Netflix Horror Action Epic Turns Iconic Villain Into A Superhero

By Jason Collins
| Published 2 minutes ago

Apart from Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1992, which is a legendary movie starring Gary Oldman as the iconic villain, there have been numerous retellings of Dracula’s story throughout cinema and television. Some of these are rather mediocre, like Dracula 2000. Others were outright bad, like Dracula 3000. And some were outright fantastic, like 1922’s Nosferatu or Steven Moffat’s 2020 miniseries, aptly named Dracula. Now, a failed movie, Dracula Untold, has found new success on streaming, turning an iconic villain into a superhero.

Dracula As A Tragic Hero

For those who haven’t seen the movie, Dracula Untold was a critically panned reimagining of the origin of Dracula, which aims to portray the character as a tragic hero rather than a straightforward villain. The film’s narrative is set in the 15^th century where Vlad III (Luke Evans), the prince of Wallachia and Transylvania, faces a threat from the Ottoman Empire, which demands 1,000 Wallachian boys (including his own son) as a tribute to the sultan’s army.

Having spent his youth among the Ottomans, Vlad now seeks to protect his son and his country from the enemy.

However, in desperation, he turns to the dark and ancient power hidden in the mountains, a mysterious vampire (portrayed by the Game of Thrones star Charles Dance), who grants him the powers to defend his family and his country but also curses him with the vampiric blood lust. We won’t go into the story any further. Instead, we’ll go on to say that the concept upon which the story was based is actually pretty good. However, the execution of said concept in Dracula Untold wasn’t.

Lights Out On The Dark Universe

Though the critics praised Luke Evans’ performance as the anti-hero, Dracula Untold was heavily criticized for its plot and the perceived lack of emotional depth. However, it did reasonably well at the box office, earning $217 million worldwide against a budget of $100 million. Unfortunately, its earnings weren’t enough to protect it from the apparent pull of the grave and any idea of a sequel unfortunately found a stake to the heart.

At one point, there were discussions and some attempts to retroactively include Dracula Untold into the now-failed Dark Universe born with the release of The Mummy in 2017. However, given the poor performance of that particular release, Universal abandoned every notion of the Dark Universe.

This is really unfortunate because later-revealed Dracula Untold scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor also showed the appearance of Baba Yaga. No, we’re not referring to John Wick, but the actual stuff of nightmares originating from Eastern folklore.

Despite the film’s poor reception, Dracula remains an enduring pop culture icon that transcends the shifting cinematic trends, which explains how Dracula Untold found its resurrection on Netflix.