Dracula 2000 is a horror movie which attempts to transfer the Dracula legend into the setting of a modern teen horror film. With a cast of pop culture stars, including possibly the youngest actor to portray Dracula in a major motion picture, the film was profitable, but not overwhelmingly so. The film's only real distinguishing feature from other vampire movies is a unique story for Dracula's origins.

Cast

• Gerard Butler as Dracula
• Christopher Plummer as Abraham/Matthew Van Helsing
• Jonny Lee Miller as Simon Sheppard
• Justine Waddell as Mary Heller/Van Helsing
• Danny Masterson as Nightshade
• Jeri Ryan as Valerie Sharpe
• Colleen Fitzpatrick (aka Vitamin C) as Lucy Westerman
• Jennifer Esposito as Solina
• Lochlyn Munro as Eddie
• Sean Patrick Thomas as Trick
• Omar Epps as Marcus
• Tig Fong as Dax
• Tony Munch as Charlie
• Shane West as J.T.

Overview

The film opens in present day London with a group of thieves infiltrating the antique shop Carfax Abbey. Penetrating into its innermost vault they expect to find a fortune in treasure. Instead they encounter a sealed coffin. Upon attempting to move the coffin, some of the treasure-hunting party are gruesomely killed by the vault's security system, leading the survivors to believe the coffin is the treasure they have come for. It is no surprise when the coffin is later revealed to contain the dormant body of Count Dracula. We learn that Carfax Abbey (also the name of Dracula's London residence in Bram Stoker's original novel) is owned and operated by Dracula's nemesis, Abraham Van Helsing, who, after trapping and subduing Dracula a century before, has been keeping himself alive with injections of the vampire's blood until he can find a way to destroy Dracula forever.

While flying the coffin back to the US the thieves manage to open the coffin, releasing Dracula. The count proceeds to feast on the blood of the thieves, some of whom happen to be flying the airplane, causing them to crash in the swamps of Louisiana. Surviving the crash, he heads to New Orleans, where Van Helsing's estranged daughter Mary and her best friend Lucy live. Meanwhile Van Helsing and his assistant Simon head to the USA to stop Dracula from releasing his horrors onto the world again.

The one significant twist this film brings to the Dracula legend is its explanation of his origin. In this film, Dracula is portrayed as being in fact Judas Iscariot, cursed to walk the earth as an immortal for his betrayal of Jesus. This explains some of the vampire's best-known weaknesses quite neatly, primarily Christian iconography and silver, as Judas was paid in silver for handing Christ over to the Roman authorities. Although Bram Stoker makes no reference to a vulnerability to silver in his novel, it is a part of European vampire lore.

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