DRACULA UNTOLD (and it should have stayed that way)

When you are dealing with a story like Dracula that has permeated so deeply into the public s’ conscience you have to make some important decisions in adapting it. Do you (as does this version and the earlier Francis Ford Copolla one) ground the plot around the real historical Vlad Tepes or stick with the more traditional ‘cloaked and fanged’ apparition? As this film takes the first position you would think that we were in for an exciting fresh look at this classic gothic tale. Sadly this film has less life in it than Dracula’s undead remains; lack of imagination rather than vampire’s fangs is what saps this film of its life blood. This is especially annoying as the premise itself is not an uninteresting one. Luke Evans gives a good performance (given what he has to work with) and, had the script not crumbled to dust under the harsh light of quality and common sense, there could have been something here. Instead what we get is dull - not bad, not terrible, just dull. It may sound strange to say but it would be better if this was laughably bad. Not even the ‘cackling moustache twirling’ antics of the over- the -top villainous Turks could pull things back from the deep pit of dullness. Even the hammiest hammer horror outing of Drac had more bite than this dull drudgery FINAL VERDICT 4/10 A might-have-been revamp (sorry) is doomed to lie in its grave.

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