Dracula (miniseries)
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''Dracula'', also known as ''Dracula's Curse'', is a 2002
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Psychological horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Christmas horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Analog horror, a subgenre of horror fiction * ...
miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...
written and directed by Roger Young and starring
Patrick Bergin Patrick Connolly Bergin (born 4 February 1951) is an Irish actor and singer. In 1991, he starred opposite Julia Roberts in '' Sleeping with the Enemy'' and played the title character in ''Robin Hood''. His other roles include terrorist Kevin O' ...
,
Giancarlo Giannini Giancarlo Giannini (; born 1 August 1942) is an Italian actor and voice actor. He won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in '' Love and Anarchy'' (1973) and received an Academy Award nomination for '' Seven Beaut ...
and
Stefania Rocca Stefania Rocca (born 24 April 1971) is an Italian actress. She is best known for her roles in the films ''Nirvana'' (1997), ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' (1999) and ''Dracula'' (2002). Rocca also was the lead in Dario Argento's '' The Card Player' ...
. It is based on the 1897 novel of the same name by
Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...
, though it updates the events of the novel to the present day.


Plot

At a ballroom of a hospital charity party in
Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
, the successful
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lawyer Jonathan Harker suddenly proposes to his girlfriend Mina. He wants to marry her within the week. Their friends Lucy, Quincy, and Arthur have been invited by Jonathan and have just arrived for the wedding, all without Mina's awareness. Meanwhile, they meet the party's promoter, the psychiatrist Dr. Seward. Later in the same night, Jonathan is called by a rich client, Tepes, who hires him to prepare the inventory of his uncle's wealth, the count Vladislav Tepes, in
Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
. In his
Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...
, Jonathan travels to the
Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...
, has an accident, and finally arrives in the count's old
castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
. Vlad Tepes, here calling himself Count Vladislav Tepes, decides to leave his castle and move to the west. He says he feels tired from Romania's decline and the seclusion of his life. In Budapest, he discusses some illegal business with Harker. He also wants Jonathan's help to turn his collection of paintings, jewels, and gold deposits into cash. Jonathan's friends, businessman Quincey Morris, specialising in money swindles, and Arthur Holmwood, a British diplomat in debt, offer to help. Though Jonathan and Arthur doubt the deal, Quincey convinces them that money is all that matters, and it is one true power that makes the world go around. Dracula gets very interested in those young people—the men, hungry for money and power; Lucy, who wants to sleep in many beds, in many cities, have new experiences and live forever; and Mina, who wants to change the world and end human suffering. Throughout the film, Dracula tries to seduce all five of them into his own world, making them wish to become vampires. Focusing again and again on how hypocritical morality is and promising them the loss of their consciences, he says survival of the fittest is the proper way, and even the strong cannot save the weak. He also references God's slaughters in the Bible to prove that humanity was created in his image, the image of a killer. There to stop him is the researcher of the occult and Seward's teacher Dr. Enrico Valenzi, who believes that Dracula can be defeated when he faces a strong will empowered by faith. But throughout this film, he raises more and more self-doubts, and his will almost breaks by the end. Mina, halfway through her transformation to a vampire, manages to make Dracula trust her and kills him as he holds her in an embrace. The film ends with Mina still having the vampire's mark, leaving her fate untold, though it could be that she instead took her own life to prevent herself from succumbing to vampirism entirely.


