Oh, The Horror! #31: Bram Stoker's Dracula

Wow, did I have a good time watching this movie. This is a movie I've been wanting to see for years but never to any avail. Finally this past weekend I caught this with my brother and god-brother after watching Blacula also for the first time and felt this movie lived up to my expectations. Yet at the same time I didn't know much of what to expect with this movie. I just knew I'd be into it due to Gary Oldman playing Dracula and Anthony Hopkin as Van Helsing. Get Winona Ryder as Mina Murray to round off the ensemble cast and sexy Monica Bellucci as one of Dracula's three brides. The movie begins in the past during the Turkish invasion where Vlad The Impaler (Oldman) defeats the invasion to come back and find his wife (Winona Ryder) had committed suicide after false news of her husband's death. Vlad, feeling betrayed by God after fighting for his cause and finding out his wife's soul was damned to hell, curses Him and the church and swears the rise up with all the powers of darkness.

Centuries pass and Jonathan Harker, a law clerk played HORRIBLY by Keanu Reeves, travels to Transylvania to Count Dracula's castle to arrange the transfer of Carfax Abbey in London, Dracula's current real estate acquisition. During Harker's stay at the castle is where I really fall for the movie. Shadows of Dracula never match the vampire himself, often moving slowly or making a violent movement among many strange things. The visuals of this movie are astounding and really gets you on the edge. Just for the visuals alone you can't help but fall in love with the movie. As the stay progresses, Dracula sees a picture of Harker's beautiful wife, Mina Murray, who looks exactly like Dracula's deceased wife. As Dracula plots to go to London in search of Mina, Dracula's three wives feed on Harker and force him into intercourse, leaving him too weak to escape. The scenes with the vampire brides are also very beautifully done.

When Dracula arrives in London, he meets Mina, falls in love with her, and effectively seduces her. At the same time, he also entices Mina's best friend, Lucy, turning her into a vampire and leading the other characters of the movie to take notice of this strange occurrence going on and thus introducing us to Van Helsing, played bad-assly by Sir Anthony Hopkins. The scene where Lucy gets glamored by Dracula as she travels through a maze in search of him with her long red dress flowing in the windy night once again strikes you as amazing and just entices you to keep watching. The scene goes into a shocking climax when Lucy is found having sex with a humanoid wolf.

Now as I may praise this film, there are aspects of it where I felt could have improved. The plot seem to move very fast and there really was no moment to breathe. The movie progressed fast and got stranger and stranger, but not enough to have you fall off. In a way, I felt the movie could have been longer to help develop some more, but overall the movie itself was a good winner. The ensemble cast, besides Keanu Reeves in his worst performance EVER, were all great in their roles, Oldman definitely taking the title role and having you care for him despite being the villain and Sadie Frost playing the flirtatious and dangerous Lucy. I'd definitely recommend this movie to any horror fan with an eye for visual beauties. As stated before, the visuals alone are enough to watch and enjoy the movie. The make-up for the vampires, most particular Oldman as an old and pale and beautifully ugly creature is massively impressive. Overall this movie was very much like watching someone take full advantage of all the resources and money to make a childhood dream film.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Oh, The Horror #19: The Unborn

Now this movie I was semi-excited for. You can tell given that I put that trailer of it on this blog not too long ago. I saw the trailer and I saw it as a movie that would probably attempt to go back to the roots of the type of horror movie I enjoy watching. One of my best buds, Nadia, ended up getting free advance tickets and saw it as a proper birthday present for me so we went to go see it on Tuesday. As soon as the movie starts you're taken into the plot and it hardly lets go as the horror goes and goes. The special effects were great, scares and shocks were damn well done, but the story was "eh." Now, as stated before, I felt it seem like a movie that was attempting to recapture the charm of old school horror and when you watch the movie you see that, but it falls rather short in trying to achieve it. The story just isn't completely there. It seems incomplete and very simple and just... there. The plot-slash-premise were very damn interesting and the back-story were very attention grabbing along with the constant scares but there was just something missing.

The story is about a girl named Casey Beldon, played by Odette Yustman, who gets haunted by dreams and strange events in reality by an evil spirit revealed as the Dybbuk. Along with her best friend, Romey, played by sexy Meagan Good who also serves as a bit of a comic relief, tries to uncover the mysteries behind why Casey is the one experiencing all of this. She begins to learn about her family past which connects to Nazi geneticists and demons attempting to come into our world by possessing people and hoping to completely get into the world by being reborn as a deceased twin that was killed in the womb. We find out that Casey's grandmother had to kill her brother when he got possessed and also Casey's mother, played by Carla Gugino, had to also deal with this demonic entity which left her in an asylum and led her to commit suicide. So now it is Casey who is now next and it's up to her to stop it. She seeks help from a rabbi played by Gary Oldman who at first isn't too willing to help Casey due to her lack of faith but then becomes very determined to rid of this demon. She also has a Christian priest who comes to help her, played by Idris Elba, and her boyfriend. Let me not forget we have sexy Meagan Good who is determined to stick by and help her best friend despite all the warnings she gets. Mmm... Meagan. But anywho!

This movie also has something that I always shake my head and have to wonder why do people do that. Why is it that every time a character hears something weird they have to slowly... and slowly... walk... towards the noise... to see what it is? And this happens in the movie many damn times too. It's like the main character doesn't learn. She's experiencing all this weird crap, stop walking towards something suspicious. If you hear some weird noise on the other side of the wall, leave the damn room! Ugh! And there's also a part of the end of the movie that got me and my friend Nadia saying, "Oh, you a stupid bi-- um.. girl!" It's something that really got me annoyed but that cliffhanger I guess you can say you could see coming and is a staple of horror films. I won't spoil it for those interested in seeing this.

As stated, the effects and shocks are good. Damn good, in fact. But if that's what you want to see in a horror film, it'll appeal to you. One specific scene I loved was when Casey goes to visit her mother. The effects of that scene was fantastic and a few scenes that include bugs haunting Casey. But if you want a good solid story, this movie probably won't do much for you. If anything, I'd say wait for the DVD or till it premieres on cable. Despite me not caring much for the movie, I'm glad to see the attempt of trying to explore the supernatural old school elements of horror that I feel is missing nowadays. Directed by David S. Goyer who's written works are usually damn good to watch as they're directed by other folks but seem to fall short when he's on the directing seat. So take that as you will.

The Unborn trailer