Dracula III: Legacy

Plot synopsis:
NOTE: Sequel to Dracula II: Ascensiion (2003). Dracula III: Legacy can be viewed alone, without having seen I & II, but it helps to know the history of how Uffizi, Luke, and Elizabeth got involved with the hunt for Dracula, to know that Uffizi was "tainted" at the end of Dracula II, and to know what Dracula is referring to when he says stuff like Luke made him suffer at the hands of the experimenters.It is five years after the events of "Dracula II". Dracula [Rutger Hauer] has
returned to Romania, taking Liz Blaine [Diane Neal] with him. Father Uffizi [Jason Scott Lee]
wishes to pursue, but the church has withdrawn its support. They are
worried that he has become "tainted" following his last encounter with
Dracula, and they want Uffizi to get out of the vampire business and take
a position as pastor at a church of his choice. Uffizi's choice is to hand
in his collar and pursue Dracula on his own. Armed with his weapons of
choice -- a scythe and a bullwhip -- Uffizi heads for Bucharest, Luke [Jason London] in
tow. Uffizi hopes to destroy and absolve Dracula; Luke hopes to find and
rescue Liz, with whom he is in love.Romania is in the throes of a civil war. TV news reporter Julia Hughes
[Alexandra Westcourt] announces that the list of demands submitted to the Geneva Council
by the rebels includes the curious requirement that all present and
prospective government officials make at least one public appearance
during the daylight. Because of the war, no one may pass outside Bucharest
without military approval. While Uffizi and Luke wait at a checkpoint to
obtain permission, a jeep drives up bearing two French soldiers and a
bloody body. The driver says that they were attacked 51 kilometers outside
the city, not by rebels but by people with big teeth.Finally out of the city, Uffizi and Luke drive all night. The next
morning, they run into some rebels who are taking people prisoner. Uffizi
learns that they are not rebels but "procurers" who kidnap people to sell
for food to the nosferatu. Luke won't have it and forces Uffizi to stop
the car. Luke succeeds in freeing the prisoners, but the procurers blow up
their car. Now, Uffizi and Luke have to proceed on foot. In the first town
they come to [filmed in Sigisoara], all the inhabitants are dead. Later
that evening, after they have burned all the bodies, they come across a
very scared man and woman near a downed helicopter. The woman turns out to
be reporter Julia Hughes, and the man is her cameraman Tommy [Gary J. Tunnicliffe]. Julia and
Tommy say they were attacked by rebels and shot some camera footage to
prove it, but when Tommy runs back the film, there is no one on it except
themselves. Suddenly, a vampire on stilts swoops down and carries off Tommy.
Uffizi tries to follow, while Luke and Julia head back to a church for
refuge. Uffizi finds the vampire sucking Tommy's blood and cracks one of
the stilts with his whip. The vampire tumbles to the ground and impales
himself on his own stilt. But now where is Tommy? Tommy has gone back to
the church. Julia opens the door to him, but it soon becomes apparent that
Tommy is now a vampire, so Luke shoots him with his speargun.The next morning, Luke and Julia are joined by Uffizi, who has
commandeered a military jeep. Now that they have transportation again,
they find a car for Julia. Before they part ways, however, Julia asks to
see Uffizi's eyes (he always wears sunglasses). It's obvious that Julia
and Uffizi are attracted to each other. She tilts down his glasses for a
last soulful look and notices that his irises are reddish.
Julia goes her way and Luke and Uffizi go theirs. After driving for a
while, Luke notices a woman on the side of the road holding a baby and
crying. Against Uffizi's better judgement, Luke stops to help. As he tries
to convince her that he is a friend, she suddenly tosses the "baby" into
his arms. It's a bomb. Uffizi grabs it and tosses it away just in time.
They have been captured by rebels and are taken to their headquarters in
an old army bunker. Uffizi tells leader Gabriel [Serban Celea] that they share the
same enemy - Dracula. Gabriel guffaws. "Dracula is a fiction, gypsy myth,
tourist prattle, bedtime story." He takes off Uffizi's glasses and sees
his red eyes. "I'm fighting the infection," Uffizi explains, referring to
the vampirism he caught from Dracula five years ago. Just then, more
rebels come in along with Julia, who seems to be friends with them.
Gabriel orders that Uffizi and Luke be put in the stockade. "You're either
a hero or a demon," he says to Uffizi, "but we can't take any chances.
