tabuno Review of Dracula

Dracula (2006 TV Movie)

Good Looking, But Can't Rival The Original Dracula

[7/10 · 25 March 2020]

Great atmospherics, good creepy set designs, yet the divergence of this Dracula storyline makes for a rather jarring, disorienting experience that requires some resilience to get used to. The photography and cinematography are at times fabulous and then at times descend into amateurism. There is the Dracula present in the sunlight, a violation of an important authentic characteristic of which this Dracula movie version tries to impart. Some of the primary characters, even the supposedly good ones are also somewhat repulsive and or disreputable even though they may have had good intentions. With blurring of good and evil, this Dracula version seems to reek more of darkness than light, more ominous portents than hope. Even an important character such as Van Helsing is puzzling because a huge but certainly odd question is why is he even alive, albeit necessary, by the time he reappears in this movie version? Instead of entertainment, this movie dispenses a depressive sense of dread than enlightened compelling enjoyment of a movie. The attempts at justifiable character motivations come close to succeeding though the time limits of a movie unlike a television series makes for too much of a rapid descent into a promising plot that deserved more depth and extended plot and character development. Even the powerful seductive, mesmerizing elements of Dracula and progeny are given understandably short shrift due to time constraints. In a rather sordid way, it is the original Bram Stoker Dracula story that makes this movie's version be consumed and deprived of its potential even as its different horror elements seek to burst through and come into fruition. The mood and the tone of the movie have their own unique fascinating elements, yet the brilliance of the original source material and multitude of subsequent adaptations raises the bar so high that Dracula (2006) is outshone in having to compare it to them. Consider the memorable Louis Jourdan's 1977 Public Broadcasting System television series in "Count Dracula" that captures the Dracula story so well and with near perfection.