I think it is somewhat fair to say that indie film director Steve Lawson (The Mummy: Resurrection, Ripper Untold) creates horror films that are pretty mid-tier in terms of quality. Their small dimly lit sets, and scenes and scenes full of nothing much more than characters talking to each other gave them a unified quality that sometimes made it hard to tell individual films apart from each other. Within ten seconds of starting his latest horror, Wrath of Dracula, I was able to immediately identify that this was from Lawson. While there are certainly small dimly lit sets and lots of talking, this also happened to be the very best film from this particular director I've ever seen, the often theatrical way characters act really worked in the favour for a film about that most iconic movie monster, Dracula.
After Mina (Hannaj Bang Bendz - Dead Island 2 voicework) receives a concerning letter from her husband Jonathan (Dean Marshall - Peaky Blinders), she is forced into action. Her husband, a solicitor, had been abroad in Transylvania, visiting a wealthy client who wished to move to England. It turns out this client, a man known as Count Dracula (Sean Cronin - Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation, The World Is Not Enough), is holding Jonathan against his will in his mountain top castle. Mina swiftly travels to the castle, where she encounters a man who introduces himself as Van Helsing (Mark Topping - Jekyll and Hyde, Bram Stoker's Van Helsing). He tells Mina that he has been hunting Dracula for the past three years, and that he is a great evil that must be destroyed. Back in the local village he reveals to the woman that the Count is actually a vampire, a near unkillable agent of death and destruction. Initially hoping the woman will give up her quest and return to London, he soon comes to recognise the sheer determination and drive of Mina, and decides to enlist her aid in finally defeating his biggest foe.
Often liking to base his films around famous period piece horror stories, such as The Mummy, Jekyll and Hyde and the crimes of Jack the Ripper, it was hardly surprising to see him take a stab at Dracula. With the excellent Topping having played Van Helsing in a previous film of Lawson, I'm pretty sure this is at least an indirect sequel to that film, with this Van Helsing being the same character as there. I imagined this would follow a similar path to Bram Stoker's classic novel, but instead this branches out on its own, taking time to transform the character of Mina into a strong and independent bad-ass. Rather than the story taking place both in Transylvania and London, this all takes place in and around Dracula's castle. Having been completely exhausted with Lawson's portrayal of Victorian England, it felt weirdly refreshing to have a film set elsewhere. The eighty five minute horror is near enough split into two halves. The first deals a lot with the relationship between Helsing and Mina, including some very cheesy, yet also very entertaining training montages, where Mina in the space of a week transforms herself somehow into a monster slaying martial arts expert. The second half is all about the duo's attempts to infiltrate Castle Dracula and defeat the vampire and his three vampirical brides. Special effects were sparsely used but effective, a little bit of blood mixed in with a little bit of action
There was a lot of cheese to the movie, but then there often needs to be where Dracula is concerned. A mild complaint was that the count doesn't really feature much, only really appearing properly towards the end. I do appreciate this was to keep up the mystique of this character, with Helsing providing plenty of details about him, such as his origins, and past encounters with the demonic being. He may have not got to do much, but Cronin was a decent choice, and seemed like a powerful antagonist. Star of the show was both Bendz and Topping, I loved how this two put so much life into their characters, Topping in particular really stood out, a very charismatic and likeable character he played. Mina felt very much of the modern time, with her character being very independent and more than a match for anyone really. Not so good was Jonathan, relegated to a small side role, this lame duck of a man was pretty pathetic, it seemed hard to see how Mina and Jonathan would have ever been a good match.
Most cheesy of all where the brides of Dracula who all hammed up their roles as per tradition. It led to a few fun fight scenes, albeit ones that were stuffed to the gills with cheesiness. It felt fresh for a Lawson film not to collapse into over the top dramatics and ridiculous twists in its third act, instead it hints at a possible sequel in the future, something I would be well up for seeing.
You don't go to a Steve Lawson film for high budget and high thrills, but with Wrath of Dracula his particular brand of dramatical characters really worked. Even things like the early 2000's sounding rock song that are somehow incorporated into the film worked out for the best, as did the decent soundtrack. I had a blast watching this, a pleasant surprise for sure.
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