Dracula (2012)

The tale begins with Jonathan Harker, journeying by train and carriage from England to Count Dracula's crumbling... See full synopsis »

Director:

Dario Argento

Writers:

Dario Argento (screenplay), Enrique Cerezo (screenplay),

Stars:

Asia Argento, Rutger Hauer, Thomas Kretschmann

Cast

Credited cast:
Asia Argento	...	Lucy
Rutger Hauer	...	Abraham Van Helsing
Thomas Kretschmann	...	Dracula
Marta Gastini	...	Mina Murray / Harker
Miriam Giovanelli	...	Tania
Unax Ugalde	...	Johnathan Harker
Maria Cristina Heller	...	Jarmila
Morgane Slemp	...	Inga
Giuseppe Lo Console	...	Zoran
Augusto Zucchi	...	Andrej
Christian Burruano	...	Milos
Giovanni Franzoni	...	R. M. Renfield
Riccardo Cicogna	...	Janek
Eugenio Allegri	...	Innkeeper
Francesco Rossini	...	Delbruck

Storyline

The tale begins with Jonathan Harker, journeying by train and carriage from England to Count Dracula's crumbling... See full synopsis »

---

Plot Keywords:

bitten in the neck | throat slitting | bram stoker | undead sexuality | cult director | 

---

Genres:

Horror | Romance | Thriller

---

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook [it] Official site

Country:

Italy France Spain

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 November 2012 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Dracula 3D

Filming Locations:

Biella, Piedmont, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

€5,600,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Enrique Cerezo Producciones Cinematográficas S.A., Film Export Group, Les Films de l'Astre

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

More craptastic than outright crap

Well after finally seeing this and reading all the way negative reviews, I must confess that Dario's latest somewhat surprised me as I was expecting it to be much much worse. Not that it's very good mind. While in some ways a faithful enough adaptation of Stoker's classic, it also has some bizarre and decidedly left field touches to it including one rather jaw dropping in concept transformation scene involving a giant... insect, which had me in stitches.

The gore is decent in concept but executed badly, with really susbtandard CGI, which comes across like the Scy/Fi channel doing a really bad rendition of things. Hauer is wasted in it and doesn't actually do much, while Kretchsmann is horribly miscast as the titular count and basically sleepwalks through his role. Asia while still damn alluring looking is still her usual substandard self, although obligingly (and considering Dario's her dad, decidedly creepily) gets naked yet again. There's also some fine nudity from Miriam Giovanelli.

I did like its set design though which comes across as a nice homage to the old style Universal/Hammer horrors to an almost stereotypically Gothic degree, all dark castles and heaving bosoms in corsets.

I'm giving this a very generous 6/10 as despite its very real flaws and being rather uneventful in parts, it's also overall a helluva lot more entertaining than I was expecting, although sadly nowhere near as entertaining or gratuitous as his bonkers Mother of Tears.

Lifelong Argento fans will in all probability hate this, but after watching it all I can say is... I liked it better than Giallo... which admittedly isn't saying much.

On a purely critical level I'd probably rate this a generous 4 as it really is a weak and poor effort on Dario's part, but I'm tacking on another bonus two points for unintentional hilarity and for keeping me entertained.

That having said, I'm a bit of an Argento fanboy and can't in all honesty recommend it to his fans, or... well, anyone else probably except fellow fanboys, but Dracula is very probably his weakest film, even if I preferred it to Giallo.