Come dawn, you are free to go."During the night, the bunker is attacked by vampires. Julia lets
Uffizi and Luke out of the stockade, but Uffizi pushes them both back
inside, locks the door, gives them the key, and tells them to stay inside
until he finds the way out. They wait till morning then let themselves
out. Julia goes outside and finds Uffizi standing in the rising sun, his
shirt off and screaming in obvious pain, Uffizi's way of purging himself
of the infection. Julia covers his shoulders with his coat.
Luke notices the procurers driving their trucks down the road.
Uffizi, Luke, and Julia follow in their jeep until they come upon a
gruesome scene. About a dozen priests have been impaled on stakes along
the road. Uffizi orders Luke and Julia to go back, but they refuse, so
they all go on together, arriving at Dracula's castle. As they watch from
a safe distance, they are suddenly ambushed by the procurers. They
shoot Uffizi, knocking him over a cliff. Then they knock out Luke and
take Julia prisoner.
Luke is tossed into a large courtyard with a dozen or more prisoners,
all awaiting slaughter. Luke climbs up the wall and finds his way to a
room filled with at least a dozen televisions. He is greeted by an old,
unkempt, bored-looking Dracula who remembers him (from Dracula II) as the
coroner who stole his body and made him suffer at the hands of the
experimenters. When Luke asks to see Liz, Dracula tosses him into a
pit of bloody, writhing, half-naked vampiresses, all feeding off each
other. "Be careful," says Dracula. "They WILL bite."Meanwhile, Uffizi has climbed to the top of the cliff. He is in bad
shape and coughing up blood, but he is healing. He makes his way back to
the castle and goes looking for Julia.
Julia has awakened to find that she is clothed in the dress of Dracula's
favorite bride. Dracula recognizes Julia from the TV and seems excited to
have her in his chambers, but when Uffizi arrives, he finds Julia lying on
the floor, bleeding from a stake in her abdomen. He pulls out the stake as
Dracula shows up to taunt him. Just as Dracula is about to plunge a sword
through Uffizi's heart, Liz cries, "Enough!" and shoots a flaming
stake into Dracula's stomach. As Dracula looks at the stake in awe and
pulls it out, Uffizi jumps him from behind and viciously bites his neck.
He then takes the sword and beheads Dracula, who almost seems to be
offering his neck for the final blow. As he swings, Uffizi says, "Consider
yourself forgiven." Dracula destroyed, Liz silently takes the sword
and walks over to Luke. Uffizi asks a dying Julia whether there is
anything she wants to confess. "I've had impure thoughts about you," she
admits. "As I have about you," Uffizi replies.
"Please..." says Liz to Luke.
"...don't..." says Julia to Uffizi.
"...let me..." says Liz to Luke.
"...die." say Julia and Liz together.
Luke beheads Liz as Julia dies in Uffizi's arms.Epilogue: It is morning. Luke stumbles out of the castle and looks
back for Uffizi. He does not come. Back in the castle, Uffizi sits on
Dracula's throne, holding Julia in his arms. There is a bite on her neck,
and she is "alive" again. A postscript appears, saying THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING! [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl]

Tags: violence

Review:
Actually is quite easy to find catholic priests in these parts of Romania.Brasov, which is my city, has the Black Church, the biggest Gothic style Catholic Cathedral in Eastern Europe!You don't have to know history to check what you are saying at www.wikipedia.comAnyway, for those interested in the Dracula myth, you should read a bit more about the Medieval History of Transylvania...You would like more the myth of Dracula;and the castle is quite impressive;Personally, I would not dare to stay a night by myself in the Castle;not only because of Dracula;we have stronger demons in our culture that Dracula.
Myself I am more like a Werewolf type :-) In Transylvania we still have packs of wolves that attack at night the villages in long winter nights and we have the biggest population of bears in Europe; And a lot of old superstitions about demons that travel the country side at night, even nowadays;If you ever visit Romania, enjoy Transylvania!
Father Uffizi (Jason Scott Lee) and Luke (Jason London) travels through a Romania destroyed by the civil war and the vampires.
Luke is trying to save Elizabeth (Diane Neal) from the claws of Dracula, and Uffizi to terminate with the vampires.
Along their journey, they meet the British television journalist Julia Hughes (Alexandra Westcourt) covering the war, and the trio follow together facing dangerous situations with the rebels and the vampires."Dracula III: Legacy" is a reasonable sequel of "Dracula II: Ascension".
brilliant ending,plus Rutger Hauer as Dracula, elevate this movie.
this sequel to Dracula II:Ascension,which is sort of a sequel to Dracula 2000,has much more story than either of the other tow.almost too much,in fact.it moves at a pretty slow pace,then,just when you think you can bear no more,something interesting happens to keep you watching.Two of the main characters from Dracula II are more fleshed out,and there is a wee bit of humour to lighten things up on one or two rare occasions.near the end,when i thought it was over,i was thinking how anti climatic it all was.but i realized it wasn't quite over,and the actual ending is brilliant.it begs for a sequel,which is not likely to happen.and yet,it's also a perfect conclusion.the ending(well,that and Rutger Hauer as Dracula--a stroke of genius)is what elevated the move for me.otherwise,i would have given this 2 or 3 stars less.as it stands,i give Dracula III:Legacy a 6/10.
It wasn't a bad film by any means, but it wasn't nearly as good as it could have been considering it featured Dracula, the baddest vampire of all time.
Dracula III: LEGACY is more like what BLADE: TRINITY should have been: a fast-paced, rousing action flick full of well written character and fleshed out plot lines.
Like VAMPIRES, 'LEGACY' is filled with cool gory bits, well done special effects, and a kick-ass main character (played by Jason Scott Lee).
Jason Scott Lee is back as the weapon's master Father Uffizi in hopes to put a final end to the vampires once and for all.
The third installment of the Dracula 200 series, Dracula III: Legacy, is not as good as Dracula II: Ascension (which I liked the best of the series) but much better than other horror films I have seen in my time.This movie is not bad if you catch it one late night or on a boring afternoon.
I would not watch this movie with expectations of it being a bad or a good film...
Rutger plays like he drink-ed to much in the night clubs of Bucharest , the main actor is just another Blade , a vampire who is also a day walker.
I understand that the filming is more cheap in Ro but to play this bad and to mock the history and present of a country in a lousy movie?
No matter how weak and silly the movie seems at times, you'll still enjoy watching it.This is pretty much a direct sequel to "Dracula II: Ascension", even though its being set at different locations and follows a different story.
But oh well, you don't necessarily need to see "Dracula II: Ascension", in order to understand this movie.Like must cheap straight-to-video horror flicks made these days, it got shot in Romania.
For more than halve of the movie it still doesn't look like it's going to be a Dracula movie though, since the character gets introduced quite late into the story, as if they could not afford to have Rutger Hauer on the set for more than a week or so.But let me tell you that Rutger Hauer still really leaves a lasting impression with his role.
The two other big names of the movie are Jason Scott Lee and Roy Scheider, though none of them were of course quite the best or biggest names the movie industry had to offer.The story is of course nothing to special but it's all being still quite good and I liked its approach.
All the movies out of the series always have been a modern take on the Dracula legacy and it's perhaps in this movie that this approach works out the best and most refreshing.It's still a quite weakly directed, cheap looking B-horror flick, with some not to impressive actors but it's a good and entertaining little guilty pleasure to watch.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
Jason Scott Lee is as good as ever as Uffizi, Jason London is cool as hell as Luke, Rutger Hauer proves that Buffy The Vampire Slayer was not his best and is great as Dracula (although I still would have loved to see Gerard Butler return from Dracula 2000).
Patrick Lussier's direction was as great as ever, I'd love to see his take on The Crow mythology :) The additional characters were also great in this film, the two vampires during the opening and the two procurers in particular were awesomely performed!
the priest and his loyal partner (Jason London) kill vampires for a living just into they find Dracula (Now played by the underrated Rutger Hauer) & destroyed him...
once and for all.Directed by Patrick Lussier (Dracula 2000, Dracula 2:Ascension, My Bloody Valentine "2009") made an watchable but very flawed and disappointing sequel to the two previous movies, which the director was loyal enough to stay with the series.
Dracula III: Legacy starts immediately where Dracula II: Ascension left off, with Dracula and his new 'bride' Elizabeth (Diane Neal) fleeing the USA, Luke (Jason London) and Father Uffizi (Jason Scott Lee) in hot pursuit, their journey taking them to Romania for a final confrontation with the legendary vamp (now played by Rutger Hauer) in his castle lair.Filmed back-to-back with part II of the Craven/Lussier series, this chapter is naturally very similar in style and tone, a slick, contemporary blend of action, gore, and humour.
