Movie Review: Dracula Untold

Turning monsters into legends is no big feat for Hollywood, but to bemoan the sacrifices of many by changing reality into a fairy-tale is just plain unacceptable. Maybe Gary thought that because Angelina’s portrayal of the good Maleficent received a lot of popularity; why not give Dracula a makeover. But Dracula Untold just comes out as a disjointed feature with a poorly-crafted plot.

The story revolves around the young Prince, Vlad of Wallachia, who was given as a gift to the Sultan by his father. But when the Turks make the unreasonable demand of 1,000 Jannisaries i.e., Christian boys that will be raised up as Muslims and will later serve in the military, the Prince refuses and decides to take the fight against the Turks himself. He seeks refuge in Dracula who had been hiding in a mysterious dark mountain, and extracts his strength to become Dracula himself. He then goes on defeating entire Turkish armies of hundred thousand men and more, just by himself. Not a surprise, but a little help from his army could have made it a little more believable. And yet again, the Muslims are the bad guys who always speak with Arabic accent.

Dracula Untold is not only historically inaccurate but also unnecessarily dramatic. While Gary may have tried to arouse the viewers’ emotions by constantly throwing in episodes of love and sacrifice – it was just an epic fail. Gary just simply tried too hard. Maybe he wanted people to easily swallow the idea that Dracula was not the evil guy.

While Dracula Untold may have told you a lot of things that weren’t true at all, here are a few things that it didn’t tell you. Dracula had a brother by the name of Radu cel Frumos. Both Dracula and Radu were raised up as Muslims, but while the latter remained faithful to Islam, the former rebelled. Dracula then even fought against his own brother, and became a great tyrant. He is known to have killed 23,884 Turks & Bulgarians, men and women, old and young. Vlad a.k.a Dracula was known as the Great Impaler who used to stab bodies and heads on sharp pikes.

What’s more is that Dracula’s father, Vlad Dracul II and his clan known as the House of Drăculești, had profited tremendously under Ottoman rule. The Ottoman Turks fought and defeated John Hunyadi, an old enemy of the House of Drăculești, in order to enthrone Vlad Dracul II. So the Ottoman Turks fought to put Dracula’s family in power, and were not its enemies.

Perhaps in the wake of all these revelations, the only saving grace for Dracula Untold is its costume design and descriptive art that remained true to history. And with breath-taking coverage of scenic mountains and valleys, the movie became a little bearable.