Dracula's Curse

Plot synopsis:
Prologue: Jacob Van Helsing (Rhett Giles), the great grandson of Stoker's vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, put together a troupe of nine experienced vampire hunters, led by Colonel Rufus King (Thomas Downey), all of whom took their jobs seriously and their weapons even more seriously. On Walpurghisnacht (April 30th), after staking Orlock and his clan in their nest, the Nine were summoned by the vampire Rafe (Jeff Denton) to a meeting of the High Council in order to discuss armistice between vampires and hunters. The Old One (Leigh Scott) spoke for the vampire clans, and Rufus spoke for the Nine. Between them, they agreed that the vampires would stop hunting humans, including purebloods (human descendants of Drakulya and his vampire brides), and that the Nine would stop hunting vampires. As he leaves the meeting, Rufus is approached by his right hand (wo)man, Gracie Johannsen (Eliza Swenson), apparently wanting to continue their relationship on a personal level. Rufus turns Gracie down, and Gracie stalks off in a huff.Present time: Five years have passed. The Nine have moved on with their personal lives, except for Gracie who has taken to the bottle. However, when pureblood Christina Lockheart (Erica Kessler) is abducted by three vampiresses (Dracula's brides) from the bed she shares with fiance Rick Tattinger (Tom Nagel), Rufus is called to action. He is informed that Countess Erzebet Bathorly (Christina Rosenberg), once protegee to the great Count Drakulya, is behind the abduction, still alive after she was presumed dead over 100 years ago. Bathorly doesn't care a fig about the armistice and aims, with the help of the three brides, to strengthen their blood by drinking the blood of purebloods in order to gain enough power to take over the city. She begins by destroying The Old One. With offers of help from Rafe and from Christina's fiance, Rufus decides to reassemble the Nine in order to hunt down Bathorly and her followers.At first, the reassembling doesn't look promising. Rufus deliberately left out Gracie. Trixie McFly (Rebekah Kochan) doesn't want to come back if Gracie isn't coming back, and no one wants to work with Rick just because he is Christina's fiance. After Jacob takes the time to train Rick, Jimmy "The Kidd" D'Amico (Derek Osedach) arms Rick with guns,and the group begins to fall together. There's Jacob, Rufus, Trixie, and Rick, along with Rich "Nebraska" Zulkowski (Chriss Anglin), Anastasia Ravenwood (Marie Westbrook), and Sadie MacPherson (Sarah Hall). Rafe also agrees to lend a hand. Jacob visits his vampire lover, Alex Deveraux (Sarah Lieving), asking her to see if she can discover the location of Bathorly's lair.Meanwhile, Rafe has decided to side with Bathorly. He's reassembled the Stalkers, and they are searching and abducting purebloods. Alerted by Rufus' vampire friend Konstantinos (Griff Furst), Rufus and the Nine confront Rafe, who explains that they are feeding on purebloods in order to regain their strength so that Bathorly cannot obtain power over both vampires and humans. Rufus agrees not to kill Rafe on the spot, but he makes him promise that he will not feed on the humans. When Gracie's sister, a pureblood, goes missing, Gracie shows up at the Nine's bunker and demands that they help find her. After a blowup with Rufus, however, Gracie grabs two submachine guns and goes looking for vampires. She shoots up every vampire in a bar, but is horrified to find that one of the guys she thought was a vampire was actually a human.Gracie returns to the bunker and agrees to rejoin the Nine in their raid on Bathorly. Alex, having infiltrated the lair, relays to Jacob its location, and the Nine are ready to roll. Unfortunately, Bathorly allowed Alex to drink from a pureblood, and Alex can't remember what she might have told the Countess about Rufus and their plans to annihilate the clan. Gracie and Rufus leave together, but they are met outside by Rafe and two of his henchmen. Rafe admits that he has no intention of upholding the pact, and Rafe attacks Rufus with a sword. Rufus gets the best of Rafe and beheads him. Gracie stakes one of the henchmen, and Rufus stakes the other, just as he's about to bite Gracie's neck.The Nine break into Bathorly's lair and find both Christina Lockheart and Gracie's sister have been turned into vampires. Rick is forced to kill Christina, and Gracie kills her sister, but bullets don't even slow down the Countess. She's become too powerful. A big fight between vampires and hunters commences, and Jacob is wounded. As he lay dying, Alex turns him. Gracie, now revealed also as a pureblood, offers herself to Bathorly in place of Rufus. In the ending twist, Rufus reveals himself to be Drakulya and, through thought-walking, he kills Bathorly. He then explains that he made a deal with the Dark Forces to renounce his identity and live as a man, fighting against vampires, against the plague that he himself created. In revealing himself to the others, however, Refus is returned to his former state and must continue to exist as a vampire. [Full synopsis by BJ Kuehl]

Tags: violence

Review:
I won't say it was a bad offering, but why doesn't someone make a vampire film that actually is a vampire film and not another kung fu action movie where the villains just happen to drink blood?
