DRACULA 2000 – A MOVIE THAT MATTERS BY ROY BRIGHT

4/7/2018

by roy bright

There are a shedload of movies over time that have influenced me as a writer, from Star Wars, to Aliens, Goodfellas to Shawshank Redemption. All of which showcase the very best of character development and situational drama. But there have also been many movies that have influenced me despite their quality being the polar opposite. Those, ‘bad’ movies that, despite resonating with you negatively for a variety of reasons, still offer something, be it an idea or, just how not to tell a story. And, although I would love to spend thousands of words describing the ‘good’ movies that my writing has benefitted from, it’s not those that I wish to talk about. Rather, the others, or one in particular, to be more accurate. However, it has to be said, that this movie isn’t necessarily a bad one, more, sort-of-interesting in its own right and something that could and should have been so much more.

The movie in question, that effectively “made-me”, as an author, is the, Wes Craven name-lent, Dracula 2000 (I can hear the groans already, but hear me out), directed by Patrick Lussier and starring (a barely recognizable to how we know him today) Gerard Butler as Dracula, with Christopher Plummer as Van-Helsing, and Jonny Lee Miller as Simon Sheppard, along for the ride as the fearless vampire hunters (another movie I love that I could talk about for days… No. Stop it Roy. Stick to the point).

Now, as it has been quite a few years since I last watched it, and to ensure my memory was intact, I watched the movie again recently, and right from the off, in the opening credits, my eyebrows raised at the fact it was a Harvey Weinstein movie. I guess we’ll be doing that a lot from now on, knowing what we know about that awful bastard. And interestingly enough, having then read up on that fact, it was reported Weinstein had bought the script based on the title alone, and that having then read it, thought it “sucked” (sigh!) and so, brought in script doctor, Scott Derrickson, along with others, to heavily re-write and “fix” the project. Yeah… I’m not so sure they did, but let’s move on.

So off they went into production with what I personally feel was supposed to be a vehicle for Jonny Lee Miller’s showcase for more ‘action’ based roles, though it never really happened for him on the scale it was pushed, which is a shame, as I quite like a number of his projects. But that’s the business, and a tale for another day.

The movie opens with a small montage of the famous vampire’s entry into England with a slightly clumsy ship sequence; the ocean sprays are clearly someone throwing buckets of water onto the mock-vessel, and it’s this kind of tone that runs through the movie, dragging it down into “The Asylum movies” style territory. To your average movie-watcher, who are fortunate enough to just take things at face value, this stuff would pass under their radar and no-doubt they would enjoy the film for what it is. But my radar picks that shit up loud and clear. And it is both a blessing and a curse.
We are then introduced to our main characters, and where the movie’s main problem begins to surface, sounding horns loud enough to bring down the walls of Jericho themselves. The script. Dialogue in this movie is bloody awful. Now, I know, I know, we must suspend our disbelief for a movie about vampires, but… I put it to you, do we have to suspend our disbelief on how humans talk and interact with one another? This, for me, is where so many story-tellers get it wrong. Often, many write dialogue that makes it seem as though said writer has never once had a conversation with another human being, ever. And it irritates the living hell out of me. How is it possible to create unrealistic dialogue? We speak to one another every goddamn day for heaven’s sakes. Okay, okay; I’ll keep the ranting to a minimum in this piece, but Christ, it doesn’t half piss me off.

Now, the early sequence with the villains isn’t terrible, it’s quite entertaining in parts… the dialogue however, is, along with the entire location, as it’s poorly lit and designed so badly, it definitely looks like a movie set, or stage. And for a movie with a reported budget of $54million, it’s hard not to roll eyes at that.

So, the main premise is that the villains steal Dracula’s coffin from Van Helsing, while a couple of them are picked off with convoluted death-trap sequences, which I quite liked, and then escape off into the night, with Dracula’s coffin, which they assume is full of riches, ‘cos they can’t get it open (ummm, yeah), and board a private plane that they have at their disposal (no reason given for this, they just have), and head back to their homeland of the US of A, with the world’s most deadly creature as cargo.

Following that lovely little sequence, Jonny Lee Miller and Christopher Plummer have a very odd exchange that encompasses an overly clichéd, “You’ve been like a father to me, confide in me, tell me what they stole,” trope, and from here the movie starts to give up the ghost with regards any integrity and dedication to the art of story-telling. In Dracula 2000, there are so many, ‘because-movie’, moments, it’s actually quite baffling. Such as, New Orleans being conveniently on the plane’s flight path which just so happens to be where lead character, Justine Waddell as Mary Heller-Van Helsing, lives, and the overly ridiculous ways in which Van-Helsing, who is being shadowed by Sheppard, find them. I mean, how could Van-Helsing possibly know they were going to New Orleans? It’s never explained. Just brushed aside with a, “he isn’t here by accident’, quip. And how ridiculously convenient is it that a news report about the plane crashing, is playing just as he is leaving the arrivals lounge? And how come, in the town hall where the bodies were initially taken, they are clearly still there, hours later, on the floor, in body bags, guarded by just a couple of cops, and not in a cold environment? Not to mention the ludicrous amount of Virgin product placement (wonder who paid for this movie) there is on offer as Mary works at the Virgin Megastore… geddit!? And also… Y’know what! No! I apologise. I promised I would stop doing that. I said I wouldn’t rant at the scripts’ “because-movie” moments. But, dear lord, they are utterly ludicrous when they happen. And yes, I am at times, willing to accept that fate is allowed to play a role in a movies story-telling, but this movie makes so many damn assumptions for the sake of ‘plot device’, it makes my brain, do-a-hurty. And so, any semblance of actual story, or plot, is now abandoned in favour of a chase-movie. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good chase-movie as much as the next person, but only if an actual emotional tale is wrapped around it. Otherwise, it is just characters moving from one location to the next, interspersed with what is more often than not, hokey and unconvincing expositional dialogue. Quite frankly I just stopped caring about any of the characters, because everything they said or did was just so damn ridiculous that the movie failed to attach me to them. Like when Lee-Miller says, “Don’t fuck, with an antiques dealer!” I mean… really? REALLY?

