Wait. What? I Actually Like Argento's DRACULA?

"Thank God I had enough garlic for one bullet." 

I'd sworn off Argento after the recent CAT O' NINE TAILS/STENDHAL SYNDROME borefests but had to give DRACULA DI DARIO ARGENTO (in non-3-D) a spin when it landed in my lap. 

Sure, some of the CGI is a little dodgy. Okay, so Rutger Hauer phones in his role as a world weary Van Helsing to a brutal extent. And, yes, Claudio Simonetti's heavy-on-the-theremin score borders on giggle-inducing cheese every time it oooo-weee-oooo's its way into the proceedings. 

But I'll be damned if this isn't actually a pretty fun spin on Dracula, though it has about as much to do with Stoker's source novel as one of those Full Moon SUBSPECIES movies. 

Dare I say it? Don't buy into the hatred... it's probably Argento's most entertaining movie since OPERA. 

Full Disclosure: I'm neither a big Argento fan nor a Dracula purist so I didn't spend any time ringing my hands about "what happened to the guy who made SUSPIRIA?!" or fidgeting because of the wholesale changes to the source material.

In other words, your mileage may vary but the flick never bores, there's a hot redhead vampirella, Thomas Krestchmann (who, ironically, is starring as Van Helsing in NBC's upcoming DRACULA tv series) reminds me of a cross between Liam Neeson and Aaron Eckhart, and Argento packs in enough gore to make me forget recent duds like GIALLO, THE CARD PLAYER and THE MOTHER OF TEARS.

DRACULA DI DARIO ARGENTO is available from Amazon.

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