Main cast: Jason Scott Lee (Father Uffizi), Jason London (Luke), Craig Sheffer (Professor Lowell), Stephen Billington (Dracula), Diane Neal (Elizabeth Blaine), John Light (Eric), Brande Roderick (Tanya), Khary Payton (Kenny), and Roy Scheider (Cardinal Siqueros)
Director: Patrick Lussier
Why, how come no one informed me that my guilty pleasure, Dracula 2000, actually has a sequel? No, I’m not talking about Dracula 3000—the very idea!—but how, when Dimension Films wanted some sequels to that original movie, Patrick Lussier and co-screenwriter Joel Soisson decide to go back to the original film concept and worked from there.
Thus, in a way, this movie is a spiritual sequel that begins from where Dracula 2000 ends, but completely disregards everything else about the movie. Confused? TL;DR: studio offered money, these people just took it and did something that may not make sense but hey, money.
So yes, Dracula is dead, but somehow, his body is transported to a hospital instead of being taken into custody by Mary Van Helsing, but then again, she and Simon never exist in this movie, so one can easily assume that Dracula died because he tripped while drunk on some New Orleans rooftop and ended up entangled and was unable to free himself when the sun rose.
Plus, we have a different guy playing Dracula this time, maybe because the original cast members realized that starring in this sequel may not be good for their career…
Anyway, in this one, we have a new rule: vampire bites, when exposed to sunlight, can drastically slow down one’s transformation into one. This is what bad-ass vampire hunter priest Father Uffizi does every day under the sun. Sure, it hurts, but when he’s in a line of work that sees him getting bitten quite often, a hot sexy priest has to go what he has to do to get some shirtless screen time!
The Church realizes somehow that Dracula, after the last movie, is Judas Iscariot. Again, it’s best not to think too much about continuity, or the lack of; just look at Jason Scott Lee and sigh at how pretty he is.
Father Uffizi is sent to the hospital to consecrate the body of Dracula, but he’s too late. Two medical students, Elizabeth Blaine and Luke, have smuggled the body out after they’ve received a mysterious call offering them a lot of money for the body.
Elizabeth, the only one to have a last name here so she’s definitely an important character here, has the body sent to her wheelchair-bound and terminally ill beau Professor Lowell so that he can research into using Dracula’s body to uncover the secrets of immortality under the request of the benefactor, a man called Eric.
So she, Eric, Lowell, and Luke along with walking meat blood bags Tanya and Kenny are now stuck in a big house with Dracula, while a hot priest is tracking them down. Meanwhile, Elizabeth pricks her finger on Dracula’s fang earlier in the movie, so now she’s slowly transforming into a vampire…
It’s odd choice to have a very blond Dracula this time around, compared to the dark-haired one previously, but the poor actor that plays him doesn’t have much to do for the most part, as his character is tied up. Toward the end, he gets to snarl and hiss a bit, but it’s too late and the poor guy just comes and goes as far as his role is concerned.
This one tries to mirror the structure and even the characters of the previous movie quite a bit, probably unsurprising as this one is like an alternate take of the first movie, right down to Dracula needing absolution and forgiveness to actually die. The story feels very similar too, right down to Elizabeth having some half-baked bond to Dracula, and Diane Neal’s character even looks like Mary Van Helsing from many angles.
Still, the movie is a wasted opportunity because far too much of it is spent on the antics of humans that I frankly can’t care less. These characters are boring and annoying, and there is a criminal lack of Father Uffizi and Dracula to make things interesting.
Then again, the movie ends on a cliffhanger, so maybe the best has yet to come. Still, that renders this movie kind of pointless, as type the whole thing can be summed up as “boring humans revive Dracula, who cares what happens to them, just go watch the next movie for the hot priest versus the pasty white vampire, the end”.
Yawn.
