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USA, the present day: Kurt Van Helsing (Stephen Johnson) and his
companion Mary (Carol Baxter) are systematically destroying Dracula's
(Michael Nouri) native soil-filled caskets to make it unable for him to
stay in their city any longer, when Mary chances upon a university course
on old European culture that's only held after dark ... and when she
attends, she has to realize it's really held by Dracula ... and he's
charmed by her, and invites her to one of his parties ... but what should
have been a perfect opportunity for her and Van Helsing to destroy the
vampire actually turns out to be a trap set for her, and Dracula manages
to bite her for the first time (three bites make a vampire) and manages to
get away with it ... Now there is a reason Mary wants to kill Dracula,
she believe he has killed her mother Amanda (Louise Sorel), but being
bitten by the vampire seems to suddenly draw her to him ... and Van
Helsing can do nothing to see her bitten a second time - but he finds a
powerful ally in Mary's mom Amanda, who has never actually died but been
turned into a vampire by Dracula years ago. Amanda, once his lover, now
hates Dracula for what she's done to her, but desperately wants to save
her daughter from becoming a vampire. But there's also Antoinette
(Antoinette Stella), one of Dracula's students who's deeply in love with
him and terribly jealous of Mary, so much so that she wants to see her
dead. Now Van Helsing and Amanda have to ward Antoinette off while
seeing Mary falling under Dracula's spell more and more and more, so much
so that she attacks Van Helsing - but ultimately, Amanda comes up with the
remedy for Mary, she has to release a vampire from the curse of Dracula
... that vampire being herself of course - and Mary almost fails to stake
her own mother (but can you blame her) and only manages to do so when
Dracula threatens her life. Fearing that he could do something to Mary,
the woman he loves, in rage, Dracula flees the scene, and finding the
journals of Dracula, Van Helsing and Mary have little trouble to find the
rest of his coffins and destroy them. Of course, Dracula can only be found
in the last coffin, and Mary and Van Helsing only manage to track that one
down by nightfall, so they of course have Dracula and Antoinette to fight
... but yeah, good prevails over evil in the end. Curse of
Dracula, along with The Secret Empire and Stop Susan
Williams, was an attempt to present the serial format of yesteryear to
television audience within the series Cliffhangers - but not
too successful an attempt, because while many serial-elements are
prevalent, like a reliance on action over character, simplified and
slightly repetitive storylines and of course cliffhangers as such, it in
many other ways lacks the sense of adventure of the best serials and
instead treats the topic with the flatness of your typical TV series
(though that's in line with quite a few serials from the 1950's too),
lacking the actual sense of wonder of the format. Plus, this one relies
much to heavily on romance, which might be in line with 1979's blockbuster
Dracula by John Badham starring Frank Langella, but it doesn't do
the source or the serial format much justice. In all, I'm afraid to say
this is just a piece of forgettable TV - the intentions might have been
good, but the execution certainly lacks in too many aspects.
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