What we get from Dracula's Curse is once again lots of fancy gunplay, swordfighting and martial arts involving hot goth chicks, which seems to have become the rule for vampire films these days (Blade, Underworld, Van Helsing etc.
The fights are choreographed okay and there's no poorly done CGI to laugh at, but we have seen this sort of thing before and I expect better from The Asylum..
Although at times some of the acting is a bit stiff and the special effects are a bit lacking, Bram Stoker's Dracula's Curse, the latest release from director Leigh Scott and The Asylum Home Entertainment, is still packed full of enough gun fights, sword fights and vampire action to deliver a "popcorn" roller-coaster ride of a fun movie.
In true Scott tradition, the movie is a blend of action, horror, and some comedy.
The movie will draw comparisons to other recent vampire flicks, such as Underworld and even John Carpenter's Vampires, but also makes sure to add enough new material to carve out a niche of its own.
Although Bram Stoker's Dracula's Curse does have some faults, it more than makes up for them thanks to a solid cast, lots of action, and an entertaining plot.
The movie is easily one of the best Asylum has release to date, and is probably one of Scott's best (although Frankenstein Reborn remains my favorite).
Dracula's Curse is a B class horror film done on a low budget.
While most of the scenes were well shot and the dialog was adequate, there was stodgy editing that left a good deal of time between lines.
The story is about three groups, the regular vampires, an elite group of powerful pure blood vampires decedents of Dracula, vampires out to dilute the pure blood line lead by Van Helsing, and the vampire slayers that protect humanity from out of control vampires.
While Dracula's Curse does have its flaws, it manages to be a very entertaining film.
The cast reacted well off of each other and the story was pretty good with only a few plot holes.
For a film with this small of a budget, they were able to turn it into something a little more.I watch countless low budget straight to video movies.
Some flashback scenes have a terrific look, unlike anything you've seen in quarter billion dollar budget films.
The story is a venerable encyclopedia of vampirism including characters such as Dracula, Van Helsing, Bathory, Nosferatu, etc.
The acting is uneven, most actors do a very good job, a few don't, but they are working hard on a fairly long and difficult script and I appreciate that.
Recommended for anyone looking for a good, smart vampire flick and tired of predictable, lame and stupefying Hollywood movies..
I was personally disappointed in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, and I think this was the movie it was supposed to be - sexy, entertaining and a great addition to the vampire lore.
The quality of acting and sound made us sometimes think, it was an X-rated version of Dracula, where the explicit scenes were taken out.
If you like this kind of movies, you better rent and see "Dracula 2000" with Gerard Butler, for example.
The film "Manticore", for example was low budget but it did stand up because the acting was good.
Draculas Curse lacks any descent acting - in many scenes the actors seem unsure of what their next line is which makes me wonder if this film was properly story boarded.
The poor screenplay, direction and editing back up my suspicions.The fight scenes were consistent with the general low quality of the film.
The story was kind of interesting but is over shadowed by the over all poor quality of the film.Avoid at all costs.
I write this review to save you from making the same mistake as I did.Bored on a Friday night,you download or rent this film.Rating nearly 5 on IMDb and with some positive reviews so should be good for a laugh at least.I guarantee that if you watch this film you may wince,cry,curse,cringe or throw crockery but you will not laugh.It is an absolute stinker.Truly awful.
Abysmal in almost every respect,it has only one redeeming quality which is why I watched it for almost an hour and that was to catch an occasional glimpse of the beautiful Sarah Lieving.I won't try to itemise its failings in detail; I'll just give you one scene as an example.There is a man and a woman (trying in vain to remember their lines and not look at the camera at the same time) in a room about 3 feet apart having a dreary and irrelevant conversation about something or other.When the camera is on him ,he looks as if he is being lit by a constipated firefly but when the camera switches to her,she seems to be standing under a 200 kilowatt searchlight.And so it goes on.
If you are a wannabe working part-time at Walmart and looking for some recognition for your talents,you must realise that any association with films like these is going to flush the vestige of your career down the toilet?
The third and final of the Asylum monster universe see's a battle between vampires and hunters and of course the prince of darkness himself is thrown in for good measure.Following The Beast of Bray Road (2005) and Frankenstein Reborn (2005) this cheaply made traditionally terrible Asylum movie is exactly what you'd expect going in.To it's credit the practical effects are oddly on point, but that's basically all it has going to it.
The CGI is poor, the acting is mostly weak and the story and writing just doesn't help matters at all.The Asylum are known for bad movies so going in people should have low expectations that way they'll likely be met.Bad stuff, but they've made worse.The Good:Practical effects are better than you'd imagineThe Bad:Some ropey actingStandard Asylum problemsThings I Learnt From This Movie:I hate being interrupted during a monologue as wellSarah Lieving is so much better than this nonsense.
