike creature that lived from the blood of humans, Dracula Untold takes us back to the very foundations of the castle nestled at the foot of Broken Tooth Mountain.
Vlad was a mere lad when he was taken from his father and forced to become a child soldier at the hands of the Turkish sultan. He bears the scars of the experience all over his muscle- bound back, but when he returns a man to run the kingdom of Transylvania, he’s a good Christian — kind of.
He’s a little torn over the whole ideology question, given his formative years were spent serving the rise of the Ottoman Empire, but he believes in family — especially his own — and he’ll do anything to save them.
So when his old nemesis the sultan ( Dominic Cooper) returns for a visit and a tribute collection, he’s a little chuffed at the intrusion. But he submits. He pays his protection and swallows his manly pride.
But when the sultan demands his only son to serve as his soldier, that’s where Vlad draws the line. He refuses, setting in motion a war he cannot hope to win: he has a castle, but no army.
His only chance lies in brokering a deal with a dark force that lives in a cave high up in a craggy mountain. If he drinks the blood of the beast, he will have powers unlike any other man. He could win the war singlehanded. But he would also thirst for human blood and become a monster.
In the end, it’s really Welsh actor Luke Evans who pushes this cart of old vampire tropes up the hill, because he’s the whole movie.
Manly yet vulnerable, Evans brings Vlad to life, and the afterlife, with elegance and virile empathy. Hardcore vampire fans may be disappointed by his lack of goth appeal if they were seeking a nod to Bela Lugosi. But in more ways than one, this Vlad is kind of good.