I won’t bore you with any more details of this movies’ failings, (like how easy the writers think you can lop someone’s head off - lord give me strength) but suffice to say, they are pretty cheesy in nature, albeit something you can munch some popcorn to on a rainy Sunday afternoon, with your brain switched off. In that regard, it’s just okay.

By now you must be wondering, “How the hell can this movie be so influential to your writing if you hate on it so much?” Well, the answer is; it wasn’t important with regard to my writing. Rather, it planted an idea into my mind, one so powerful that it would eventually take over my life, to the point I would think about it every – damn - day for the last seven years. And that idea was something this movie did so well, and is the one reason (of course) why it has stuck in my head for so long.

Toward the final act of the movie, we learn a couple of incredibly interesting things about Dracula and his origin, and it is this that really piqued my interest. First, his dislike of silver, and everything Christian. And then, just before he meets his end, hanging above the New Orleans streets, at the mercy of a beautiful sunrise, we are shown that he was once Judas Iscariot, now condemned and punished by God to walk the earth evermore as this vampiric creature, with a blackened heart, never again able to feel or witness the beauty of the suns warmth. It was at that point, my eyes opened wide and my brain-cogs started turning. In all my time as a massive fan of the horror genre, I personally had never seen Judas used or portrayed in such a manner, and quite frankly, it blew my mind to all the possibilities.

Oh, in case I forgot to mention this earlier. This piece may contain a few spoilers. *cough*

However, that wasn’t the ‘eureka’ moment. No. Such a thing came many years later, but the concept of what I would eventually come to pen, had been so strong, and so vivid, it would stick with me for a long time; 11yrs in fact. And so it was, in 2011, the second incident happened, adding the needed spark to the powder keg.

I had gotten into a female-fronted rock band called Within Temptation, and one of the tracks that really gripped me, was a song called ‘What Have You Done’, featuring guest vocals from Life of Agony singer, Keith Caputo (now Mina Caputo following a Transgender change), and the track is essentially about one or both of the protagonists’ infidelity. However, as a former songwriter, I am no stranger to the fact that lyrics can have widely differing meanings depending on the person hearing them. I was no exception to that fact when listening to the song as certain lines really resonated with me. Lines such as “There’s a curse between us,” and “I’ve been waiting for someone like you, but now you are slipping away,” and indeed, the tracks title, “What have you done?”

The words danced around my mind, taking shape and form and kept battering away, ‘what have you done’, over and over, the feeling growing that something was attempting to reveal itself to me, some idea or concept, until, one day, and without warning, those words attached themselves to the memory I had from the Dracula 2000 movie and – boom - my mind-eyes were open. I remember the day vividly, travelling to rehearsal for my now disbanded, rock band, Exit State, and listening to the track in my car, and thinking ‘what if Judas Iscariot was cursed by God like he was in the movie; to walk the earth for evermore as punishment? But what if he was a weapon of God, forced to do his bidding? And what if he had rules imposed on him that he couldn’t find love or happiness and wasn’t allowed to make use of any wealth? And what if, he had something to do, something very, very important, something he had to look after? Or someone. A child!’

And that was it. The infusion of two ideas that brought forward the embryonic stage of my Judas series. However, it should be noted that I had never intended to write books. The idea and concept I had was simply for a movie and one I pitched to a short-film maker, friend of mine, Carl Whiteley, and asked for his input on how I might go about it and have it picked up. He shook his head, bit his lip, and calmly stated, “fuck knows mate… that’s a massive idea and one that sounds fucking costly!”
I harrumphed. And sighed. Then Carl said something that would change my life.

“Can you write?”

“Books, you mean?” I responded.

“Yeah.” He said. “A lot of people are getting their work picked up from their novels these days. You should give that a go, mate.”

I mulled it over for a little while, then thought, ‘‘fuck it. What’s the worst that can happen?’ and took his advice.

7yrs, and almost 441,000 words later, I am the proud owner of three books, the third of which is due for release August 2018, and also numerous screenplays, of which the first two Judas books are among them. I am also grateful for the army of loyal fans who are thoroughly loving the adventures of a foul-mouthed and grumpy, katana wielding super-being, tasked with protecting Charlotte, ‘The Light’, who’s destiny it is to save humankind. And to this day, it still blows my mind that something that now means so much to me, came from a movie so ‘meh!’ that Rolling Stone once described it as a “sorry mess” on Rotten Tomatoes.

Dracula 2000, is a movie that matters. To me. And despite its overall presentation and quality, it became the most important movie in my life.

Also, Gerard Butler looks like he should be on singing duties for The Doors. The lucky, buff, bastard.

The ex-Royal Navy Gunner-turned author, Roy Bright, began his writing career in 2012 and has not looked back since, with his book series about an immortal, sword-wielding, Judas Iscariot having received much acclaim from fans, and critics alike. The third and final installment in the series, is due for release August 2018

Roy is also proud to be a Patron of the Children's Hospice Arts charity chARTUK whose amazing work aims to enrich the lives of children and young people with life limiting conditions in hospices through the creative, performing and literary Arts, enabling individual expression, creativity and communication.