Somewhere between truth and fiction there’s an overlap called myth. When we hear a story, it’s natural to remember the vivid bits. As the story gets passed along, the vivid parts get embellished and take on a life of their own. A short game of telephone with a class of first graders will prove that. Joe Chapelle’s Dracula: The Dark Prince goes beyond the cape and fangs to weave in the myth of Vlad the Impaler, who was the alleged inspiration for Bram Stoker’s little vampire story.

Rudolf Martin (Swordfish) stars as Vlad Dracula, a 15th-century Romanian prince bent on exacting revenge on the Turks for the murder of his father. Using dad’s brutal death as his motivation, Dracula is a ruthless leader, whose unforgiving tactics strike fear into the Romanian peasants, and in turn, bring about peace. Dracula rids the area of its corrupt officials, further tightening his iron grip. With each drop of blood, he becomes stronger, more menacing, and more psychotic. Soon it all gets the best of him and Dracula is sucked into the oblivion of power.

Vlad got his Impaler moniker for a reason and Chapelle doesn’t hold back in showing us why. While not evident in the same huge of quantities as in films like Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead, the blood flows freely and heads roll in the chaos. Horror cinema can be art, and Chapelle’s grim vision shows merit. The sets and costumes are intricate; the lighting is raw. The result is a foreboding menace that creeps along, like when you’re in the dark and you can sense that someone’s behind you when really nobody is. Vlad has all the internal traits of a traditional horror monster except that he’s missing the monster look. He doesn’t even have fangs or a ghostly white face. Vlad is human but he just won’t die.

Fact or fiction, who really cares? I don’t know the ‘true’ story behind Vlad Dracula, nor did I expect to learn much by watching Dracula: The Dark Prince. From the start, it’s obvious that the film takes the myth route. Exaggerations abound, and it’s the style and presentation of the myth that matter’s. Dracula: The Dark Prince has the same feel as Andy Tennant’s Ever After, only with a lot more gore and blood drinking. It’s a fantasy with a couple of familiar names.

Where Dracula: The Dark Prince fails is in the acting department. Martin is merely adequate in the lead role. He gets the character across, but he never fully embodies it. Peter Weller plays Father Stefan, a Greek Orthodox priest. Like all of his roles since the original Robocop, this one’s forgettable. He comes across as if he dreams of selling cute mogwais named Gizmo in the bottom of a gutted gift shop. Jane March of Color of Night fame takes the prize for least interesting person in the film. She plays Vlad’s wife, Lidia. Initially charming, her helpless princess shtick becomes tiresome and nagging in a hurry.

Despite the weak acting, Dracula: The Dark Prince is a welcome extension of the Dracula brand. Unlike the multitudes of generic rip offs that come out annually, this low-key effort finally puts a new spin on an old myth.

Ryan Cracknell

DVD version:

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Directed by Joe Chappelle
Stars Rudolf Martin, Jane March, Roger Daltrey, Michael Sutton (I), Christopher Brand, Peter Weller, Radu Amzulescu, Dan Badarau, Claudiu Bleont, Dan Bordeianu, Niels Brinks, Marius Capota, Serban Celea, Laura Cret, Eugen Cristea, George Grigore
Studio/distributor: Artisan