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Stars: Thomas Kretschmann, Marta Gastini, Asia Argento, Unax Ugalde, Miriam Giovanelli, Rutger Hauer, Maria Cristina Heller, Augusto Zucchi, Franco Ravera, Giovanni Franzoni | Written by Dario Argento, Enrique Cerezo, Stefano Piani, Antonio Tentori | Directed by Dario Argento

As a reviewer I tend not to follow the opinion’s of others – no matter how many people share the same opinion or how many times I’m told said opinion is true. I know that, for the most part, my taste in movies is more aligned to the audience that reads my reviews than my fellow bloggers and critics… Which is why I was willing to part with my hard-earned money to discover the truth about Dario Argento’s take on Dracula for myself.

I kind of wish I’d listened to everyone else.

When Tania (Asia Argento), a young woman, is attacked and killed by a mysterious dark shadow in the woods...

Review written by Kevin Scott, MoreHorror.com

Dario Argento’s Dracula (2012)

Director: Dario Argento

Screenplay: Dario Argento, Enrique Cerezo, Stefano Piani, Antonio Tentori, Bram Stoker

Cast: Thomas Kretschmann (Dracula), Marta Gastini (Mina), Asia Argento (Lucy), Unax Ugalde (Jonathan), Rutger Hauer (Van Helsing)

It took me a while to warm up to Francis Ford Coppola’s take on Dracula from 1992. No cape, and morphing from an old guy in a geisha outfit to one of the Doobie Brothers in a Victorian pimp suit. I was accustomed to the refined stylings of Christopher Lee and Frank Langella. I’m glad, because even more takes on the classic vampire tale would follow, and being a purist just isn’t conducive to having an open mind.

There have been Italian vampire tales before, but never by the master of the giallo himself. I’ve got a good friend who summed up Italian horror cinema perfectly.

Dracula 3D

Directed by Dario Argento

Written by Dario Argento, Enrique Cerezo, Stefano Piani, Antonio Tentori

Italy, 2012

More than his fellow giallo maestros (Bava, Fulci, Martino, and others), Dario Argento has had to live and work in the burdensome shadow of his earlier successes. After nearly two decades of exceptional films boasting glorious cinematic artistry and blood-soaked thrills, Argento established quite the reputation. In recent years, though, since 1993′s Trauma, these prior landmarks of genre perfection have become a distressing caveat added to nearly every negative criticism of his newest release: “Ah, Argento, how far he’s fallen. Remember when….” His latest offering, Dracula 3D, now available on an American-issued 3D Blu-ray (an Italian disc, still playable in the Us, has been out for while), is no exception. Does it rank with Suspiria, Tenebre, Deep Red, or Opera? No. But is it as bad as some detractors would suggest? Certainly not.

In a world plagued by fashion ad vampires, horror icon Dario Argento is going back to the classic days of movie monsters, and injecting the blood and sex of contemporary society with Dracula 3D. The first trailer and poster for the film have just arrived with King Kong star Thomas Kretschmann playing the title vampire and Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner, Hobo with a Shotgun) hunting him as Van Helsing. This looks pretty silly and cheap, but that also seems to add to the charm of a film that wouldn't seem out of place in the 80s. At the very least, this has to be more entertaining than anything from The Twilight Saga, right? Here's the first trailer for Dario Argento's Dracula 3D, originally from Apple: And here's the poster that harkens back to a classic artistic style: Horror icon Dario Argento (Suspiria, Opera) directs Dracula 3D from a script he wrote with Antonio Tentori,...