Dracula Untold, review: A little more venom would have helped

The film risks becoming stranded in a purgatorial wilderness somewhere between horror and romantic adventure

This is a rousing Gothic bloodcurdler with all the trimmings: impalings, sword fights, swarms of bats, punctured necks, remote Transylvanian landscapes, non-stop spectacle and occasionally very ropy CGI.

The problem is the filmmakers end up tying themselves in knots by making Dracula (or Vlad as he prefers to be called) into both a dashing, Errol Flynn-like hero and the embodiment of all evil.

The story begins in the middle of the 15th Century and Vlad (Luke Evans), Prince of Wallachia, is living in peace with his wife, family and courtiers. The all-powerful Turks demand that Wallachia gives up 1,000 of its boys to fight as bodyguards to the sultan (Dominic Cooper.) This is more than Vlad, who is being asked to give up his own son, can accept.

A former child “janissary” for the Turks himself, he vows to save his kingdom, even if it means striking a fateful pact with a stinking, slobbering, long-nailed Nosferatu-like demon (Charles Dance) he meets in a cave. Vlad has three days to rout the Turks and to withstand the terrible craving for blood that he now feels. The prince has supposedly gone to the dark side but still has a very soppy, sentimental streak.

As a result, the film risks becoming stranded in a purgatorial wilderness somewhere between horror and romantic adventure. A little more venom would have helped.