Dracula's Curse“Dracula’s Curse” is quite an interesting take on the classical story of lord Dracula and it's certainly something different than I've seen so far from The Asylum. The film was written and directed by Leigh Scott. Unfortunately, there are no lesbian scenes in this.
The last descendant of Abraham Van Helsing, Jacob, has gathered an elite group of vampire hunters, led by the charismatic Rufus King. After WWII, lord Dracula forged a peace between humans and vampires and then disappeared. Now, countess Bathorly, the leader of one of the most powerful vampire clans has broken the truce. It is time for the hunters and the vampires to join forces against an enemy more powerful then themselves.
There are a few things I’m not really sure I got them right. Countess Bathorly searches for the pure bloods. If I did understood correctly, those are the direct human descendants of lord Dracula and his brides. If turned to vampires, they can become extremely powerful, so that is why Bathorly wants them on her side. All in all, the story is filled with many characters and subplots, and it can get confusing as some of them are only in a scene or two, and ultimately have no real purpose. Maybe it would've been better if they just omitted some of them and instead focus just one the main heroes. Another flaw is that they talk about how bad and dangerous the countess is, but that is all they do - talk. The countess was an interesting enough character to have her own, bigger subplot instead of the many other subplots.
The character Rufus King is cool, wielding his big-ass cannon piece. The other hunters, on the other hand, try to look too badass (both with the attitude and the weapons they use), so their acting seems forced, and it’s not really good acting either. Well, if you saw other Asylum films, you’ll notice quite a lot of their usual cast. But, Leigh Scott chose wisely here - Thomas Downey (Rufus King), Rhett Giles (Jacob Van Helsing) and Christina Rosenberg (Countess Bathorly) are great performers, especially Rhett Giles who is bound to break into the A-league sometimes. This trio carries the rest of the cast who are underperforming.
As for the special effects – there aren’t any. No giant transmorphing robots, dinosaurs or other creatures that require extensive use of CGI. And that is a good thing because usually this doesn’t turn out that well because of the lack of budget. This story mostly takes place in dark interiors and bunkers, and they’re not expensive so the sets actually look convincing. I just can’t overlook when, for example, a top secret government facility looks like someone’s garage.
The soundtrack mostly features songs from Eliza Swenson’s band “The Divine Madness”. Eliza is also the leading female role, Gracie.
“Dracula’s Curse” is really not a bad B-film and the rating of 1.8/10 on IMDb is complete bullshit. I would’ve given it a 7/10, but the somewhat confusing bits in the story prevent me from doing that so it’s a…
Rating: 6/10
- review by Ventilation Shaft
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Last updated: 2010-05-02 03:07:30 by CoolAwesomeDuo
