Your expectations are lower before you even start to watch yet another Dracula film. However, this flick managed to keep me interested throughout, despite the blood and gore.
(We’re not only engaged in a Dracula film, for God’s sake, but in a bloody civil war as well.)
The charm of this film is the setting, a “war torn Romania,” according to the write ups. Hey, this is Romania – it looks like that all the time. I found myself wondering time and again how an entire nation can be so rich in culture and dignity, and so utterly poor.
I kept waiting to see a quaint rural village montage, then — a huge McDonald’s in the middle of town square, surrounded by bankrupted dining establishments (and frequented by fat and lazy locals). America’s greatest exports these days are minimum wage jobs and obesity, served cold with a side dish of culture obliteration.
All the American Fortune 500 companies set up their manufacturing facilities in China – RED China – Communist China! – where human rights are worse than in ancient Babylonia. How come we don’t send some good jobs to Romania? I’d love to buy things made in Romania.
I picture a dirty, unkempt sweatshop when I put a shirt on that’s Made in China: the smog in every major city in China is so thick you can cut it with a feather. Ditto for stuff made in Singapore or India or Mexico.
A loose fitting shirt Made in Romania? Ou-la-la. Now that’ll make the blood flow. It conjures images of dark, deep ravines and gushing streams.
Rugged castles on craggy cliffs. Peasants giving you directions to the nearest hostel and too proud to accept your modest tip. Spicy goulash and bands of gypsies dancing for pure joy in the sunset.
Tall women with sharp profiles looking so deep in your eyes you cringe.
Dracula’s castle…
