Dracula Untold (Cinema Screening)

(Spoilers)

Dracula Untold had me intrigued as soon as I heard about it and even more so when I found out that a lot of the film was shot in different locations around Northern Ireland. Dracula Untold has one of my favourite trailers of 2014, accompanied by the sound of Lorde’s ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ it created the perfect blend of horror and drama implying epic results.

My predictions for this film were that it would be either solid or absolutely rubbish, I never really thought that it had the potential to be really great. For once my predictions were actually correct. Dracula Untold is a really good film but it never quite reaches the level of excitement that the trailer presents. What Dracula Untold does do though is make it okay to like vampires again, yep vampires on the big screen are once again cool! I really enjoyed the elements of horror that were on offer here, obviously they weren’t so strong to warrant this being a fully fledged horror film but there was enough tension resulting from these elements to add something to the film. Personally I haven’t seen any past Dracula films but I guess this was a good place to start as it is an origin story and I do love an origin story. It is the beginning of a story so in a way you get the full picture, nothing comes before it. Dracula Untold certainly leaves the story wide open for a sequel and I am hoping for a potential trilogy? Although this isn’t a direct comparison I would love to see one similar to The Dark Knight trilogy. This would inspire hope that Dracula Untold is only the foundation and much more can be done. I loved the ending, the final line too was awesome, Charles Dance as the Master Vampire was great and I’d love to see more of this character in any possible sequels. I really hope this movie does well at the box office!

Luke Evans leads the cast here as Dracula and he does it well, he is consistent whereas the rest of the cast have their moments. The supporting cast aren’t great and certain characters just didn’t need to be in the film. There was also a lack of continuity at points in some characters which just confused some scenes. Dominic Cooper does well in his role as Mehmed. However some of his costume design and make-up was distracting at times and meant that Cooper had an uphill battle to make this character credible, something that I do think he has achieved. The action was great in this film and of course the best sequence, which was featured in the trailer, is when Dracula manipulates a whole horde of bats in order to defeat his enemies. This entire sequence was just so badass and I thought it was really well done creating some amazing action spectacle which was just a pleasure to watch. It elevated the character to another level and seemed to make something more of the character than has been done before.

So whilst Dracula Untold never over impresses it is a really good film that will hold your interest for its 90 minute running time. Luke Evans is brilliant in the lead role and has some fantastic moments. I hope this is merely the foundation of what is to come, I can’t help but feel we have only scratched the surface with particular characters and storylines.

BIGGEST FLAW – Supporting cast aren’t great

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT – Making vampires cool again

Rating – 8/10