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Dracula 2000
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Dracula 2000 (also known as Dracula 2001 in some countries) is a 2000 horror film which attempts to transfer the story of Dracula into the setting of a modern teen horror film. The film offers a unique story for Dracula's origins not found in any other vampire movie. Promotionially titled Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000, the film is followed by two sequels, Dracula II: Ascension and Dracula III: Legacy.
film opens in 1897, with Count Dracula's voyage to England on the Demeter and his arrival in London.
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Encyclopedia
Dracula 2000 (also known as Dracula 2001 in some countries) is a 2000 horror film which attempts to transfer the story of Dracula into the setting of a modern teen horror film. The film offers a unique story for Dracula's origins not found in any other vampire movie. Promotionially titled Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000, the film is followed by two sequels, Dracula II: Ascension and Dracula III: Legacy.
Plot
The film opens in 1897, with Count Dracula's voyage to England on the Demeter and his arrival in London. The narrative then moves forward to present-day London, with a group of thieves infiltrating the antique shop Carfax Abbey. Penetrating into its innermost vault they expect to find a fortune in treasure. Instead they encounter a sealed coffin. Upon attempting to move the coffin, some of the treasure-hunting party are gruesomely killed by the vault's security system, leading the survivors to believe the coffin is the treasure they have come for. It is no surprise when the coffin is later revealed to contain the dormant body of Count Dracula. We learn that Carfax Abbey (also the name of Dracula's London residence in Bram Stoker's original novel) is owned and operated by Dracula's nemesis, Abraham Van Helsing, who, after trapping and subduing Dracula a century before, has been keeping himself alive with injections of the vampire's blood filtered through leeches until he can find a way to destroy Dracula forever.
While flying the coffin back to the United States one of the thieves manages to open the coffin, releasing Dracula. The count proceeds to feast on the blood of the thieves, one of whom happens to be flying the airplane, causing them to crash in the swamps of Louisiana. Surviving the crash, he heads to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Van Helsing's estranged daughter Mary and her best friend Lucy live. Meanwhile Van Helsing and his assistant Simon head to the U.S. to recapture Dracula.
The one significant twist this film brings to the Dracula legend is its explanation of his origin. In this film, Dracula is established to be Judas Iscariot, cursed to walk the earth as an immortal for his betrayal of Jesus, being denied admission to both Heaven and Hell. This explains some of the vampire's best-known weaknesses, primarily Christian iconography and silver, as Judas was paid in silver for betraying Christ to the authorities. Although Bram Stoker makes no reference to a vulnerability to silver in his novel, it is a part of some examples of European vampire folklore.
Cast
Production
The film was produced by Dimension Films and Neo Art & Logic. Veteran horror film director Wes Craven was executive producer and his long time editor, Patrick Lussier, directed the film. Joel Soisson is credited with the screenplay, with the story by Soisson and Lussier. However, the film went through numerous uncredited rewrites by Scott Derrickson & Paul Harris Boardman and Ehren Krueger. Wes Craven and Laeta Kalogridis also polished certain scenes during post production. The film was noteworthy in the year of its release for the highly accelerated schedule it was made under. Production commenced on June 21st, 2000 with an unfinished script. The film was released six months later on December 22nd 2000. Its executive producer, Wes Craven commented in Entertainment Weekly on how he felt the accelerated schedule had affected the making of the film. Principal photography finished at the beginning of September 2000 with additional photography commencing till the last week of October 2000. The film continued to be rewritten throughout production and post-production with the final rewritten scenes being shot late in November 2000.
Reception
Dracula 2000 opened at #7 in its first week at the box office with $8.6 million. In its second week the film had a 56.5% drop-off, staying at #8. The film grossed $33 million domestically and $14 million in foreign countries making a total of $47 million worldwide, exceeding its $28 million budget. On its initial video release it grossed an additional $32 million in the US and Canada and is still making money worldwide. The movie received generally negative reviews from critics. The site Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "rotten" score of 15% and an average rating of 3.7/10, stating that Dracula 2000 "tries to offer a different spin on the origin of Dracula", but "Unfortunately, there's nothing here audiences haven't seen before". Metacritic.com rates the film 26 out of a 100 while its users give it 6.5 out of 10. In spite of its critical failure, Dracula 2000 was the 6th highest grossing film for Miramax/Dimension Films in 2000, exceeding the box office takes of such expensive Dimension Films releases like Reindeer Games and Impostor as well as the Miramax Film December opener for that year, All the Pretty Horses.
Soundtrack
External links
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