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Dracula - The Rules of the Beast
episode 1
UK 2020
produced by Larry Tanz, Mark Gatiss (executive), Steven Moffat (executive), Ben Irving (executive), Sue Vertue (executive) for Hartswood Films/BBC, Netflix
directed by Jonny Campbell
starring Claes Bang, Dolly Wells, John Heffernan, Morfydd Clark, Joanna Scanlan, Lujza Richter, Petra Dubayova, Dilyana Bouklieva
screenplay by Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, based on the novel by Bram Stoker, music by David Arnold, Michael Price
TV miniseries Dracula, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat's Dracula
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Jonathan Harker (John Heffernan) is summoned to Castle Dracula in
Transylvania to finalize the deal of Carfax Abbey with mysterious Count
Dracula (Claes Bang), and also to educate the Count in English language
and customs. But he soon finds the castle to be an elaborate maze, a
prison without a key, and esploring the premises during the day without
meeting anyone sure drives him mad and drains his energy. Dracula on the
other hand grows more and more invigorated by Harker's premise, and he
takes on the English language and customs far quicker than humanly
possible - and he seems to grow younger by the hour, too. Eventually
though, Harker starts to unravel the mysteries of the castle - like that
Dracula keeps undead creatures in boxes, one of which (Lujza Richter)
escaped and now tries to get Harker to help ... and she wants his blood -
because she, as well as all the others in the boxes, and Dracula himself,
is a vampire. Soon Dracula, who has of course fed on Harker during his
stay, decides to either actually kill Harker or put him into one of his
boxes as an undead, whichever his momentary fancy, and somehow he turns
Harker, but Harker jumps off the castle wall into the river below in an
act of suicide ... Suicide doesn't work on vampires, and thus Harker
survives, is fished out of the river, and brought to a Hungarian nunnery
where he's questioned by Sister Agatha (Dolly Wells), who before long is
revealed to be of Van Helsing blood, who wants to destroy Dracula, and
thus tries to learn what she can from Harker, while also having brought
his fiancée Mina (Morfydd Clark) to keep Harker in check. Of course,
eventually Dracula catches up with Harker, and while Harker commits
suicide to save Mina, Dracula kills all the nuns, and comes after Mina and
Sister Agatha ... The very beginning of this follows the
conventions a bit too slavishly, up to Dracula saying "I never drink
... wine," and more often than not seems to mistake atmosphere with
whatever the CGI trickbox has to offer and a few pointless jump scares
thrown in. The episode more comes into its own once the plot points from
the source are out of the way, and the plot builds upon rather than
following them - which is immensely helped by strong performances from
Claes Bang and John Heffernan as Dracula and Harker, respectively.
However, as a whole the story of this episode, which only covers a small
portion of the expansive novel, seems to be a bit too drawn out, as in it
doesn't have enough to tell to keep one on the edge for an hour and a
half, and it's often too flashy and too effects-heavy to be properly
creepy, too. As a whole, it's certainly not a bad introductory episode,
and there's plenty of interest - it just isn't particularly good, either. On
a whole other note, to film exteriors for this at Orava Castle in Slovakia
was a stroke of genius, not only because the classic Nosferatu,
eine Symphonie des Grauens was filmed there as well, but also
because the castle has lost none of its brooding presence since the silent
days.
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