reviewed by: Charity Bishop
              

Instead of a modern update of the famous novel by Bram Stoker, Dracula 2000 is an interesting take on a sequel that has some fascinating ideas to present for the origins of the bloodsucking creature from gothic literature. There's too much content to recommend it outright, but it's one of the most interesting rides into the morbid tale that I've had a in long time. The story begins in an eerie flashback to a scene from Stoker's novel. A Victorian vessel at sea sailing from Transylvania washes up in England with all the crew members dead. A dark figure slips into London. 

Over a century later, Matthew Van Helsing (Christopher Plummer) is an antiques dealer trading in ancient artifacts. Beneath an elaborate encasement and security system, he keeps a dark secret. In the vaults of his family estate is a silver coffin engraved with a cross. Six thieves break in one night. Four leave alive, taking the casket with them, convinced it contains something of great worth. Alarmed by the theft, Van Helsing, who has spent his life attempting to shake off Bram Stoker's "laughable" interpretation of his ancestors, informs his assistant Simon (Jonny Lee Miller) to keep house for him while he makes arrangements to have his stolen property returned. A thousand miles away in New Orleans, Mary (Justine Waddell) has been having nightmares of a seductive blood-sucking creature in the form of a man. They awaken her in a sweat and even come upon her through trances in broad daylight. Each dream is so real she can feel his breath on her skin. Believing herself to be facing some great evil or on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Mary desperately searches for answers within the church.

After being pried open, the coffin containing an unnamed evil spews forth evil to unleash vengeance on the world... a haven of vampires created through rampant slaughter and seduction. Alluring vixens become Dracula's (Gerard Butler) brides as he stalks his ultimate ambition... Mary. Her meaning is greater than even Van Helsing can acknowledge. He must rely on Simon to help him protect the innocent girl who has become the count's next intended victim. There are some allusions to the original story, like having Lucy be Mary's roommate and best friend. (Lucy is played by singer Colleen Fitzpatrick, known to pop music fans as "Vitamin C.") They also pretty much stick to the cut and dried theory of vampires being bested with silver stakes and having to behead them in order to end their immortal survival, but the best thing here is the theory of where Dracula originated, which has a early-church connection explored nowhere else.

It's not a bad plot and the brides are certainly more interesting here than in Van Helsing, but it's not for the faint of heart or those squeamish in nature. With every horror movie is going to come a lot of profanity, violence, and bloodshed, with a little sexual content on the side. There are around fifteen f-words, five uses of GD, several abuses of Jesus' name, and mild profanities. Bloody battles, bite wounds, and gruesome realism flood the script. Characters are graphically bitten, dismembered, and staked. Iron stakes are shot at vampires. Three beheadings are shown. Leeches suck blood from Dracula's corpse in the coffin. Van Helsing injects them with needles, and puts the blood into his arm. Mary's nightmares are grotesque, filled with corpses, flashing lights, and mildly sensual overtones. Dracula is shown partially decomposed before transforming into natural human flesh. Flashbacks show a man being hanged; another suffers the same fate. A vampire bursts into flames in sunlight. Two men are graphically impaled with spikes, and another is found staked through the heart.

Dracula has a powerful influence over women, who are all drawn to him. He engages in a brief but graphic sexual romp with Lucy (brief breast nudity) before biting her. His brides behave seductively; one makes inappropriate remarks to a policeman before attacking him. After being bitten, Mary experiences a vision in which she's in bed with Dracula. He's kissing and caressing her. In New Orleans a woman flashes her breasts to the crowd, and two obviously nude girls dance behind a screen (only their silhouettes are seen). Religious references and theology abound. Dracula is the spawn of Satan and spouts blasphemy on several occasions. Interestingly enough, there's also a heavy presence of Catholic beliefs. Mary has the foresight to ask Dracula if he ever asked forgiveness for his sins, believing that "God loves you even though you do not love Him." This ideology is spouted several times while dispatching vampires with stakes. In the end there is a heavy tie to first-century Christianity. It's really too bad that the profanity gets explicit and there's a scene of sexual content, because it's entertaining as well as thought-provoking. But you might want to read the original novel instead.