Dracula: The Dark Prince   Starring: Luke Roberts, Jon Voight and Kelly Wenham Distributor: Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment RRP: £12.99 KAL8302 Certificate: 15 Release Date: 03 February 2014

Dracula leaves his realm in Romania to fight off Turkish invaders, leaving his kingdom in the hands of his young bride. When he returns it is to discover some of his own people have plotted against him for the throne. They have killed his bride, and attempt to dispatch him, too. As many of the plotters are religious men and his own crusaders fail to protect his wife, Dracula renounces God and swears to sweep out Christianity wherever he finds it. Popular belief has it that God punished him by making him suffer immortality. 100 years on, and two young warrior women are transporting a religious artefact to Van Helsing, when they are accosted by a band of cutthroat thieves. The artefact must stay in the right hands. It is reported to be the very first weapon – the Lightbringer. Only a direct descendant of Cain and Abel can wield the piece. Van Helsing plans to use it to rid the world of Dracula’s tyranny, but Dracula seeks the weapon as well, sending out his dark creatures of the night to bring it to his castle...

Hmm. This is one of those films which is sort of good, but does let itself down in certain respects. You can imagine this being a mini-series, because some of the performances are very good, and there’s a lot of contemplation and reflection going on – particularly by Dracula himself. In a way, there are two stories going on here: we have the Van Helsing-led quest to kill Dracula with the Lightsaber (I mean, Lightbringer), and Dracula’s search for the reincarnated soul of his murdered wife, who he believes has returned to him in the form of Alina, accosted early on and taken to the castle. Dracula is after the Lightbringer because he wants to use it to thwart God and bring the dead back to life. This motive is rather tacked on, however, and that aspect of the weapon is never explored.

Jon Voight is very good as Van Helsing, and plays the part as an aged and gristled warrior who uses his accumulated knowledge to direct the others. Esme is the character who supplies the motive for rescuing Alina, when the others only want to get at Dracula. Andros is a likeable big-bearded warrior who wields an axe, and Lucien is the leader of a band of thieves who turns reluctant hero when he learns the weapon activates for him. He doesn’t really convince in the part, and Alina is rather bland, too. Both have some rather clichéd lines.

Luke Roberts puts a new spin on the classic Stoker character, and his range of emotions from cold aloofness to bouts of rage are extremely well-handled. The romantic episodes with Alina don’t really sit that well with the balance of the story’s structure, and it leaves me thinking it was included because someone on the production team considered this was what vampire films have to do in the post Twilight/Vampire Diaries era. Er, no; I’m certain many horror buffs like myself will be craving the return of evil abomination vampires. At least he wasn’t bogged down by all the old stakes, holy water and garlic props. I like Dracula’s aid, Renfield, played by Stephen Hogan, as he makes a better villain with his outwardly loyal but inwardly scheming ways.

So this is a pretty standard plot cross between a sword and sorcery flick and spin on the early years of Dracula. What spoilt this film more than anything else was the ever-present warning message from Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment. Not only did it prevent my reading the subtitles during the first few minutes, but it’s totally unnecessary. When are these companies going to get it into their skulls that most reviewers are honourable people and are not going to knock off twenty million copies to sell out of a suitcase on Peckham High Street. So treat us with some respect, as I’m certain you would want your films given every opportunity.

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Ty Power