When you think of Marvel today, and you watch this, you starkly realize the differences and the similarities. I’m not familiar with the source material of Marvel’s Dracula or Blade, but I am intimately familiar with Doctor Strange from the late 60’s through the 80’s. The type of satanic cults you saw back then appear here as you’d see in those old comics. The film does a wonderful job channeling the spirit of 70’s satanism and all the ghoulish delights that come with cults portrayed at the time. I sure do miss the earnestness from back then. There’s no irony to the satanic cult here. It’s plainly a group of devil worshippers. No winks or newly made-up demons to neuter the atmosphere.
The beginning of the film is quite dire, startling me with bargoers having a laugh over a female victim of the vampire. This first chunk feels very 70’s with an underlying griminess and nihilism. When Frank Drake meets Quincy Harker, there is a hilarious scene of Harker being pushed in a wheelchair by Rachel van Helsing as Harker wildly swings a blade at Drake. The subsequent joining of forces between Harker and Drake offers fun eye-rolly logic. Things like a vampire hunting dog raised on Holy Water makes me chuckle in a good way, totally fitting in with the comics of the time.
Going back to similarities between then and now, this is definitely still a comic book movie. They just did things a little more audaciously back then. Dracula births a son and what happens to the child is beyond comprehension. Not only is the catalyst of tragedy still shocking to me, but the following arc the child gets is the height of silliness, in a good way. The movie has no qualms of doing what it wants with god and the devil. All things in service of the mission. That’s not to say there isn’t some dumb silliness. Not sure we needed a scene of Dracula mugging a guy to buy a hamburger…
Ultimately, this thing is probably 20 minutes too long, but it’s still quite fun with both beginning and end being standouts. It’s quite cool to recall this is from 1980 and reminded me early 80’s anime are still a big blind spot for me. I’m grateful I was able to find the original Japanese-language version. I perused the English version and sure enough I don’t know if I would have made it through.
When you think of Marvel today, and you watch this, you starkly realize the differences and the similarities. I’m not familiar with the source material of Marvel’s Dracula or Blade, but I am intimately familiar with Doctor Strange from the late 60’s through the 80’s. The type of satanic cults you saw back then appear here as you’d see in those old comics. The film does a wonderful job channeling the spirit of 70’s satanism and all the ghoulish delights that come with cults portrayed at the time. I sure do miss the earnestness from back then. There’s no irony to the satanic cult here. It’s plainly a group of devil worshippers. No winks or newly made-up demons to neuter the atmosphere.
The beginning of the film is quite dire, startling me with bargoers having a laugh over a female victim of the vampire. This first chunk feels very 70’s with an underlying griminess and nihilism. When Frank Drake meets Quincy Harker, there is a hilarious scene of Harker being pushed in a wheelchair by Rachel van Helsing as Harker wildly swings a blade at Drake. The subsequent joining of forces between Harker and Drake offers fun eye-rolly logic. Things like a vampire hunting dog raised on Holy Water makes me chuckle in a good way, totally fitting in with the comics of the time.
Going back to similarities between then and now, this is definitely still a comic book movie. They just did things a little more audaciously back then. Dracula births a son and what happens to the child is beyond comprehension. Not only is the catalyst of tragedy still shocking to me, but the following arc the child gets is the height of silliness, in a good way. The movie has no qualms of doing what it wants with god and the devil. All things in service of the mission. That’s not to say there isn’t some dumb silliness. Not sure we needed a scene of Dracula mugging a guy to buy a hamburger…
Ultimately, this thing is probably 20 minutes too long, but it’s still quite fun with both beginning and end being standouts. It’s quite cool to recall this is from 1980 and reminded me early 80’s anime are still a big blind spot for me. I’m grateful I was able to find the original Japanese-language version. I perused the English version and sure enough I don’t know if I would have made it through.
