Dracula has been filmed many times as a movie. Originally, it was a novel by Bram Stoker, which makes the “Bram Stoker’s” prefix to this movie fitting since this adaptation is probably the most faithful to the original novel, although there are many scenes still left out.

It opens with Keanu Reeves going to Dracula’s (Gary Oldman) castle to settle an acquisition of land. That’s right, I said Keanu Reeves, in by far the worst performance of his career. Ever want to hear him in a British accent? After this movie, you’ll wish you haven’t. A few plot twists later and the old blood sucker ends up in London. Reeves joins forces with Anthony Hopkins to destroy Dracula once and for all.

Even though I made the plot seem simple, the movie’s plot is a bit more complicated. It has rather a lot of blood and a good amount of nudity—but it isn’t really senseless, it all makes sense with the plot. The costumes and settings are incredible and nicely capture that atmosphere this movie deserves. Despite Keanu’s performance, the acting in this movie is otherwise quite good.

At the end it gets a bit too action oriented, but it works because of the energy from the actors. Bram Stoker’s Dracula isn’t really scary, it’s more gothic instead. The music is very good and the prologue sequence is needed for the take this movie uses on the Dracula origin angle.

I give Bram Stoker’s Dracula ***1/2 out of ****.