Cast

*
Patrick Bergin Patrick Connolly Bergin (born 4 February 1951) is an Irish actor and singer. In 1991, he starred opposite Julia Roberts in '' Sleeping with the Enemy'' and played the title character in ''Robin Hood''. His other roles include terrorist Kevin O' ...
as
Vladislav Tepes Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler ( ) or Vlad Dracula (; ; 1428/31 – 1476/77), was List of princes of Wallachia, Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in 1476/77. He is often considered one of the most imp ...
/
Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. He is considered the prototypical and archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some to have been i ...
*
Giancarlo Giannini Giancarlo Giannini (; born 1 August 1942) is an Italian actor and voice actor. He won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in '' Love and Anarchy'' (1973) and received an Academy Award nomination for '' Seven Beaut ...
as Dr. Enrico Valenzi *
Hardy Krüger Jr. Hardy Krüger Jr. (born 9 May 1968) is a German actor. He is the son of the German actor-writer Hardy Krüger and the Italian painter Francesca Marazzi. Life Krüger was born in Lugano, Switzerland. Shortly after his birth, his father took hi ...
as
Jonathan Harker Jonathan Harker is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. An English solicitor, his journey to Transylvania and encounter with the vampire Count Dracula and his Brides at Ca ...
*
Stefania Rocca Stefania Rocca (born 24 April 1971) is an Italian actress. She is best known for her roles in the films ''Nirvana'' (1997), ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' (1999) and ''Dracula'' (2002). Rocca also was the lead in Dario Argento's '' The Card Player' ...
as
Mina Murray Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker (née Murray) is a fictional character and the main female character in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic novel, Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. In the novel She begins the story as Miss Mina Murray, a young schoolmistress who ...
*
Muriel Baumeister Muriel Baumeister (born 24 January 1972) is a German-Austrian film and television actress. She was born in Salzburg. Selected filmography * '' Rising to the Bait'' (1992) * ' (1992, TV film) * ''Mutter, ich will nicht sterben!'' (1994, TV fi ...
as Lucy Westernra *
Kai Wiesinger Kai Wiesinger (born 16 April 1966) is a German actor. Life and work Wiesinger began taking private acting lessons as a teenager. After his civil service, he became an acting student in Munich. He has been active on German television and in film ...
as
Dr. John Seward John "Jack" Seward, M.D. is a fictional character appearing in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel ''Dracula''. In the novel Seward is the administrator of an insane asylum not far from Count Dracula's first English home, Carfax. Throughout the novel, ...
*
Alessio Boni Alessio Boni (born 4 July 1966) is an Italian actor. Life Boni was born in Sarnico in 1966. He studied theatre at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica. The second of three children, Marco is the eldest and Andrea is the youngest brother ...
as
Quincey Morris Quincey P. Morris is a fictional character in Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic novel ''Dracula''. In the novel He is a rich young American from Texas, and one of the three men who propose to Lucy Westenra. Quincey is friends with her other two suitor ...
* Conrad Hornby as
Arthur Holmwood Arthur "Art" Holmwood (later Lord Godalming) is a fictional character in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel ''Dracula''. In the novel Holmwood is engaged to Lucy Westenra, and is best friends with the other two men who proposed to her on the very same ...
* Brett Forest as Roenfield *
Alessia Merz Alessia Merz (born 24 September 1974) is an Italian model, television host and showgirl. Biography Merz was born in Trento. She debuted in 1992 in the Canale 5 show ''Bulli e pupe''. In September she took part in ''Non è la RAIs second edition, ...
as Fair Woman * Piroska Kiss as Dark Woman * István Göz as Male Nurse * Barna Illyés as Border Guard * Csaba Pethes as Captain of the Tug * Balázs Tardy as Tug Crew Member 1 * Levente Törköly as Tug Crew Member 2 * Ilona Kassai as Woman at the Hotel * Imola Gáspár as Woman at the Manor * Csilla Bakonnyi as Hungarian Woman * Petra Hauman as Mother of the Boy * Tibor Kenderesi as Man at the Hotel *
Andrew Divoff Andrew Daniel Divoff (born July 2, 1955) is an American actor and producer. Divoff has played many villains in film and on television, including drug cartel leaders, terrorists, and organized crime bosses, though he is best known for playing the ...
as Doctor


Reception

Critical reaction to the film has been mixed to negative. David Johnson of ''DVD Verdict'' offered a positive review, saying: "Everyone involved commits to doing an okay job, and the production values and general atmosphere help shed the burden of the film stock and sad-sack effects. Bergin's Dracula is effectively crusty and malicious, and Muriel Baumeister has a good time hamming it up as the infected Lucy."DVD Verdict Review - Dracula's Curse
/ref> Others were less positive: ''The SF, Horror, and Fantasy Film Review'' wrote, "While the film does an excellent job in updating ''Dracula'' to the midst of New Europe's
nouveau riche ; ), new rich, or new money (in contrast to old money; ) is a social class of the rich whose wealth has been acquired within their own generation, rather than by familial inheritance. These people previously had belonged to a lower social cla ...
, director Roger Young lets the show down considerably in the second half. ... The script does get caught up in some pretentious natterings ndthe performances are particularly uneven." Noel Megahey of ''DVD Times'' said, "It's heawkwardness in the script and the dialogue that weighs heavily on the film, although the film actually does operate half-way successfully when it moves into the non-verbal action sequences. What really sinks the film in the end, though, is not the weakness of the special effects, but the performances and the delivery of the pan-European cast that struggles through their semi-dubbed English-language lines." David Hall of ''EatMyBrains.com'' said, "There have been far worse cinematic incarnations of Stoker's tale than this — but it must rank as one of the dreariest adaptations ever — a toothless bore shorn of any frisson of eroticism, with nary a drop of blood in sight."EAT MY BRAINS! - Dracula (aka Dracula's Curse) Review
/ref>


See also

*
Vampire film Vampire films have been a staple in world cinema since the era of silent films, so much so that the depiction of vampires in popular culture is strongly based upon their depiction in films throughout the years. The most popular cinematic adaptat ...
*
List of vampire television series List of television series about vampires, creatures from folklore that subsist by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and ...


References


External links

* {{Authority control 2002 films 2002 television films 2002 horror films 2000s Italian television miniseries 2000s German television miniseries 2000s Italian television series 2000s German television series Italian supernatural horror films German horror television films English-language Italian films English-language German films 2000s Italian-language films Films directed by Roger Young Films scored by Harald Kloser Dracula films Dracula television series Films shot in Hungary Italian horror television films Films set in castles 2000s German films