Vampirism in Millennial Film
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of three “brides” ensues and a number of vampiric traits are displayed during vari
ous confrontation scenes between the vampire hunters and their prey. The decision
to set the majority of the film in New Orleans serves to underscore the difference
between this film and John Carpenter’s Vampires, in that the Carpenter film is
remote and generally rustic, while Soisson and Lussier bring the vampire story
into the very soul of contemporary urban life.
What sets Dracula 2000 apart from other titles of its ilk, however, is the se
quence that traces the title character’s beginnings to the time of Jesus Christ. Hav
ing “looked at religious myth and folklore that dates back further than you could
imagine (48),” Soisson and Lussier tell us the Count is none other than Judas Iscariot,
whose attempted suicide following the betrayal is interrupted by God who then
condemns Judas to eternal damnation as a vampire. (If Dracula’s exploits are any
indication, his victims would likely feel this is not one of the Almighty’s better
ideas.) Thus, the rope Judas has strung himself up with snaps due to divine inter
vention, establishing a neat parallel with the film’s concluding scene when the
Count is ensnared in a noose of steel cables only to be caught in the rays of the
new-day’s sun. Handily enough, a large illuminated cross helps keep the vampire
at bay while Mary and Simon (Jonny Lee Miller), Van Helsing’s helper, wait for
the sun to rise and bum him away. This revelation of the vampire’s creation ex
plains a number of paradigms in the film’s mythology, such as the vampire’s aver
sion to silver (the silver pieces Judas was paid for betraying Christ) as well as the
undead’s recoiling from things religious. One scene preceding the flashback of
Judas’s downfall finds Dracula in a confrontation with Mary and Simon and being
kept at bay as Simon holds a Bible. While the good book makes the vampire back
off, he manages to set the book afire while warning the two to be careful who they
place their faith in.
Dracula 2000 leaves an odd taste in the mouth because the film’s creative
team attempts to have it both ways. Viewing this title makes one feel as though
Soisson and Lussier are trying to make a vampire film for the fans of the Left
Behind series of books co-authored by Tim La Haye and Jerry B. Jenkins; an at
tempt to appeal to hard-core fans of vampire lore while suggesting to fundamen
talist Christians that it is all right to watch a film depicting blood drinking and such
as a way to eternity as long as there is some Biblical core to the story and the bad
guys get theirs by