Dracula Untold

"Every bloodline has a beginning."

2014 1h 32m EN

👍

6.5

SOLID

★6.5TMDB · 6,654

HorrorActionFantasy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Vlad Tepes is a great hero, but when he learns the Sultan is preparing for battle and needs to form an army of 1,000 boys, he vows to find a way to protect his family. Vlad turns to dark forces in order to get the power to destroy his enemies and agrees to go from hero to monster as he's turned into the mythological vampire, Dracula.

“Every bloodline has a beginning.”

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Cast

Luke Evans
Vlad Tepes / Dracula
Sarah Gadon
Mirena / Mina Murray
Dominic Cooper
Mehmed II
Art Parkinson
Ingeras
Charles Dance
Master Vampire
Diarmaid Murtagh
Dimitru
Paul Kaye
Brother Lucian
William Houston
Cazan

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Gary Shore
Writers: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Tracey Wilson
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $70M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.1× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 12 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

280+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Gary Shore, shot by John Schwartzman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Ramin Djawadi. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Richard Pearson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Luke Evans and Sarah Gadon and Dominic Cooper carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Gary Shore directs. John Schwartzman behind the camera. Ramin Djawadi scores. Richard Pearson cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $70M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Made its money back 3.1× over at the box office.
3Released 12 years ago.
4280+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Gary Shore, shot by John Schwartzman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Ramin Djawadi. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Richard Pearson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Luke Evans and Sarah Gadon and Dominic Cooper carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Every bloodline has a beginning.".
10IMDB entry: tt0829150 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 14 themes, including "hero", "monster", "vampire", "bite".

The technical file

Cinematography: John Schwartzman
Original score: Ramin Djawadi
Editing: Richard Pearson
Production design: François Audouy
Costume design: Ngila Dickson
Makeup / hair: Ana Lozano
VFX supervisor: Glen Pratt
Sound: Ann Scibelli
Stunt coordinator: Buster Reeves
Runtime: 92 min · 1h 32m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $70,000,000
Box office: $217,124,280
Return: 310% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Dracula Untold (2014)

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Gary Shore

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Andres Gomez2014-11-05
★ 5/10
FX, Evans and Dance's performances are the only things to save in this movie. If you think Dracula becoming a hero and a martyr is a good idea, you will like it. Otherwise, like in my case, you will think that it was the worst idea in quite some time. So, Dracula is not the most evil creature in the world any more ... :(
Dark Jedi2018-02-20
★ 8/10
That the so called “critics” at Rotten Tomatoes screws this movie over is not really a surprise. Said “critics” are usually out of sync with both my opinions and the opinions of most of the viewers which can be seen again from the fact that these people give this movie a 23% rating whereas the actual viewers give it a 60% rating. At lot of “purists” also seem to take a disliking to this movie. Well, the movie is named Dracula Untold so it should be no surprise that the story would be a new one. Personally I found this movie quite enjoyable. Yes it is not the original Dracula story but it is not straying too far from the basic origins and it is really a quite decent story unlike some of the disastrous Hollywood rewrites. The original story claims that Dracula became a vampire during his battles with the Turks and this movie picks up on that and tells the story of how that happened. Unlike most (all?) Dracula movies, Dracula is not really the bad guy but rather the inverse and the movie tells a story about sacrifices and Dracula’s quest to keep some of his humanity, moral and sanity. It would not be a Dracula movie without some blood flowing and this movie delivers without overdoing it. Actually the actual bloodsucking stuff is quite played down until the end of the movie. There are a fair amount of fights against the Turks (who are the real bad guys in this movie) though and blood as well as various body parts no longer attached to their proper places does float around quite a bit. The special effects are not forgotten and I quite liked the bat swarms that Dracula commanded during the final fights against the Turks. I found Luke Evans performance as the prince and unwilling Dracula to be quite good. The rest of the characters were also well played. I am sure that none of them will be nominated for Oscars due to their part in this movie but I have nothing negative to say about their performance. On the whole I found this movie quite enjoyable and I definitely disagree with all the people blasting it. I did also quite like the last couple of scenes in modern time at the end which teased of a follow up movie. I would definitely like to see that happen.
Wuchak2018-05-14
★ 7/10
Dracula: The dark Superman RELEASED IN 2014 and directed by Gary Shore, "Dracula Untold” tells the origin of Dracula: In the 15th century Prince Vlad the Impaler (Luke Evans) must protect his small kingdom of Wallachia (in modern-day Romania) from a Turk warlord (Dominic Cooper) who demands a thousand boys from Wallachia & Transylvania, including Vlad’s son. Threatened by the unsurmountable Turk army, Vlad desperately makes a dubious pact with a formidable caged vampire in order to acquire its dark powers and save his family & kingdom. Sarah Gadon plays Vlad’s winsome wife. The producers flirted with the idea of “Dracula Untold” being part of Universal’s Dark Universe; and the epilogue of the movie, set in the modern world, suggests this, insinuating a franchise. This idea was dropped, however, and “The Mummy” (2017) became the first official film in the Dark Universe. In any case, “Dracula Untold” was fairly successful at the Box Office, making $56.3 million in North America and $217.1 million worldwide against a cost of $70 million. My title blurb pretty much tells you all you need to know: “Dracula Untold” is basically the dark Superman of 15th century Eastern Europe where Dracula wields the power to defeat a thousand-man army. If you like the great prologue to Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), you’ll probably like this movie, which gives several nods to that forerunner. The film LOOKS awesome and has a fine cast. But unlike “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” it’s rapidly paced and doesn’t leave much room to breathe; so the characterizations aren’t quite deep enough. It’s good, but somehow hollow and forgettable. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” was perhaps a little too slow while “Dracula Untold” is too hurried. I wish the creators found the happy medium between the two because, with just a little bit more time and attention to detail, it could’ve been great. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour, 32 minutes and was shot entirely in Northern Ireland. WRITERS: Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. GRADE: B