Dan Curtis’ Dracula (1974)

DRACULA WEEK

Also known as “Dracula,” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” Dan Curtis, the creator of “Dark Shadows” adapts (I use the term loosely) the bare essentials of Bram Stoker’s iconic novel. I say “the bare essentials” because for a movie written by Richard Matheson, there isn’t much that the movie strives for beside delivering a Dracula movie and nothing else. There’s no re-interpretation, or any kind of drastic changes to the narrative, save for Jonathan Harker’s fate, which is quite gruesome.

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Dear Dracula (2012)

DRACULA WEEK

I think I recall “Dear Dracula” airing on cable television back in 2012, but I never paid it much attention. It’s too bad because considering its obviously small budget, “Dear Dracula” is a fun and funny animated film. Maybe it’s because I can relate to young hero Sam and his love for characters like Dracula and the Wolfman over characters like Santa or the Tooth Fairy.

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Van Helsing: The London Assignment (2004)

DRACULA WEEK

When we first see Gabriel Van Helsing in “Van Helsing,” he’s on the pursuit of Mr. Hyde, a hulk-ified version of Dr. Jekyll. While the Stephen Sommers movie was a bust, “The London Assignment” at least takes its best shot at filling in the gaps. “The London Assignment” is an okay attempt a prologue for Gabriel Van Helsing, where we follow him in his efforts to stop the vicious murder spree of Dr. Jekyll and his monstrous alter ego Mr. Hyde.

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Renfield (2023): ‘Dracula Sucks’ Edition [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]

Chris McKay’s take on the Dracula dynamic with Renfield has a lot going for it, but it also has so much stacked against it from the starting gate. In a year teeming with Dracula iterations, “Renfield” has a real shot at standing out among the other interpretations of Bram Stoker’s lore, but never really rises to the occasion. That’s mainly because while the concept is interesting “Renfield” never decides what it wants to be. It wants to be a satire on “Dracula,” and a commentary on abusive relationships. It tries to be a cop action, a buddy comedy, a vampire film, and straddles the dangerous line of being a satire on the abuser and abused relationship at times.

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Five Promised Sequels That Never Happened

One of the most controversial movie moments in 2022 involved the ending of the “Black Adam” movie where Black Adam is confronted by the government official Amanda Waller. She vows to stop him, and Black Adam challenges her prompting Superman to arrive and confront him face to face. This set off announcements of a potential Superman vs. Black Adam movie. However, excited fans were saddened (understatement of the century) when director James Gunn announced that not only wouldn’t that be happening, but that Henry Cavill who played Superman had been released from his role.

Of course, this isn’t the first time a sequel had been promised during a movie’s end credits. Cinema is filled with promises of sequels and big follow ups. Some films have gambled on their potential with fans, announcing sequels (“Buckaroo Banzai,” anyone?) and potential follow ups (Still crossing my fingers for “Kill Bill Vol. 3”) only for nothing to happen.

Here are five of the most infamous.

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Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022) [Digital]

After four “Hotel Transylvania” movies it’s pretty obvious that by now, even Genndy Tartakovsky. I think despite his name being plastered all over this new sequel that he probably didn’t have much to do with its creation. Now that the series is four movies deep, along with a short lived TV series, “Transformania” feels so much less like a high stakes sequel, and a lot more like an extension of the TV series. Watching it, it felt like the studios merely took four scripts for the cancelled series, and stapled them together to create this hodgepodge adventure.

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Dracula 2000 Or: Before Gerard Butler was a Meme

Dammit I love “Dracula 2000.”

I’m not too sure what the ultimate plan was for the Dracula character in the larger scheme of things, except the fact that everything had to be rebooted in the new millennium apparently. Everything had to press the reset button, including Dracula. This Dracula was a hunky vampire for the modern age where he would once again roam free to build his army, and do battle with Van Helsing. And he would do it set to rock music that ruled the radio, wreaking havoc to the tune of System of a Down, Linkin Park, and Disturbed, to name a simple few.

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