Vlad (2003)

Death and spiritual torment stalk three American students visiting the Carpathian mountain homeland of Vlad Tepes.

Director:

Michael D. Sellers

Writer:

Michael D. Sellers

Stars:

Francesco Quinn, Billy Zane, Brad Dourif

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Francesco Quinn	...	Vlad Tepes
Billy Zane	...	Adrian
Brad Dourif	...	Radescu
Paul Popowich	...	Jeff Meyer / Husband
Kam Heskin	...	Alexa Meyer
Nicholas Irons	...	Justin / Knight
Monica Davidescu	...	Linsey
Emil Hostina	...	Mircea
Iva Hasperger	...	Ilona
Mircea Stoian	...	Claudiu
Andreea Macelaru	...	Stefana (as Andrea Macelaru)
Alin Panc	...	Petre
Alexandra Velniciuc	...	Andrea
Zoltan Butuc	...	Grandfather
Guy Siner	...	Ilie

Storyline

Death and spiritual torment stalk three American students visiting the Carpathian mountain homeland of Vlad Tepes.

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Plot Keywords:

carpathia | vampire | female nudity | vlad the impaler | narration | 

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Taglines:

Evil never dies.

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexuality, nudity, violence and some drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official site - trailer and info

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 February 2004 (Argentina)

Also Known As:

Влад

Filming Locations:

Romania

Company Credits

Production Co:

Quantum Entertainment,Basra Entertainment,Media Pro Pictures

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Ilona falls to her knees right before Vlad's sword is stuck in the ground in a village ransacking flashback, you clearly see two kneepads under her gown before she hits the ground.

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Soundtracks

Sandra's Tree
Written & Performed by Brian Mitchell
Courtesy of B&J Productions

User Reviews

A remarkable and sadly overlooked vampire movie

First of all, "Vlad" is a different kind vampire movie. It has almost nothing in common with the typical vampire movie and moves further in the Gothic fantasy genre, horror-fantasy would be a better term. Far away from typical clichés of the genre, this movie presents us a twist in the well known history of Count Dracula as it removes any link to Bram Stoker's novel and focuses on the myths that inspired Stoker's novel. This movie is a tale of Romanian vampires.

The plot is a bit confusing, but at its core, it is about four graduated students who are selected by a Rumanian organization that will fund their research for their final thesis as their projects deal with Rumanian folklore and/or Vlad Tepes, the legendary ruler of Valachia who inspired Stoker to write the famous novel. The organization, lead by Radescu (Brad Douriff), is in fact a facade for an ancient order created by Tepes centuries ago, and their purposes will reveal when one of the students, Linsey (Monica Davidescu), reveals her secret: Her family had stolen a medallion from Vlad's grave.

The secret powers of the medallion will create chaos as the members of the order try to find it, for different purposes everyone, and the students are in the middle of the struggle aided by Adrian (Billy Zane), a loyal agent of Radescu who tries to avoid the rebirth of Vlad.

Now, the plot is for once very clever and quite interesting. The writers really did a great research when they wrote the story as it includes pieces of real history, Romanian folklore and Vlad Tepes' biography. Of course, spiced with fantasy and horror elements. Nevertheless, this is also its big problem, the movie tries to accomplish many tasks and this creates a confusing script. Certainly, a bigger budget would have resulted in a longer movie, and a longer movie would have fixed the confusion.

Depsite that huge problem, the movie works at its level, with an incredibly looking visuals, thanks to the beautiful Romanian locations and the amazing camera-work. It's indeed surprising how much they could make with so small budget.

Sadly, the budget hurts the SFX and they look as if they came from a cheap TV series. This indeed decreases a work of good quality, but fortunately, they focus on acting and not in SFX, so it is not that notorious.

The acting is very good, and the young actors show promise. While some of the characters were not very developed, the actors did a good job with the little they had and the result is pretty good. Again, a bit more of care in the script would have resulted in outstanding performances, but yet, the actors carry the film with grace.

Last but not least, the most remarkable feature of this movie is without a doubt the music. It is an outstanding work and it is a shame that the movie had not been more known, because the music is really outstanding. Few times a b-movie has a score this good and the movie really makes the most of it.

While probably this movie is not Oscar material, it is certainly among the best vampire movies of this decade. Or at least, among the most original. A great fantasy movie. 6.5/10