Seeing as Dracula's Curse was from The Asylum, you would expect bad acting, bad production values, bad scripting, bad special effects, bad story, bad everything really.
Dracula's Curse does show more effort than most other Asylum outings, so it wasn't the case of not trying.
The fight sequences do suffer from confusing editing and are not particularly exciting, while the dialogue is written in a way that begged for several re-readings/writes because it sound rather stilted and senseless at times.
The rest of the acting is not very good, Rebekah Kochan is just grating and Eliza Swenson is so stiff in quite possibly the biggest female role in the movie.
That there are too many characters also hurts Dracula's curse, and hardly any of them are developed that well, the most interesting probably is Jacob Van Helsing.
All in all, Dracula's Curse is not a terrible movie and is much better than other Asylum movies(and with director Leigh Scott's movies I'd say it's one of his better ones too) but suffers from over-ambition, convoluted storytelling and too many characters.
The movie had know scary scenes nor did it have any kind of atmosphere.
Give yourself a break from this kind of junk and go find a decent vampire movie, preferably one made by Universal in the 1930's or Hammer in the 1960's.
I could only watch about half an hour of this movie - it was so bad that I was glad I rented it instead of buying it.
It is acting is very bad in this movie.
Dracula (1979) good movie.
pretty good little movie.
I assume the budget wasn't very big but the effects were damn good and a few scenes in particular were just nice to look at (see it and you'll know which scenes I'm talking about).
The vampire hunters are also a diverse group and pretty fun at times.
An entertaining and complex low-budget vampire film..
Considering the budget and time restraints that it was clearly filmed under, it's an entertaining film that packs a lot of story into it's running time.However, there are perhaps too many characters - more than the story actually needs - and as a result we learn hardly anything about most of them (various members of The Nine, for example, often have little to do beside standing around in the background holding guns).
I think the same thing can be said about the only other Leigh Scott film I've currently seen, 'Transmorphers'.Also the final twist about Fox's true identity was ruined for me by the fact that during the earlier flashback to the first meeting between the Countess and Dracula, despite the scene of Dracula removing his helmet being filmed from behind his shoulder, I could still recognise actor Tom Downey's distinctive bone structure.
'Dracula's Curse' boasts a good script and good performances, and I consider those factors to be more important than lavish sets and big budget special effects.
Writer/director Leigh Scott relates the convoluted, but compelling story at a steady pace, stages the occasional stirring action set pieces with considerable brio and skill, offers a few fresh and inventive twists on standard vampire lore, and sprinkles a reasonable amount of grisly gore.
Moreover, Scott does an especially solid job of creating and sustaining some interesting conflicts amongst the well-drawn and engaging main characters.
Further kudos are in order for the sound and spirited acting from a game cast, with particularly stand-out work from Jeff Denton as fearsome, haughty bloodsucker Rafe, Amanda Barton as Bathorly's fierce, aggressive right-hand gal Darvulia, Rebekah Kochan as the brassy, hot-tempered Trixie McFly, Sarah Lieving as helpful, sympathetic vampire ally Alex Devereaux, Tom Nagel as naive, eager rookie vampire killer Tattinger, Justin Jones as grotesque ghoul Maximillian, and Scott as enigmatic bloodsucker leader the Old One. Both Swenson's funky, spooky score and Steven Parker's sharp cinematography are up to snuff.
I watched the film with my wife last night and we both had basically the same reaction which is that it was too long and there were too many characters.
Too many characters and bad acting on top of it doesn't a good movie make.I had seen a few of writer/director Leigh Scott's films before, as I'm an indie horror film junkie you might say.
Frankenstein Reborn was also a sharp stylish little horror film, but suffered from some of the same problems as Dracula.Dracula's Curse follows a group of vampire hunters who make a pact with the vampires themselves, a cease-fire of sorts.
Familiar characters in the film include Jacob Van Helsing, Countess Elizabeth Bathorey, and Dracula himself.
There are some very cool scenes throughout the movie and the cinematography is pretty spectacular.
Scott is actually fantastic in the film as one of the vampires called The Old One. Other characters who hold their own as well include the actress who plays the Countess and Rhett Giles as Van Helsing.
Unfortunately for Scott he seems to be contractually obligated to work with the same bad actors time and again.
Tom Downey, as Rufus King, is fine, but boring, and we've just seen him too many times already playing different variations on the same character.
He inexplicably chooses to put her again in one of the larger roles in Dracula's Curse, and her character of Gracie is not believable at all, and Swenson comes across as stiff and awkward.
Dracula's Curse could have been Scott's finest hour, but just wasn't because of these problems.
Unlike some Leigh Scott movies, this one had a plot to it.....I enjoyed this one, actually.
