October 28, 2025
FILM: DRACULA
DIRECTED BY: RADU JUDE
STARRING: ADONIS TANTA, ILINCA MANOLACHE, SERBAN PAVLU
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Radu Jude does not tell traditional stories. I loved his last big international hit, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, about a tired production assistant and the shooting of a public service message. However, I wouldn’t expect a wide audience would have the patience for the two hour and forty-three-minute film filled with Jude’s offbeat humor and penchant for long takes. Now comes Dracula, which is seven minutes longer. Based on the title, one might assume this is a new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic novel. Well, not quite. Its focus is on a director, played by Adonis Tanta, who is attempting to tell the story but not in any conventional way. In fact, he uses artificial intelligence to help him create a version of Dracula that “will make it super commercial.” What we get are a series of vignettes and digressions that attempt to tell different versions of the story of Vlad the Impaler, who was said to be the inspiration for Dracula. Some are pretty vulgar, others are violent, but Jude attempts all of it with a variety of film approaches and varying degrees of humor. Ultimately, some of it is successful but the digressions pull too much focus away from the central conceit.
It’s not surprising that a Romanian writer/director would want to take on a project like this. After all, the stories of Vlad the Impaler has its origins in Eastern Europe, and especially Romania. The country has now, seemingly, made it a commodity. The first chapter features a group of tourists attending a live musical production of Dracula that veers off into a game of hide and seek throughout modern-day Transylvania. This sequence serves as a thread that is interwoven throughout the rest of the film. Periodically, Jude cuts back to the director attempting to come up with other versions of the story with the help of a computer’s artificial intelligence program.
Most of the stories are then told featuring different actors playing Vlad the Impaler. Some of these are over the top and highly sexual in nature. Classic films such as Murnau’s Nosferatu, Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Coppola’s Dracula are referenced and partially recreated. One features Vlad dealing with a toothache while another depicts contemporary Vlad as a greedy capitalist accompanied by his own artificially intelligent robot training employees who play video games for other people. At one point, there’s even a Dracula TikTok video. The longest sequence (which we are warned about in advance) is a fifty-minute “digression” which features a somewhat more rational and philosophical story treating a threatening vampire as an illusion.
This may all sound like a lot of fun, and some of it is, but not all the vignettes work. Jude often relies a bit too heavily on nudity, penises, and other sexual imagery. Some of these scenes feel more gratuitous than related to the overall focus of the film. Similarly, there is more than one “digression” that extends rather than adds to the film. These include scenes inside a treatment center where famous people such as Chaplin, Dali, and Spielberg have stayed. Another one tells the story of a farmer who finds penises growing in his stalks rather than corn.
Interestingly, Jude also gets political with references to fascism, the Russian war on Ukraine, Trump, Gaza, and immigration. The inclusion of these keeps the film grounded in current times but, again, don’t really advance the plot. Still, there are a lot of playful touches throughout such as animated shots, silent movie style title cards, and transitions featuring a mysterious scarecrow. Also, lead actor Adonis Tanta is very good as the director and several other roles in which he appears during the various vignettes. He adds a lot of humor to the film.
Those familiar with Monty Python sketch comedy, Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, or even the Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs might appreciate the offbeat nature of this interwoven anthologized form of storytelling. Fans of dark comedy will also like it. Those that are seeking a faithful and updated adaptation of the Dracula novel should stay away. This is far from that!
Dracula played at the Chicago International Film Festival. It opens this week in limited theatrical release, including the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago.
FILM: DRACULA
DIRECTED BY: RADU JUDE
STARRING: ADONIS TANTA, ILINCA MANOLACHE, SERBAN PAVLU
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Radu Jude does not tell traditional stories. I loved his last big international hit, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, about a tired production assistant and the shooting of a public service message. However, I wouldn’t expect a wide audience would have the patience for the two hour and forty-three-minute film filled with Jude’s offbeat humor and penchant for long takes. Now comes Dracula, which is seven minutes longer. Based on the title, one might assume this is a new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic novel. Well, not quite. Its focus is on a director, played by Adonis Tanta, who is attempting to tell the story but not in any conventional way. In fact, he uses artificial intelligence to help him create a version of Dracula that “will make it super commercial.” What we get are a series of vignettes and digressions that attempt to tell different versions of the story of Vlad the Impaler, who was said to be the inspiration for Dracula. Some are pretty vulgar, others are violent, but Jude attempts all of it with a variety of film approaches and varying degrees of humor. Ultimately, some of it is successful but the digressions pull too much focus away from the central conceit.
It’s not surprising that a Romanian writer/director would want to take on a project like this. After all, the stories of Vlad the Impaler has its origins in Eastern Europe, and especially Romania. The country has now, seemingly, made it a commodity. The first chapter features a group of tourists attending a live musical production of Dracula that veers off into a game of hide and seek throughout modern-day Transylvania. This sequence serves as a thread that is interwoven throughout the rest of the film. Periodically, Jude cuts back to the director attempting to come up with other versions of the story with the help of a computer’s artificial intelligence program.
Most of the stories are then told featuring different actors playing Vlad the Impaler. Some of these are over the top and highly sexual in nature. Classic films such as Murnau’s Nosferatu, Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Coppola’s Dracula are referenced and partially recreated. One features Vlad dealing with a toothache while another depicts contemporary Vlad as a greedy capitalist accompanied by his own artificially intelligent robot training employees who play video games for other people. At one point, there’s even a Dracula TikTok video. The longest sequence (which we are warned about in advance) is a fifty-minute “digression” which features a somewhat more rational and philosophical story treating a threatening vampire as an illusion.
This may all sound like a lot of fun, and some of it is, but not all the vignettes work. Jude often relies a bit too heavily on nudity, penises, and other sexual imagery. Some of these scenes feel more gratuitous than related to the overall focus of the film. Similarly, there is more than one “digression” that extends rather than adds to the film. These include scenes inside a treatment center where famous people such as Chaplin, Dali, and Spielberg have stayed. Another one tells the story of a farmer who finds penises growing in his stalks rather than corn.
Interestingly, Jude also gets political with references to fascism, the Russian war on Ukraine, Trump, Gaza, and immigration. The inclusion of these keeps the film grounded in current times but, again, don’t really advance the plot. Still, there are a lot of playful touches throughout such as animated shots, silent movie style title cards, and transitions featuring a mysterious scarecrow. Also, lead actor Adonis Tanta is very good as the director and several other roles in which he appears during the various vignettes. He adds a lot of humor to the film.
Those familiar with Monty Python sketch comedy, Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, or even the Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs might appreciate the offbeat nature of this interwoven anthologized form of storytelling. Fans of dark comedy will also like it. Those that are seeking a faithful and updated adaptation of the Dracula novel should stay away. This is far from that!
Dracula played at the Chicago International Film Festival. It opens this week in limited theatrical release, including the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago.