Vlad III, the Impaler, with Turkish envoys, Theodor Aman.ĭuring the 5 years of captivity in the fortress, Vlad and his brother were taught lessons in the art of war, science and philosophy. The boys were held in a citadel atop a rocky precipice over the town of Eğrigöz, now Doğrugöz in present-day Turkey. Their captors told Vlad II that he could be released – on condition that the two sons remain.īelieving that it was the safest option for his family, Vlad II agreed. However the three were captured and held hostage by the Ottoman diplomats. In 1442, Vlad accompanied his father and his 7-year-old brother Radu on a diplomatic mission in the heart of the Ottoman Empire. Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, Wallachia was the scene of a great number of bloody battles.Īs Ottoman forces pushed westward, Christian Crusaders marched eastward toward the Holy Land, Wallachia became the site of constant turmoil. It was one of the three principalities that made up Romania at the time, along with Transylvania and Moldova. Vlad III was born in 1431 in the state of Wallachia, now the southern portion of present-day Romania. He was born in Wallachia, present-day Romania In modern Romanian, the word drac refers to the devil. His son, Vlad III, would become known as the “son of Dracul” or, in old Romanian, Drăculea, hence Dracula. The Order of the Dragon was devoted to one task: the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. Too bad the script had none of these qualities to offer.Image Credit: Germanisches Nationalmuseum / Public Domain Shame, because Evans is just the man to play Prince Vlad in all his brooding, bloody, maniacal complexity. Director Gary Shore is going for the same kind of gritty mysticism offered by the HBO series, not aiming for the scares of Bram Stoker’s prose, so there are no Tom Cruise in ruffles nor well-dressed Cullens here.īut nothing much happens in the 84 minutes of Dracula, and the dialogue is as woefully wooden as all those vampire stakes lying around. There are jagged mountains to climb, royal feuds to fight, sword-swinging aplenty. The Game of Thrones vibe is palpable, and not just because Vlad’s son (Art Parkinson) is an actor on the show. The film starts to feel like one overlong special effect. Slow-motion carnage and bat morphing take centre stage and the effects are kind of cool the first three or four times you see them.
#DESCENDANTS OF DRACULA SKIN#
If not, then “I vant to suck your blood” will be a catchphrase.īut there is blood everywhere to tempt Vlad, and his wife Mirena’s (Sarah Gadon) skin is oh-so creamy-white… If he can resist drinking again after three days, he’ll return to his normal self.
#DESCENDANTS OF DRACULA TRIAL#
Dracula means “son of the dragon,” after all.Ĭonveniently, Vlad and his men have recently encountered a rotting monster of a man living in a cave (Charles Dance) who promises to give Vlad a trial run of superhuman powers, if only Vlad will drink his blood (aha!). In this way Dracula Untold is a kind of Maleficent tale, whereby we are meant to forgive the villain/ess their sins because people were really, really mean to him/her as a child.īut when Vlad’s boyhood companion, the new sultan (Dominic Cooper, an odd casting choice) comes calling for a thousand more boys, including Vlad’s own son, that long-buried impaler instinct in him comes out. After a quick intro about those evil Turks and how Vlad was among 1,000 boys conscripted into their notoriously bloody army, adult Vlad (The Hobbit’s Luke Evans) is back in his people’s fold, a peaceful prince, doting dad and loving husband. This is the Dracula introduced in Dracula Untold. He once skewered 20,000 Turks outside his city’s walls and left them there, stuck upright, as a warning to his enemies.īut despite burning and boiling his own people alive, Vlad III is revered in modern-day Romania as a man who protected Christendom from the Muslim Turks right across the border.
The 15th-century ruler was known to invite people over to his mansion for dinner, impale them in their seats, and dip chunks of bread in their blood. The Hungarians have a saying that they’re fond of directing at children who have pleased them, which translates as “I’d like to eat your heart.”Ī fitting endearment, perhaps, for the descendants of Vlad III, Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler.
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