"Dracula's Curse" is a pretty problematic vampire effort.**SPOILERS**Following a successful mission, Col. Rufus King, (Tom Downey) and his team, Jacob Van Helsing, (Rhett Giles) Gracie Johansson, (Eliza Swenson) Trixie McFly, (Rebekah Kochan) Anastasia Ravenwood, (Marie Westbrook) Sadie Macpherson, (Sarah Hall) Nebraska, (Chriss Anglin) and Maximilian, (Justin Jones) are told of a truce between the vampire elite and their representatives, ending their fighting.
One of the better elements here is the film's rather fun action scenes, which are a lot of fun.
The opening encounter is a great example, with the confrontation in the crypt, complete with the utterly-freaky vampires as well as the atmospheric setting in the dank basement and the bloody markings along the wall in the highway before it gets to the main action in the staking in the big coffin-filled room and the later efforts with the kung-fu fight in the adjacent room as well as a very enjoyable gunfight to go along with it.
The last plus here is the storyline, which is quite nice as it mixes actual history to rationalize its new-found mythology, but these are all that work.The Bad News: There was a lot of stuff wrong with this one, one of the biggest problems here is the fact that, in spite of the film's extreme length, this one still feels the need to talk everything out instead of showing it.
By really showing a lot more of those scenes, it shortens the film and doesn't become a problem to get over.
Another problem in the film is that, in order to compensate, some scenes just go on way too long and aren't that exciting or thrilling.
These here are the film's flaws.The Final Verdict: Definitely a problematic entry, if for no other reason than a couple of story problems rather than anything else fundamental about it, so it's still got some good stuff to it.
The real reason I watched this is because this is my brother's vote for "worst movie of all time".
Then it movies from the hunters finding the descendants of Dracula's brides.
Some of the characters are interesting enough once written down on paper but instead we stick to the 2 very bland head vampire hunters trying to be badass, which of course doesn't work.
For a fact some of these interesting characters vanish inexplicably for over half the movie.
There's one vampire hunter trainee for example that gets trained, then sticks to them, then he appears in the final fight.
Makes you wonder where he was.Another thing, WHO THE F##K DID THE SOUND EDITING TO THIS MOVIE?
I don't know what kind of effect the sound editor was trying to create but this doesn't work.Then you have the acting.
The costume design (I don't even judge a movie based on this) for most of the female vampires make them look like hookers rather than dangerous creatures of the night.So this is not a good movie.
Dracula's Curse starts as a pact between the waring Vampires & the Vampire hunters is agreed & signed, the Vampire hunter leader type guy Rufus King (Thomas Downey) warns the Old One (writer, editor & director Leigh Scott hiding under lots of make up & an awful wig) that if any Vampire kills a human being again the truce is off.
Once King realises that the truce has been broken he & the rest of Vampire hunting mates gear up for action once more as they are the only ones who can stop Bathorly...Edited, written & directed by Leigh Scott who also has a small role in the film under lots of make-up one has to say that The Asylum doesn't have a great track record in making good horror films & Dracula's Curse only goes to enhance that reputation rather than change it.
There are so many things wrong with this film, the story is awful as it's some sort of horrible low budget cross between the Blade & Underworld franchises as the film portrays the now clichéd hidden Vampire society living within our own & a team of specialist Vampire hunters dedicated to eradicating them dressed in silly outfits & using 'cool' weapons.
It doesn't work here, the Blade & Underworld films has sufficient scope & money behind them to make you believe that there were hidden Vampire societies amongst us but here in Dracula's Curse we see about five Vampires in a basement & that's it.
All the character's are awful, there is constant annoying sub plots where they are given little personal problems & dilemmas which amount to nothing & just bore the absolute pants off the audience waiting to see some proper Vampire action.
At almost two hours in length Dracula's Curse is a real chore to sit through & I would imagine a lot of people won't make it, it really is that bad on all fronts including a terrible twist ending which has zero impact.One of the most enjoyable aspects of both the Blade & Underworld series were the dazzling set-piece action scenes, the cool production design which mixed the sleek chrome plated modernistic up to date along with the imposing traditional Gothic with the over-the-top blood & gore special effects.
Unfortunately for the audience Dracula's Curse has none of this, the production design amounts to some bland shotguns, a basement & a few rooms in a house while I can't remember a single action set-piece.
So to sum it up there's no action, there's no special effects apart from a monster at the end, there's no cool weaponry & if it wasn't for some swearing this wouldn't be far off a PG rating.Technically the film is an eyesore, while a lot of films have certain colour schemes to look stylish Dracula's Curse just looks as if sometime turned the colour settings down on your telly & it just looks bland & lifeless throughout.
Some of the delivery is just cringe inducing although one or two of the girls look quite nice.Dracula's Curse has nothing to do with Bram Stoker no matter what the film would lead you to believe, in fact it even changes Dracula to Drakulya.