Dracula: The Night Around Us - A Compelling New Take On A Classic
There's a lovely retro vibe to Chris Schwab's retelling of that Irish guy's vampire book. The aesthetic leans heavily on film grain, and the music is all low, basal synths. The tone is less gothic horror and more moody slasher, it feels like Richard Ramirez could jump out at any second and do more killing than the dark prince himself.
It's a fun watch, taking characters and story beats from the classic tale and weaving them into a scuzzy, modern story about struggling mental health doctor John Seward, played capably by Eric Toms. A bit of a sad sack, Seward gets his life upended when he befriends his new neighbour, Mina, and her daughter, Lucy. Meanwhile, there's a loon called Renfield at his hospital with a penchant for eating insects and rambling about his "master." Said master is lurking under the city, emerging to take victims and cultivate a harem.
Schwab does a fine job weaving his own tale from very familiar parts. It recalls Bernard Rose's excellent Frankenstein adaptation, which refocussed some areas of the novel and subverted others. Here, protecting Lucy is at the centre of the story, with Mina dealing with a mysterious past and taking solace in Seward. What carries over from the novel and other adaptations is the crisis of faith that occurs when confronted with primordial evil. That evil is largely hidden in glimpsed flashes of a distinctly Orlok-like monster and his growing army of the dead. Whenever we see the creature, the atmosphere is effective, dreamlike and woozy.
It's a breezy experience at 70 minutes, but that does mean we don't get to spend too long with its themes. Schwab and Toms do well presenting Seward as a complex, ultimately tragic figure, though it might have been nice to let both him and the rest of the story breathe a little. As for the titular icon, he appears for mere seconds of screentime. Then again, it’s never really about the monster, is it?
You can listen to our interview with Chris on any platform here
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