Luke and Uffizi's Romanian road-trip is perhaps not as loaded with vamp action as I would have liked (they seem to have just as many problems with the local humans as they do with bloodsuckers), and its a long while before we get to see Hauer as Drac, but there is enough fun throughout to make this a satisfying end to the series.The pairing of Lee and London works particularly well, the latter ably playing comedy sidekick to Lee's bad-ass priest/vampire killer with a troubled soul, and some welcome girl-power comes in the form of Alexandra Wescourt, who plays feisty news reporter Julia Hughes.
Rutger Hauer is always cool in my book (and he has previous experience at playing a vampire), but as much as I enjoyed his performance, he does look a bit too 'weathered' here to be playing Dracula (what's with the messy stubble?), especially considering that Stephen Billington and Gerard Butler played the character in the earlier films.For me, the best thing about the film is the gore, which includes a juicy 'spear in the eye' gag, a macabre display of impaled priests, a bit of face melting with holy water, Father Uffizi whipping off heads and limbs right, left and centre, and in my favourite moment—an attack by a pair of creepy circus vampires—the cutting in half of a female acrobat and the ingenious staking of a clown on stilts.6.5 out of 10 (rounded up to 7 for the cool ending, which I won't spoil by describing here)..
I've got to admit i wasn't sure if i was going to like this film because they had yet again changed the actor for Dracula.
I was though pleasantly surprised not only was it a good film but Dracula was amazing.I was glad to see that they had kept most of the same cast as they all are amazingly talented actors and actresses.I was glad to see DG (I cant spell his actual name) back and as brooding as ever, he is defiantly my favourite character in the film and has been ever since i saw ascension.
Throughout the whole movie, everybody is driveling about how almighty Dracula is, but when he finally makes an appearance (in the shape of B-movie veteran Rutger Hauer), he turns out to be a lame philosopher who prefers to plea instead of to kill.
Dracula III: Legacy, however, has the ace-in-the-hole asset of having legendary cult thespian Rutger Hauer in the titular vampire role, and that alone makes it noteworthy.
Still determined to rid the world of vampires, a banished priest and his assistant travel to Romania during the middle of a Civil War and when they meet with a reporter and reveal that they are tracking Dracula the three team up to stop him before he can unleash a new era of evil.This wasn't all that bad of a sequel.
However, the finale does feel a little rushed and a if it didn't need to play out as it does since there are about four or five different versions of the ending it could've gone with and it threw them all in order to pad out the running time, but otherwise the biggest issue is the lack of actual on-screen title character.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity..
and providing that there was a real vampire called Dracula and he came to Romania as the one in the film did, he would have been dead long ago :) No more comments.
From there, Legacy fast forwards several years in the future where Luke and Father Uffizi attempt to track down Dracula, himself, by "interrogating" vampires.Jason Scott Lee and Jason London return in the lead roles to track down the infamous count across the Romanian country side in a buddy-cop meets Heart of Darkness sort of way.
Of course, I applaud the film's wisdom in choosing a more patient path over a 90 minute confrontation with Drac; however, at the same time I'm not entirely sure that Patrick Lussier and Joel Soisson chose the best route (especially since it might draw comparisons to a certain Coppola film.) The journey these characters take never piqued my interest very much, probably because the previous film lead up to a false climax with Dracula only to have him vanquish the heroes for now and escape.
Dracula, himself, is not only played by different actors in each film, but he also inexplicably takes on a completely new personality (not to mention new history) with each incarnation.
And to further spell out the obvious, it superimposes the words, "The king is dead; long live the king" over Jason Scott Lee's eyes.Like the other films in Lussier's Dracula Trilogy, Legacy has a number of positive (dare I say "great") elements and ideas that suffer due to overdose or outright mishandling.
The only reason I saw the entire movie, was because I wanted to make sure the film was bad until the end.
An excellent example of when film-makers get tired of a project half way through, and rather than create a quality project, simply go through the motions.Dracula's plot and motivations as a villain are nonsensical, as he turns from this God hating hedonist that we had become familiar with in the first movie (and was not contradicted during his non-role in the sequel) into some Dr. Doom-ish would be conquerer of Romania.I could forgive the stretching of Dracula's role from lusty blood sucker into world conquerer were the rest of the film's writing not so empty.
The movie diverges from the derivative plot once in a while just to throw the audience tidbits of gore or sexuality, all of which are pretty lack luster, and will fail to thrill experienced horror watchers.What is most bothersome of this film, like the one before it, is that continuity is thrown completely out the window.
But he did pretty well, he does a good villain.My favorite scenes are the "suckfest" at Dracula's place, the opening scene, and the end scene.This was a well done movie - the script, the directing, the acting.
They should have choose a younger and good-looking actor.I also love the fact that the three movies are different from one another.
The second movie was about humans discovering the concept of vampirism and the third was about vampires on lose in Romania.All in all, I am content with this "Dracula 2000" sequels..
Not to a lot of vampires like it was said in this movie...
Dracula III: Legacy starts as part Vampire, part man all Vampire hunter Father Uffizi (Jason Scott Lee) & his new sidekick Luke (Jason London) manage to learn that Dracula (Rutger Hauer) has returned to his homeland of Romania, Father Uffizi wants to destroy him once & for all while Luke wants to rescue Elizabeth (Diane Neal).
They arrive in Romania & quickly discover that Dracula is using rebels to collect victims for him & his Vampires & using the civil war as a cover, it's up to Father Uffizi & Luke to stop him once & for all...Co-written & directed by Patrick Lussier this is the straight-to-DVD sequel of Dracula 2000 (2000) & Dracula II: Ascension (2003) which this was shot back-to-back with.
For some reason the title character of Dracula is played by different actors in all three films, Gerard Butler in the first, Stephen Billington in the second & Rutger Hauer here in the third without any real explanation given for it.
The film moves along at a decent pace, there's a few good set-pieces & the like but I never felt particularly emotionally involved with anything or anyone, I was just sat there waiting for the next Vampire to show up rather than being enthralled by the story.
Dracula III: Legacy is a reasonable film, it passes the time harmlessly enough but I just felt it was a little bit too 'middle of the road' as it were & ultimately a bit forgettable.Director Lussier does a decent job, there's some nice camera angles & well lit scenes but apart from the occasion sporadic piece of stylish film-making it's pretty routine.
The acting is alright but no-one is going to win any awards, Roy Scheider turns up in a (very) small role.Dracula III: Legacy is a perfectly entertaining way to pass 90 odd minutes without ever really getting one worked up too much, I liked it but didn't love it & doubt I would ever want to see it again & I will probably have forgotten all about it by the end of the week..
And by the way Rutger Hauer was a very bad pick to play the role of Dracula for this movie..
I've watched all three of the Dracula trilogies movies going back to 2000 and actually Dracula II Ascension wasn't bad at all, Dracula III is not the worst vampire flick I've seen , there's actually some well thought scenes but the movie has many flaws.
Now perhaps the biggest con and letdown is that Dracula himself, now played by Rutger Hauer is in this film for about six to twelve minutes!!.
What a waste, some more screen time would have helped, although Rutger himself seems to old play this role just like Christopher Lee was during the last Dracula movies.Before the movie starts we , we get a barrage of clips from the last movie and I have to say that it's horribly edited to the point that I almost died laughing.
Jason Scott Lee is such a horrible actor that he made part of this film into a comedy not a horror movie.The plot says that Uffizi and Luke (Jason London) are still searching for Dracula and Luke's love Elizabeth but this time around they encounter some vampire along with the way, along with some different mutated vampires and a couple of stupid rebels.
Anyhow, Uffizi and Luke rescue some girl named Julia whose a reporter and from there let the vampire killings begin!!!The action/vampire kills in the movie, are pretty good actually, at least this part is watchable, there's some good setup of suspense and thrills just before every kill.The movie never gets dull at least, the characters never have too many long lines keeping the action going.The acting was average to good, Jason London as Luke is more likable than the priest, and he actually does some vampire killings of his own which are done alright, Rutger Hauer in the few minutes he has as Dracula does his best.
Then that is Dracula III The Legacy, it's watchable but just don't expect your socks to be knocked.It's not that horrible,I actually liked it but by no means is it a horror classic.
I've just sat through all three movies and I have to say that the Dracula 2000-series' best before date was...
The movie starts out with "flashback" scenes from Dracula 2: Ascension...
but if there is I can only hope it will be better than before.To basically sum up the movie it goes as this..The Priest and Luke travel to Romania to find Dracula and Elizabeth (Erzabet) along the way they get into trouble..
"Dracula III" is another in a long line of goofy vampire slayer movies that bite off more than they can chew.So a vampire slayer goes to Romania with his annoying sidekick.