Image: Jasin Boland / Universal Pictures
Luke Evans in 'Dracula Untold'
In the 1930’s, when Bela Lugosi made history in Universal’s first Dracula movie, teenagers were not a market segment. Dracula was based on a successful play and was a mainstream box office hit. Today’s proliferation of the usually awful PG-13 supernatural action property is due to men who were the indie filmmakers of their day—Roger Corman and Samuel Zarkoff. Their American International Pictures had an internal strategy called The Peter Pan Syndrome. It had five pillars:
1. A younger child will watch anything an older child will watch.2. An older child will not watch anything a younger child will watch.3. A girl will watch anything a boy will watch.4. A boy will not watch anything a girl will watch.5. Therefore, to catch your greatest audience you zero in on the 19-year old male.
Hollywood, once it caught on, was able to bid for and annex the teenager pretty effectively with BBBs (Big Budget B-movies). That’s partly why the 1955 The Fast and the Furious cost $50,000 (less than half a million in 2014 dollars), and the 2001 The Fast and the Furious cost $38 million.
Image: Jasin Boland / Universal Pictures
Luke Evans in 'Dracula Untold'
The Peter Pan Syndrome, however problematic (and unable to predict Twilight), is part of the key to understanding the way things are now.
Which brings us to Dracula: Untold, from the virgin team of director Gary Shore and writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. Given the verylow expectations of its sub-genre, the film is surprisingly entertaining compared to similar movies I’ve seen and writtenabout.
Dracula Untold is the dark and religious origin story of Prince Vlad (Luke Evans), a Man With A Troubled Past. Vlad, a former child conscript of The Turks, has left impaling for a nice life with wife Mirena (Sarah Gordon). However, he upsets The Turks when he refuses to send his own son to Sultan Mehmed as an insurance policy.
Such insolence can only be met with overwhelming force. “They’ve killed a thousand of our men, sir,” says an underling. “Then send a hundred thousand!” responds the Sultan.
Well, Vlad can’t handle that. So, it’s off to Broken Tooth Mountain (of course) we go, where he makes a dark pact with an ancient vampire played by the numinous Charles Dance. Drink my blood, says the vamp, and you will have unspeakable powers for three days. The forces of the night will bend to your will, wounds will heal in the blink of an eye. Women will want you, men will want to be you! But you mustn’t drink anyone’s blood during that time, or else you’ll be cursed for eternity.
Image: Universal Pictures
Dominic Cooper in 'Dracula Untold'
Welshman Luke Evans has a classic Hollywood look, and could probably play Orlando Bloom’s evil nemesis (there’s an idea, executives). He’s adequately stoic and stormy. And the film doesn’t look all that bad, either. There are some parts that look 3-D (without the benefit of glasses), but occasionally the camera takes a break from tight close-ups and shaky action scenes to give the audience landscapes and choreographed fights. There’s even a downright bold use of first person—from the eyes of a doomed Turkish soldier, Dracula mostly glimpsed only in the reflection of a sword.
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