'Dracula' Courtesy of SagaFilm, Nabis Filmgroup, PTD, Samsa, MicroFilm Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Dracula is back on the big screen with a vengeance, courtesy of none other than Romanian provocateur Radu Jadu (Kontinental '25, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World). Befitting the iconoclastic filmmaker's reputation, of course, he is taking you on a bloody wild and absurd, dare we say - insane - cinematic ride to explore the legendary cinema myth in Dracula, world premiering in the competition program of the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland on Aug. 10. In the process, he aims to not only dissect Dracula, but cinema itself. Related Stories Movies Emma Thompson on Pulling "Every Single Muscle" Playing "a Real Heroine" in Action-Thriller 'The Dead of Winter' -- and What "Really Scared" Her Movies 'Don't Let the Sun' Director on Her "Almost Silent Movie" Exploring Alienation Amid Climate Change In fact, with the movie made on Dracula's home turf, namely Transylvania, Jude really sinks his teeth into the most famous vampire and different dimensions of his image, as well as AI. After all, the film shows a young filmmaker working with an AI system to craft various filmic takes on Dracula. "What happens when a young and curious filmmaker challenges his creativity with the limitless possibilities of a fake AI?" reads a synopsis. "A surprising mix of various stories, from new and old times, about the original myth of Dracula: a vampire hunt, zombies and Dracula crashing a strike, a science-fiction tale about Vlad the Impaler's return, an adaptation of the first Romanian vampires novella, a tragic romance, a vulgar folktale, AI-generated kitsch stories... and much more!" Much more indeed. For example, Jude's Dracula references such big Hollywood names as Charlie Chaplin, Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola, classic Dracula actor Bela Lugosi, such characters as Frankenstein and Popeye, music stars like Britney Spears, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine and Rammstein, politicians like Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Richard Nixon and Joseph Stalin, plus Elon Musk, OnlyFans, TikTok, and many more. "Our film deconstructs the myth of Dracula through dozens of stories - absurd, pulpy, literary, playful, political, excessive, naughty, fantastic or realistic," Jude says in a director's note. "A film about cinema itself." He has also called it "my humble homage to some great American underrated auteurs: Ed Wood, Andy Warhol and the Fluxus filmmakers." But don't expect a high-end, Hollywood-style look and feel. Jude shot Dracula on an iPhone with the lowest budget possible, as he likes to do. "Radu Jude resists, stoically, the temptation to make beautiful films," Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro recently told THR. "And I mean that as the highest possible praise!" Check out a clip for Jude's Dracula here. Written and directed by Jude, the movie stars Adonis Tanța, Oana Maria Zaharia, Gabriel Spahiu, Ilinca Manolache and Alexandra Harapu. Luxbox is handling international sales. Jason Hellerstein's 1-2 Special picked up North American rights in early July. Before the world premiere of Dracula at Locarno, Jude talked to THR about the various references in the movie, including current politics, combining the shoot for the film with that for Kontinental '25, his take on AI and why the film itself is Dracula. You always manage to surprise audiences. What did you try to do with Dracula? When I'm asked, "Who is Dracula in your film?" I say the film itself is Dracula. What I try to offer is a film that goes around all these tropes and topics from popular films and a certain type of genre films and follows them in some directions and subverts them in others. I want to basically offer everybody something. It was my desire for this film to be as inclusive as possible. The intention is a celebration of a few things and a celebration of storytelling as a form. It's a very story-oriented film. It is also a celebration of bad movies in the tradition of the great essay by J. Hoberman called Bad Movies and the return to a certain type of avant-garde spirit, where on one hand, you have the non-serious, and on the other, you have something serious. So it's a mix. That's what I tried. What I've achieved is not for me to say. 'Dracula' Courtesy of SagaFilm, Nabis Filmgroup, PTD, Samsa, MicroFilm I remember last year when you gave a Locarno Pro masterclass, you said that it was time for a Romanian Dracula movie because Hollywood "has done it 1,000 times." Back then, it was believed that the title of the film would be Dracula Park. How did that change or will there still be a Dracula Park movie, too? In the end, I shortened the title to make it more general and more precise. I also thought it