A Pinoy At The Movies: Dracula Untold

I didn't realize the irony until Vlad, The Impaler held the...

Well, I don't want to get ahead of this blog.

Last week, I was at the Red Cross blood donation center in Myeong-dong to do my share of bleeding for a cause. It has been months since I last donated blood, and it was time again... to bleed.

In return for my precious blood, the Korean Red Cross gave me a CGV movie ticket. I could watch any movie I want! And since I had nothing to do last night, I went to the Yongsan station CGV cinema and watched....Dracula Untold!

As I said earlier, I didn't see the irony of it all when, about half-an hour into the film, Vlad, the Impaler, in return for immortality and dark power, he was given a bowl of blood to drink by a master vampire. Upon seeing the blood (and I don't know if it's type A, B or O), I realized the irony of the night.  By giving away blood, I got to watch a movie about blood-sucking vampires! Ha-ha-ha!

Dracula Untold is a fantasy horror film that tells how Vlad, the Impaler got to be a legendary vampire he is known today. From the movie's poster I saw on the subway, I recognized the main actor, Luke Evans. In Clash Of The Titans, he was just one of the gods, but in Immortals, he got a promotion; he played Zeus himself. But here, he was the prince of Transylvania and a feared warrior turned into a vampire.

I remember watching a special screening of Bram Stoker's Dracula years ago before its public screening (Thanks to Columbia Pictures and Mimi!). That one, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starred Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder. Although most vampire films are scary, Coppola featured his vampires as elegant and their eating habits a little bit artsy, until the scene when Gary Oldman's neck was sliced open and a lot of type X blood was being spilled and wasted, something which would have left the nurses at the Red Cross blood donation center crying.

In this film, it's Vlad's love for his family and people that drove him to sell his soul to the devil in return for super powers. I especially liked the scenes where he kills an entire army with his speed, bats and of course, front teeth. He was like Batman, complete with a bat cave, but without a bat mobile, without gadgets and without Commissioner Gordon.

The special effects were very good, as well as the scenes where he struggles with his curse of having to drink human blood, and where he tries to avoid the burning sunlight, which eventually made his own people realize what he actually was. But unlike other vampire horror films, where good triumphs over evil, you'd especially enjoy to see that evil also triumphs over evil. Evil with fangs over evil with swords, that is. You just have to watch how the final battle was won. You'll know the scene when a thirsty vampire says, "They say your army was too many. Now, they're not just enough." Ha-ha-ha! 

I enjoy these Dracula movies, especially this one that tries to tell how he first became a vampire. His home, by the way, was Castle Dracula, which I guess that's how he was known to be called later on. Although Dracula Untold was not as fun as Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing, which had more action and sexy flying vampires, Dracula Untold was focused on how Vlad, The Impaler came to being a vampire. Don't miss the last minutes; since he is immortal, he could now be roaming your neighborhood. Ha-ha-ha!

When I was at the blood donation center, there were other donors giving blood as well. I wonder if they also watched this film with their free CGV ticket.

One last thing. It's Halloween in a few weeks. A vampire costume, perhaps?