Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story – review

Director: Natasha Kermani

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

This Dracula related film was based on a Joe Hill short story and is set in an alternate ending to Dracula. Jonathan Harker died (how is not revealed) and Van Helsing (Titus Welliver, Kindred the Embraced) married Mina (Jocelin Donahue). No mention is made of Quincey – so presumably Mina and Jonathan did not have a son – rather Mina and Abraham have two children, Max (Brady Hepner) and Rudy (Judah Mackey).

Titus Welliver as Van Helsing

Van Helsing left London for Holland and then moved the family from there to America, settling in California. This is to keep away from those things that may come in the night. The boys have been brought up with tales of the vampire and Mina’s blood is said to still be tainted to the point that she is, at times, ill and Van Helsing suggests that *they* can detect her through it, when close.

opening scene

Having opened with an intertitle from Van Helsing’s medical journal about vampirism and the virulence with which it spreads we find ourselves in 1915, some 18 years after the death of Count Dracula. We see a woman who begs a horseman for a ride as she needs to get to town (the interaction and reaction put my mind to Red Dead Redemption 2 and probably suggests I played the game a tad too often). After he has ridden past a black blur tackles her to off screen.

Brady Hepner as Max

One of the issues with the film is that it is ponderous. We get time with the family – Abraham is hard on Max as he seems not to apply himself to his lessons, whereas Rudy is wilful. Near the homestead surveyors plot for a branch to the railway – and an accident brings them into Van Helsing’s orbit as he has to render medical aid. The boys wonder what is in the forbidden study and Rudy complains that there are noises in the night (and, so what if *they* need inviting in? What if *they* are inside already?)

Mina bitten

We get vampiric moments in Max’s dreams where he sees a pale man (Forrest McClain) but are the dreams born of the stories he’s been told or more prophetic in nature? Mina gives some lovely turn of phrase when describing the past, “The others never saw his true face. He held me so close. I could feel his cold breath on my cheek. So strange to have cold breath. Long, white limbs, white teeth, and a terrible, thin, soft mouth… …He moved like a ghost.” She becomes more and more ill, though Max wonders whether his father’s treatments do more harm than good.

burying the undead

Inevitably Van Helsing wants to train his children in the ‘family business’ whether they wish to or not. Via this we get some lore, as he explains how to stake the undead and suggests they can “pass from shadow to shadow.” We also get a visit from Arthur Holmwood (Jonathan Howard), though he is a man wracked with guilt and doubts, and all that is to say that we drudge through this without a tension building that we need as a viewer. It is a shame, as a tension could have been found and would have kept the viewer's attention as the film slowly builds to its denouement that explores the nature of monsters. However, without that tension 4 out of 10 is generous.

The imdb page is here.