Behind the scenes with Dracula
The dawn of new millennium saw two unique takes on the old-world vampire.
Dracula fans, as well as film buffs, might appreciate Shadow of the Vampire (2000), which is supposedly about the making of that original silent movie, Nosferatu.
Shadow of the Vampire imagines
the lead actor in that first Dracula film, Max Shreck, to be a real vampire who keeps eating the crew.
He's portrayed by an unrecognizably gaunt, bald and hideous
Willem Dafoe—looking practically identical to the Shreck
Nosferatu.
John Malkovich is the obliging director F.W. Murnau, intent on getting his masterpiece on film whatever, and whoever, it takes. It's blackly humorous, as well as artsy in a way John-Malkovich films often are.
The sequences moving between the colourful reality of the film set and the grey-toned footage seen through the camera lens are quite well done. If anything, this takeoff may encourage you to have a look at the original film.
(And watch for Udo Kier, the title character from Warhol's kitschy 1970s' Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula, in a major role here.)
Dracula the Christ killer
Bringing us into—or at least to the edge of—the twenty-first century, is Dracula 2000.
This film is generally hated by Dracula buffs, mainly because of its last twenty minutes in which the vampire's origins are tied in with the betrayal of Christ by Judas. It's a clever idea but so wrong, wrong, wrong. Whatever your theory of Dracula's appeal, it has to do with something primal, sensual, pagan—definitely not the Easter story.
But aside from that unfortunate speculation, it's not a bad
vampire flick. A young Gerard Butler is a sexy and dashing, if thoroughly
evil, incarnation of the undead count, somewhat in the Langella mould.
Christopher Plummer is a terrific Van Helsing, who has survived to current times due to having been infected by Dracula himself (Van Helsing periodically injects himself with a counter-agent). Plummer could have surpassed even Cushing as the greatest Van Helsing if given more screen time. Mary Heller is spunky as his daughter.
The other actors are mainly TV stars who seem to be having a lot of fun camping it up as victims and/or servants of the dark master.
Decent plot, dramatic twists, something like a good episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel. Well worth a watch if you're into the genre.
