Dracula Revamped – review

Director: Clint Cure

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

This Australian film runs on a conceit similar to Shadow of the Vampire with an actor playing a vampire perhaps really being a vampire. However this ploughs its own furlough, with the medium being local theatre (though the project morphs into a movie eventually) and the focus of this being strongly aimed towards comedy.

It starts with a janitor in a theatre, not too happy at cleaning up after the actors who have left fake blood and props on the stage. I was struck in this scene with the excellent lighting used. The janitor starts hearing noises and eventually heads in the rafters to check them out. We hear him addressing someone he recognises and then we see him fall but… well, after the excellent lighting, the rubbish and obvious dummy that falls is a bit of a letdown… The animated credits are fun (and animation is used within the body of the film).

Teagan Skye as Minnie

Tom (Brady Cronin) works in a call centre. He gets in trouble for going off script when trying to convince a call that he is really in Australia, and again when he answers a mobile call from his girlfriend Minnie (Teagan Skye). She’s trying to get him to go to a party that night being thrown by new member of their theatre group, Irving (Alex Mainey). Tom hasn’t met Irving as he hasn’t been attending the group recently. As an aside, his boss is Mr Orlock (Hejha Piran).

Tom with the Sirens

They go to the party and Tom is introduced to Irving, a larger than life luvvie. Tom is less an actor and more a set designer and Irving asks him what set he would want to design, if any. Tom replies Dracula and Irving seems to be up for making that play. Tom is given some wine in a scene that feels as though it points to the Lost Boys wine scene. He ends up meeting the sirens – three ladies reminiscent of the Macbeth weird sisters, who make him drink another concoction, the film entering an animated segment as he seems to trip. He is woken in the morning by Minnie and they leave before anyone sees the wine spill on the bed. There is an insinuation with Minnie adjusting her dress, and also in Tom being surrounded by the sirens and his belt being undone when he awakens.

Harker (Tom) arrives

He receives a call from Irving, who has a script – it turns out to be the Balderstone play - but thigs are off with Irving from the get-go. Tom suggests a black and white production, Irving poo-poos the idea and within seconds floats the same idea himself. He argues with the director, who leaves, they morph into a sci-fi version (calling it Dracula 3000 and namechecking the actual film) and onwards into a movie – with Minnie making a documentary of the process.

what is real?

Tom’s frustrations build and include a thought that he is losing Minnie to Irving. He always seems to be paying for materials with Irving simply saying the money will come (but never providing any). Also in the fray comes Hellwig (Andrew Raven), a hippyish person who becomes part of the production, knows Irving of old and, we discover, is convinced that Irving is a vampire to be vanquished. Why he becomes involved in the production and doesn’t simply hunt Irving down from the get go is not explained.

staked

The film was a mixed bag for me. Poor sfx surrounding their production was absolutely fine and contextually realistic, but things like the poorly executed dummy fall were just poor. I liked the multiple references to other genre pieces and also the chaos of what the production was meant to be as it developed. The acting was a mixed bag, but a shout out to Brady Cronin, whose Tom was excellent. When it comes to Alex Mainey, he offered a great line in luvvie/theatre kid but perhaps wasn’t as convincing a vampire (though that may have been deliberate). The comedic element perhaps hit a little less for me than it could of. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK