Rent Bram Stoker's Van Helsing (2021)

Dracula without Dracula ... - Bram Stoker's Van Helsing review by NP

Dracula without Dracula is a literally bloodless adaption for most of its running time, although in many ways one of the most faithful. In some ways, I like the idea of the Lord of Vampires being this whispered name rather than being a tangible character in the film, I like the way we think we’re going to see him – and then we don’t. It’s a grand tease.

It does however mean that you have a film featuring a lot of characters conversing in roughly the same location. There are a few moments when the conversations stop and something dramatic happens, sometimes quite effectively, but it’s very rare, although things perk up towards the end.

This is all about mood, about slowly growing unease, about ‘something’ in the house, and I like that. The filming is crisp, the acting is uniformly very good, and I enjoy the tweaks made to this portion of Stoker’s story. By its very nature, this will be too short on action or indeed horror for many people, but it worked for me. My score is 7 out of 10.