Argento's DRACULA

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Darth Tanner
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Argento's DRACULA

Post by Darth Tanner »

So has anyone else seen this yet?

I can't honestly say that I'm a huge fan of Argento as I am more in the Fulci and Franco camps. Although I really enjoyed SUSPIRIA, OPERA and PHENOMENA, I avoided a lot of his cinematic output during recent years due to hearing bad things about them from just about everyone. But I saw that Netflix had his latest film available for instant streaming so I decided to check it out last night.

I had very minimal expectations going into this but still have to say this is probably one of the worst movies I have ever sat through. The only good things were one really decent gore sequence and plenty of nudity (courtesy of Asia Argento and a few others). But everything else was pure shit. The whole thing has the generic look of a made-for-TV movie. There is no real atmosphere or suspense to speak of. The actors were all terrible with the exception of Rutger Hauer, whose role as Van Helsing is sadly limited. Even worse, Argento resorts to using horrible CGI effects and the results aren't very pretty (don't get me started on that "mantis" scene). There were a few times where I almost turned it off, but I decided to stay with it in the hopes it would payoff somehow. I was sorry that I did.

Aside from being the worst Argento film I've had the displeasure of seeing, it also rates in my book as the worst Dracula adaptation. I know a lot of people hated Coppola's 1992 adaptation of DRACULA (which I happen to love), but that version is a masterpiece compared to the crap I sat through last night.

Some time ago, someone mention in another thread that Argento should consider retirement and I would have to agree after seeing this. I honestly wonder if his version of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (which I avoided for years) could be any worse than this.
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Remo D
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Re: Argento's DRACULA

Post by Remo D »

I thought PHANTOM was far worse, to be honest. I rather enjoyed this and thought the fellow playing Dracula was quite good.

Masterpiece, absolutely not. But since I complained in print that GIALLO had nothing to offer--not the slightest bit of surrealism or outrageous animal antics specifically? I guess I got what I asked for. Yeah, Dracula becomes a mantis just because he can. And no matter how ridiculous that may seem... I wasn't EXPECTING it. Nor was all the CGI lousy--I quite liked the way the swarm of flies morphed into the Count, for one thing--and his subsequent decimation of the roomful of plotters was very good stuff, too.

It's a fever dream, all right, but I'll take that over the latest 'found footage' rehash and the other generic horror tropes people are all too content to coast on today.

We'll never get another SUSPIRIA or TENEBRAE, but I'll happily shake the hand of the Dario Argento who made this. "Welcome back from GIALLO," anyway.
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Kimberly
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Re: Argento's DRACULA

Post by Kimberly »

I can't even begin to tell you how much I disliked this movie...
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Scott
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Re: Argento's DRACULA

Post by Scott »

Dario isn't getting any younger. I'd like to think he has one more good ole fashioned giallo or something along the lines of Suspiria or Inferno in him, but I have my doubts. His latest go is a crowdfunding project called Sandman with Iggy Pop.
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