‘In space the sun never rises’
Dracula 3000: Infinite Darkness, also titled Dracula 3000, is a 2004 made-for-television British/German financed horror movie directed by South African Darrell Roodt (City of Blood; Prey) from a screenplay he co-wrote with Ivan Milborrow.
The film brings Bram Stoker‘s fictional vampire Count Dracula into outer space in the distant 30th century. Despite its name, it is not a direct sequel to Dracula 2000, but has connections and inspirations from that film including the name of the vessel in both films “Demeter”.
Plot teaser:
In the year 3000, the space salvage ship Mother III happens upon the derelict transport Demeter. Captain Van Helsing (Casper Van Dien) and his crew board the abandoned ship.
They explore the bridge and find the corpse of the Demeter’s captain, (Udo Kier) tied to a chair and clutching a crucifix. Despite the misgivings of crew, particularly intern Mina Murry (Alexandra Kamp) and vice-captain Aurora (Erika Eleniak), the Captain claims salvage rights and decides to tow the ship back to Earth. As the crew prepares to return, Mother III suddenly uncouples from the Demeter, leaving them stranded with no means of communication.
Later, cargo specialist 187 (Coolio) and deckhand Humvee (Tiny Lister) discover a cargo bay full of coffins. 187 speculates that the coffins could contain smuggled goods and opens one, only to find sand. Humvee heads back to the bridge while 187 stays to open the other coffins; he is soon mysteriously attacked. The crew rushes to 187’s aid, only to find he is now a vampire. Under orders from his “master”, 187 vows to kill the entire crew…
Reviews:
“You can see that it’s trying hard and the basic idea of Dracula in space is a potentially good one but the whole thing just falls apart, possibly due to a rotten script, possibly due to production problems, possibly due to post-production meddling. Or quite probably all three. The tiny budget and dodgy cast don’t help much either. Probably the most intrinsic problem is an uncertainty over whether these are alien vampires or ordinary vampires returning to Earth (Orlock is confirmed as being Count Dracula himself at one point). If the latter, where are they coming back from and how/why did they go there? Explanations are in desperately short supply in Dracula 3000.” MJ Simpson.com
“Dracula 3000 is a shining example of complete filmmaking ineptitude. You can look all you want and you won’t find even the slightest hint of intelligence on any level. … It sucks. Dracula 3000 makes Leprechaun 4: In Space look like Alien.” Mitchell Hattaway, DVD Verdict
“There are bad movies, and then there is Dracula 3000. … Without belaboring the point too much, this is one of the most ridiculous movies I’ve seen in a long while. The script by writer/director Darrell Roodt doesn’t even try to make sense.” Nix, Beyond Hollywood
“This is the worst movie I’ve ever reviewed so far for CHUD. How is it bad? Every particular way you can think of: the acting, the writing, directing… I can go on for paragraphs. … To call this film shit is an insult to fragrant brown logs everywhere.” David Oliver CHUD.com
“What makes Dracula 3000 different is that it’s set in outer space! Which only sounds exciting until you realize that means it’s set inside a grim, Soviet-looking spaceship that has all the futuristic appearance of a present-day federal building made entirely of dimly lit corridors.” Eric D. Snider, Film.com
“Dracula 3000 is, supposedly, a sci-fi horror film. In practice, however, it appears to be the result of a collision of what little the director knew about those two genres, taken from what he could glean from his memory of 1970’s late night movies while his mother was out looking for a new daddy. Add in the extra challenge of trying to make a feature length film with a budget of fourteen dollars and a bag of black tar heroin, and the resulting mess is neither thought provoking, nor exciting, nor frightening…” Andrew “Linguica” Stine, Something Awful
Choice dialogue:
“Shit, this is disconcerting!”
Cast:
- Casper Van Dien as Captain Van Helsing
- Erika Eleniak as Aurora Ash
- Coolio as 187
- Alexandra Kamp as Mina Murry
- Grant Swanby as Arthur “The Professor” Holmwood
- Langley Kirkwood as Count Orlock
- Tommy “Tiny” Lister as Humvee
- Udo Kier as Captain Varna
