Argento's Dracula (Dracula 3D)

Argento's Dracula or Dracula 3D, released in 2012 was famed horror director Dario Argento's attempt at making a Dracula film, in 3D. Argento is famous for making some of the most gory and shocking horror films, and is a legendary film director, and saying that I feel like I went into this film with some high expectations. After watching and reading reviews and other information on the film, I will say that my views are different than most critics.

This film has a low budget look to it, the film suffers from too high of a definition image, making it look cheap. The biggest flaw of this film to me is the effects. Watching this, makes me wish that 3d digital effects had never been created. I will say right now, by all rights, if this film were filmed in a traditional way with a softer focus, and practical effects, it might have ranked among one of my favourite Dracula films. The CGI effects are honestly abysmal, and very hard to watch, all of the seriousness, and elegance that is created is completely ruined by the effects, the entire film is completely ruined by the effects. I have seen video game cut scenes with much more believable and realistic effects. We are talking about one of the masters of gore here, and he completely fucked up gory horror scenes in this film. The worst were the bugs, especially the giant praying mantis, put a man in a suit and it would have looked better than that terrible terrible effect. Much of the blood splatter scenes were so bad looking. The bullet going through one characters mouth and though his head, was almost unwatchablely bad. None of the effects in this film work at all. I am a strong believer of, if you don't have the ability to do an effect properly then don't do it at all, because it is better to have it missing than to have ruined the entire film. These effects sadly are also not bad in a good way either, they are just embarrassingly bad.

But unlike the other critics views of this film, I do not actually think it is a bad film. The sets are beautiful, even though they'd look much better with a softer focus. The costumes were all very well done, and absolutely beautiful. I felt that Thomas Kretschmann as Dracula, had a wonderful sense of elegance, but also the air of a monster beneath the surface to him. I also felt that Miam Giovanelli as Tania had this beautiful passionate quality to her, that works for the character, she is jealous of Dracula's love for Mina, and it comes across well on the screen. Rudgar Hauer as Dr. VanHelsing also was well cast in the role, he has this wonderful rough edge to him. The characters are well cast, none of them are amazing actors compared to what one might expect from big budget Hollywood films, but they all do a great job at their roles. The characters were a bit flat, but I feel like they did their roles well, and as far as characters look and acting go, the film had a beauty to it. I feel like it being shot on location at an actual castle, and being set in Europe had a good feel to it. Honestly take away the terrible CGI effects and this could have been a beautiful foreign film, and might have ranked as one of my favourite versions.

The plot was not taken as much from Bram Stoker's novel, but rather taking elements from the various film adaptations that have been released over the years, and then also striving to create it's own version of the story. I do not find fault in the film for it's story, it's sets, it's actors, or costuming. The pace seemed to fit the story well, the mood was beautifully set through the sets and the lighting. Honestly I love how beautiful the actors look in their roles. If this film could be redone, removing the 3D crap, softening the focus, and removing all of the CGI and replacing it with practical effects, this film might be absolutely amazing. But with that sharp focus, and the CGI effects it is actually a bit hard to watch, even though I love the story, the sets, and the actors.

As writing this, and watching the special features, I have to ask myself, are these special effects artists actually proud of their work? It seems like they are? Shit I would be embarrassed to have my name attached to it, if I were one of these special effects artists honestly, this is not something that will help your career. Even if you are an Italian film maker, in 2012 better effects than this exist. Hell, Argento has had better practical effects in his films over the years than what we see in digital effects here. Argento should stick to what he excels at, doing great gory horror films, which this one could have been.

Would I recommend this film? i want to say yes, I want so bad to say yes...but with those terrible special effects, I would honestly be embarrassed recommending this film, which is too bad, because without those, I would highly recommend it. I think that there are elements of this film that are definitely worthy watching, but I think the negative elements distract so much from the positives, that it is actually impossible for most viewers to watch this film, and to actually have any type of serious reaction to it. I am not a normal viewer, and I can see the beauty that is in this film. If you can over look those terrible effects, this film is beautiful, and worthy of viewing. So sadly I do not recommend this film, unless you can view it for what it could have been.