Tales of Dracula

I love the Universal Monster movies, even the shitty ones. There all great to me, I grew up watching them and now I get the enjoyment of introducing them to my son. I always wished they would make current ones, but not use cgi and big actors. I love the old back and white for films like these.

Luckily director Joe Demuro has a love for these films. He has, through years of hard work, made a beautiful homage to the classic monster films with his glorious Tales of Dracula. Presented in beautiful black and white, and using not only practical effects, but miniature shots as well. My son and I were actually lucky enough to be watching this at night during a thunder storm which added to the mood.

The story centers around Count Dracula. We get a voice over and flashback sequence to Van Helsing killing Dracula's bride. We then flash forward to and meet a young girl named Iiona, she's going out for a walk and plans to meet her father later at the local Tavern/Inn. As she walks off a man approaches her father and asks directions to Dr. Frankenstein castle. His name is Creighton Reed. He explains that he hopes Dr. Frankenstein can help him. He is pointed in the direction and heads off.

Meanwhile Iiona, still walking in the woods trips and gets knocked unconscious. We flash forward to that night when Creighton arrives at the tavern. The place is locked up as everyone in town is afraid to go out at night. He learns that Dr. Frankenstein is out of town but that his daughter just arrived and is up at the castle.

As this is all going on Dracula rises and decides to take Iiona for his bride. He bites her and leaves her in the woods where she is found the next morning sick. Her father and Creighton take her to Dr Frankenstein's. They are met by his daughter Victoria, who decides to take Iiona's blood and inject it into the Frankenstein monster.

This doesn't sit well with Count Dracula as he likes his bloodline pure.  This sets him off on a course for revenge. Ohh yea, I forgot to mention that the help Creighton needs from Dr Frankenstein is to cure him of being a werewolf. So what we end up with a battle of the classic monsters.

This film was a blast. Like I said I was lucky enough to not only watch it late at night but also cursing a storm. This is a perfect homage to the classic films of old, and highly recommended to any fan of the horror genre



Overall 3 out of 5 stars.