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With having found director Dario Argento's 2009 movie Giallo to be a shockingly dull,poorly made film,I initially decided to stay away from Argento's latest title,until I began to hear from fellow IMDb'er's that whilst being far from a return to form,the film did offer the chance of seeing Argento be much lively then he was for Giallo,which led to me deciding that it was time for me to pay a visit to Dario's Dracula.
The plot:
Accepting a job offer to be a libarian for a generous Count called Dracula,Jonathan Harker catches the first train to Translyvainia,as his wife Mina waves goodbye,and promises to re-join her husband in a few days time,once she has sorted out some family matters.
Arriving in the town on his own,Harker attempts to talk to the locals, (who weirdly appear to be keen on placing garlic all over their buildings) but is mostly met with cold, dead stares,with the only info that Harker receives being that a number of the townspeople credit Count Dracula for pulling the village out of "the dark ages".Being in the mood of leaving the local welcome that he has received behind him,Harker sets off for Dracula's isolated mansion.Meeting Count Dracula,Jonathan Harker soon discovers that Dracula's "simple" library job has a deadly bite,that he may not be able to chew.
View on the film:
Streatched to a 105 minute running time,the dry,plodding moments in the screenplay by co-writer/director Dario Argento and, (deep breath!) Enrique Cerezo,Stefano Piani and Antonio Tentori are thankfully countered by a number of "unique" moments in the film,with Jonathan Harker being shown to be unable to resit temptations,and Dracula's transformation into various animals giving the movie an (unintensinal?) comedic edge,which give the movie a real burst of life.
Backed by Claudio Simonetti's Ouija board score and some extremely low quality 3D effects,cinematography Luciano Tovoli gives the film a strong rustic,Gothic atmosphere,thanks to Tovoli covering the movie Autumn,candle wax red's,and dark,moody brown colours.Revaling an unexpected amount of energy,Argento attacks the set pieces in the movie with a bombastic steak,which along with helping to make the scenes as wonderfully demented as possible,gives the film a lively,comedic punch.
Playing the title character,Thomas Kretschmann gives a surprisingly dry,stilted performance as Count Dracula,which along with taking away the menacing heart of Dracula,also leads to the character lacking any figure of fun aspects which would have smoothly fit in with the tone of the movie.Going in the opposite direction of Kretschmann,Rutger Hauer, (who is the first actor from the Neatherlands to actually play the role)gives a terrificly wild performance as Abraham Van Helsing,with Hauer showing Helsing's search for Count Dracula to be something that has gotten him completely off his hinges.Joining Hauer,the beautiful Miriam Giovanelli, (who also appears naked in the movie) gives the movie a full dose of erotic garlic,as Jonathan Harker realises to his horror,that he has entered Dracula's third dimension.
score 6/10
morrison-dylan-fan 12 October 2013
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2885861/ |
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19-4-2021 22:51:07