We are in the year 1446. Romania is occupied by Islamic Turkish forces and is forced to pay the Turkish Sultan annual sums of money. Vlad Dracula’s father, the Prince of Romania, refuses to comply with Turkish rules any longer. As a result, his two sons are kidnapped, and the prince is buried alive and killed. Nine years later, Vlad Dracula is finally released from captivity and swears an oath to avenge his father and free his people from the Turks.
With a title that includes the name “Dracula,” one might quickly expect bloodthirsty vampires hunting for virgin blood. Well, not in this case, as this film tells the story of the man Bram Stoker based his legendary book about Count Dracula on—Prince Vlad Tepes.
The TV movie about Vlad Tepes can in no way be considered a horror film, even though it is often placed in that category. This is a historical drama about the rule in Romania during the 15th century. But even though it sometimes delves deeply, I feel that much of the film’s story is somewhat inaccurate and myth-based. Of course, it is interesting enough to learn about the man who inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula, but unfortunately, this remains a TV movie that at times suffers from a lack of budget and poor attention to detail.
What I mean is that even when we leap far forward in time, we see little evidence of the aging process in his appearance, and where is the charismatic moustache Vlad is portrayed with in the pictures we have of him today? The story in the film is also sometimes heavy and often messy, not to mention boring to follow. The film is decent enough, but it never becomes anything more, and historical dramas often require a bit more than this. One would be better off reading one of the many factual books written about him.
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