Dracula II: Ascension

Plot synopsis:
NOTE: Sequel to Dracula 2000. It is not crucial, but it helps to have first seen Dracula 2000, if
only to know Dracula's lineage and how he was left burned and hanging from a lighted crucifix.Father Uffizi [Jason Scott Lee] hunts vampires. He travels the world to behead them
with his bullwhip, but his ultimate goal is to find the first vampire, Dracula (revealed as Judas Iscariot in Dracula 2000), absolve Dracula's
sins against Jesus, set his soul free, and end his unholy existence.
So, when Dracula's charred body turns up in the New Orleans morgue,
Uffizi heads there. Medical students, Liz Blaine [Diane Neal] and Luke [Jason London] are charged with
autopsying the body. When they open the abdominal cavity, they find that
the liver and other organs are white, suggesting to Luke that the person
did not produce his own blood but got it elsewhere, i.e., a vampire. Not
believing, Liz searches the mouth for fangs, which suddenly erupt and stab
her finger. Then comes a phone call offering them $30 million for the
body. They decide to switch the vampire with another burn victim, keep the
$30 million, and hide the vampire's body in order to study it. Liz and
Luke, accompanied by two other med students, Kenny [Khary Payton] and Tanya [Brande Roderick], transport
the vampire's body to the abandoned home of Professor Lowell [Craig Sheffer], who
is also Liz's lover and who is confined to a wheelchair because of
cerebral palsy.They're not quite sure how they're going to research this vampire,
but the first thing on the agenda is to immerse him in 350 pints of blood
to allow his body to heal. After two hours without a ripple, they decide
to fish out the body to see if anything is happening. Just then, the
vampire [Stephen Billington] sits up, busts his way out of the tub, and kills Tanya in the
process. As Luke prepares to stake the very angry vampire, Eric [John Light] enters
with a 'sungun' and subdues the vampire. Eric introduces himself as "the
money." After the vampire is secured and Tanya is buried, they move the
vampire to an abandoned gym where a testing room has been set up with
ultraviolet lights and a table to which the vampire can be secured with
chains coated in liquid silver. The plan is to find the vampire's essence
and make from it a vaccine that can be used to cure diseased cells.The first experiment involves placing a drop of human blood on a
sample of skin taken from the vampire. The skin quickly grows "like a
cancer but without the chaos." Next, a syringeful of blood is drawn from
the vampire's neck, and a drop of the vampire's blood is placed on a
tissue sample from Lowell's wasted muscle. The vampire blood cells
immediately begin killing off the human cells. "If it's replacing the
cells that it has killed, when do you stop being you?" Liz wonders. Luke squirts
the changing tissue with holy water, and it immediately begins to sizzle
as though acid had been poured on it. Now, "the trick is to separate the
diseased vector--the evil, if you will--from the cure," says Lowell.But Kenny can't wait. He injects the remainder of the vampire's blood
into himself. Of course, he turns into a vampire. Eric, Liz, and Luke go
looking for him. In their absence, the vampire mesmerizes Lowell into
driving his wheelchair off a ledge. When Liz and Luke return, they find
Lowell badly injured. Meanwhile, Liz has been noticing that her vampire
bite is infected and that the infection is spreading throughout her body.
Yet, she is still committed to the research because of her love for
Lowell. Finding a cure for him is of tantamount importance. Liz reveals to
Luke the extent of her infection and pleads with him to help.But the vampire's blood supply has been depleted. Liz decides to
transfuse some of her own blood into the vampire so that she can get more
blood from him. She injects this blood into Lowell, who immediately begins
to heal. Lowell then laughs at Liz and tells her that he was only using
her, along with four others, to find a vampire. He says that he never
loved Liz and that he is "the money" behind the whole project. In a fit of
"jilted bitch," Liz tosses holy water on him.To protect themselves, Luke has sprinkled seeds around the vampire
and placed a knotted net on his chest. In the melee that ensues, Lowell
becomes a vampire and Dracula breaks free from his bindings. First,
Dracula bites off Eric's face. Then he turns on Luke and Liz. Luke reminds him that he must untie all the knots, but
Dracula tosses down a knotfree net. [Already done!] Luke reminds him that
he must count all the seeds, and Dracula replies, "47,812." Luke tosses a
bucket of seeds at him and challenges, "Count these!" Before the seeds
even hit the ground, Dracula says, "737,818." When one more seed falls
from the basket, Dracula amends his count to "...19."Fortunately, Father Uffizi has managed to destroy Tanya, Kenny, and
all the other vampires left in the wake. He now catches up with Dracula.
Liz is turning, too. Uffizi tells Luke to take her out into the sun, but
Liz is too far gone. In an attempt to kill Dracula, Uffizi smashes all the
windows to let in the sunlight. He wraps his whip around Dracula's neck
and is just about to behead him when Dracula forces upon him a vision of
Christ, blinding Uffizi for a moment. In that moment, Liz shoots Uffizi.
As Dracula escapes with Liz, Uffizi promises, "I'll find you." Dracula replies, "I'm counting on it." [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl]

Tags: violence

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