Dracula's Curse (2006)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Nice effects though.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

A group of vampire hunters called the Nine get the various vampire clans to agree to an uneasy pact. All goes well for a spell until the evil Countess Elizabeth Bathorly (a deliciously wicked portrayal by the gorgeous Christina Rosenberg) breaks the pact. The rugged Rufus King (nicely played with assured macho aplomb by Thomas Downey), assisted by the wise, leery Jacob Van Helsing (the excellent Rhett Giles) and the hard-nosed Gracie Johannsen (a very strong and impressive performance by ravishing redhead spitfire Eliza Swenson), brings the Nine back together for a major showdown with Bathorly and her vicious female minions. Writer/director Leigh Scott relates the convoluted, but compelling story at a steady pace, stages the occasional stirring action set pieces with considerable brio and skill, offers a few fresh and inventive twists on standard vampire lore, and sprinkles a reasonable amount of grisly gore. Moreover, Scott does an especially solid job of creating and sustaining some interesting conflicts amongst the well-drawn and engaging main characters. Further kudos are in order for the sound and spirited acting from a game cast, with particularly stand-out work from Jeff Denton as fearsome, haughty bloodsucker Rafe, Amanda Barton as Bathorly's fierce, aggressive right-hand gal Darvulia, Rebekah Kochan as the brassy, hot-tempered Trixie McFly, Sarah Lieving as helpful, sympathetic vampire ally Alex Devereaux, Tom Nagel as naive, eager rookie vampire killer Tattinger, Justin Jones as grotesque ghoul Maximillian, and Scott as enigmatic bloodsucker leader the Old One. Both Swenson's funky, spooky score and Steven Parker's sharp cinematography are up to snuff. A hugely enjoyable flick.

OK this is a low budget movie - but even some low budget movies have good acting. The film "Manticore", for example was low budget but it did stand up because the acting was good. Draculas Curse lacks any descent acting - in many scenes the actors seem unsure of what their next line is which makes me wonder if this film was properly story boarded. The poor screenplay, direction and editing back up my suspicions.The fight scenes were consistent with the general low quality of the film. The story was kind of interesting but is over shadowed by the over all poor quality of the film.Avoid at all costs

I could only watch about half an hour of this movie - it was so bad that I was glad I rented it instead of buying it. The audio was so poor that I had to turn the volume up just to hear it and when there was gunfire it almost blew my audio system apart! The dialogue was completely out of sync and the camera work was so poor that you could quite often see the overhead microphone appearing in the picture. The only good part of the movie is the few sexy women wearing mid drift tops but that was soon ruined as soon as they spoke. I guess I'm just not a fan of B grade flicks and this movie doesn't help! If you want to see this movie, wait until someone else rents it or pick it up in the $2 bargain bin.

I have been going through a phase lately of renting new releases off the video shelf that i've never heard of before. You know the ones with just one or two copies. Sometimes they end up being surprisingly good and most of the time I understand why there are just one or two copies. Dracula's Curse surprised me. Don't get me wrong its not going to win any awards and it does not compare to the greats of its genre, like Bram Stoker's Dracula with Gary Oldman or even Blade. But it is a pretty entertaining little film for what it is. I assume the budget wasn't very big but the effects were damn good and a few scenes in particular were just nice to look at (see it and you'll know which scenes I'm talking about). The costumes and makeup for the most part were also good. The story could have been streamlined a bit more in my opinion, maybe some more editing, but it kept me interested and wanting to know what happened next. Also for the low budget I assume it had the acting was surprisingly well done. The vampires were all very different and cool to watch. The vampire hunters are also a diverse group and pretty fun at times. My only disappointment here was seeing again the red-head actress I had just seen in another low budget rental Satanic. She was horrible in that one and that whole movie was horrible by the way. I cannot understand how this girl keeps getting parts because she is one of the most stinko actresses i have ever seen, at least in a main role, and is really out of place here. The rest of the cast is pretty great. I definitely recommend renting this movie.