With the recent 3-part Dracula mini-series on the UK’s BBC1, perhaps it’s worth revisiting Patrick Luisser’s (Drive Angry) Dracula 2000 (strangely enough, released in 2000). Before you say anything, yes, it’s pretty cheesy – but boasts a unique concept, a strong cast and a fair few laughs and some thrills.
The concept? the Count is actually Jesus’s 13th disciple – Judas.
Which accounts for his detestation of both the cross and silver (thirty pieces and all).
The cast – Gerard Butler at his sexiest, before his inevitable decline into a weary, rather jaded, middle-aged action hero. A game Christopher Plummer (on the cusp of his late -areer renaissance) as Van Helsing joins Johnny Lee Miller (who’s in on the joke) and fan favourites Jeri Ryan, Omar Epps, Justine Waddell and Jennifer Esposito, who all enter the spirit of the piece with gusto.
As I said, there’s self-awareness about the movie, with Butler revelling in the role of Dracula/Judas for all it’s worth, combining humour, terror, sex appeal and a touch (at the end) of remorse.
So whilst no-one is going to nominate the picture for the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry, Dracula 2000 is well worth checking out for a late Friday/Saturday night.