Dracula 2000
Gerard Butler... Dracula
Christopher Plummer... Abraham Van Helsing
Jonny Lee Miller... Simon
Justine Waddell... Mary
Colleen Fitzpatrick... Lucy
Jennifer Esposito... Solina
Danny Masterson... Trent
Directed by Patrick Lussier
Story by Joel Soisson

It seemed an odd marketing maneuver, releasing a genre bloodsucker film at Christmas time, and although it's been financially able to keep it's head above holy water during this film-packed holiday season, Dracula 2000 has gone largely unnoticed. The Grinch-with a little help from Tom Hanks-definitely stole Christmas box office revenues, keeping the latest supernatural thriller beneath the Hollywood radar. What's curious is that, not only did this vampire movie NOT suck (I know, sue me...) but I actually found the spiritual themes in this atypical horror film far more satisfying than other holiday offerings.

When thieves pillage the private antiquities vault of Abraham Van Helsing, they unwittingly unleash the horror that inspired Bram Stoker's original novel. Released into the modern world, Dracula's goal is to track down a woman in the United States named Mary, who suffers from nightmares and visions about the vampire. An ill and aging Abraham Van Helsing-played by Christopher Plummer, as though he were born for the role-tracks the vampire to New Orleans, determined to recapture the monster, but he is followed by Simon, his young, over-protective antiquities dealer and surrogate son. Simon is ushered in to the dark world he never knew existed, and together he and Van Helsing seek to protect Mary from Dracula's clutches, as we discover not only the mysterious connection they share with the girl, but the Vampire King's shocking origin as well.

So many things could have gone wrong with this picture... it would be so easy to overplay Dracula's interaction with the modern era and lapse into camp. †What does Dracula think of cars? Movies? Fast food? †Retro-seventies clothing? Jokes could abound. It would be so easy to fill the movie with bad vampiric one-liners and bad Carpathian accents. Gerard Butler, however, plays the Count deftly, ranging between animalistic and suave without overdoing it. As he pauses to stare at a dark, overtly sexual music video broadcast on a giant screen, a smile tugs the corners of his lips and he mumbles "brilliant". Whether the remark is about the technology, the music, the depravity, or a combination of all three facets is uncertain, and this subtle approach works well in a genre that often tends to go overboard.

For scary movie aficionados, "Dracula 2000" pays homage to vintage vampires and classic horror films; in Van Helsing's vault, for instance, we see the skulls of vanquished vampires, some with long, Nosferatu fangs, while others vary from incisors to canines. A few choice lines, sequences, and character names hearken back with fated symmetry to the original Stoker novel without copying it. Most surprising is the director's ability to fuse the essence of classic Hammer Horror films with the new, sleeker, scary movie feel that made "Scream" so much fun. This is not simply an homage to those classic Hammer films-which frequently starred Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as Dracula and Van Helsing, respectively-like Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow". Nor is it the new breed of horror film which tries waaaay too hard to be "hip". Lussier's amazing synthesis is nostalgic yet fresh, bringing the Dracula legend into a new century without stripping away the cultural legacy and myth.

Most fascinating, however, was the unexpected and undeniable return of a Christian worldview to the vampire legend. Thanks to Anne Rice and a plethora of modern writers, much of the "supernatural" lore has been washed away in the last two decades, favoring a "scientific"-or pluralistic-view. However, the traditional weapons are firmly in place here: the Cross, the Bible, and the image of Christ... all of these terrorize and infuriate our villain in the film. Dracula verbally acknowledges the historicity and divine power of Christ. In fact, his vampiric curse is punishment for crimes against God. †His hatred of all things religious, and his aversion to silver and sunlight, are in fact clues to the vampire's true identity, an origin which predates the Dracula legend by more than a thousand years. As Mary confronts him near the film's climax, standing near a lighted depiction of the crucifixion, Dracula howls that he cannot die because God doesn't want him; he is beyond forgiveness. When Mary replies simply, "Have you ever asked him?" the vampire is visibly shaken. It's the crowning moment in the film, followed by a resolution full of Biblical symbolism.

The climax leaves Dracula's fate uncertain (presumably in case of a sequel) but the message and weight of the matter are undeniably clear. A non-believer will likely pull their blinders tighter and skip over it, but it was a breath of fresh air to see a genre film like this inadvertently proclaim a very real and powerful Godhead. If you enjoy scary films, and can tolerate a few bloody sequences at the beginning-overall, it's less horror and more suspense/thriller-this film is definitely worth checking out.

It's also noteworthy that, in the midst of Christmas and "family-friendly" holiday fare, the only piece of celluloid actually recognizing the Messiah is an out-of-season horror film. A bit telling, I think.