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Synopsis: A group of high tech thieves break into the vault of Carfax Antiquities in London. Expecting to find riches, they find instead a casket that has been guarded for over a hundred years. In the coffin sleeps Dracula. The owner of Carfax Antiquities, one Matthew Van Helsing, is understandably distraught. He immediately sets off to find the coffin. Meanwhile, Dracula has made a meal of the thieves and crash lands in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. He is after something. Meanwhile, Van Helsing's daughter, Mary--who lives, coincidentally, in New Orleans--has been having strange and terrifying dreams of a dark stranger. Van Helsing's assistant, Simon, follows Van Helsing to America: he's concerned about the old man. After an attack by some of Dracula's reanimated victims, Van Helsing fills Simon in on the details. Dracula, it seems, alone of vampires, is unkillable. Van Helsing has kept him under lock and key for a hundred years, leeching Dracula's blood to keep himself alive, searching for a way to destroy the Prince of the Undead. This has tainted the blood of Van Helsing's daughter. She and Dracula share a link--a psychic connection. Dracula wants to reclaim her and revenge himself on Van Helsing. He kills Mary's roommate and turns her into a vampire wanton, then kills Van Helsing himself, leaving Simon to defend Mary. He fails, and Dracula abducts her. He shares an unholy communion with her, during which Mary discovers who Dracula really is, why he fears the cross, and why silver is deadly to him. Offered Simon as her first vampiric meal, Mary rejects Dracula and discovers the way to destroy him for all time....

Trends: This is yet another example of a film where vampirism (and vampire hunting) turns one into a kung-fu master. I like Hong Kong-style horror movies, but really, enough is enough. We get enough of this shit every week on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Assessing the Blame: This movie has a lot of ideas, but nearly all of them are half-baked. In other hands, the religious overtones of the film's revelations--Dracula is actually Judas Iscariot (and, yes, it's just as dumb and pretentious as it sounds)--could have worked wonderfully, but here, they are part of a cartoonish movie that is too loud, too busy, and too lacking in atmosphere to really scare anyone. This is a serious failure in a horror movie. The film has extremely talented people behind the camera--both Production Designer Carol Spier and Costume Designer Denise Cronenberg are long time David Cronenberg collaborators and Cinematographer Peter Pau's work for Ronnie Yu and Ang Lee (on, for instance, the achingly lovely Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is above reproach. I blame Director Patrick Lussier and, for that matter, Exectutive producer Wes Craven. The horror movie as metafiction aspect of the film reeks of Craven's interference. The film is too concerned with elaborate explanations of the back story for it's own good, but indulges this instead of building menace and atmosphere. This is yet another movie for people who like to sum up horror movies with the phrase: "Turns out what happened was..."