![]() You can only move where the arrow lets you, and you can only interact with the minute number of objects that the game points you to. The gameplay is as limited and simple as any Myst game, allowing you less freedom than you'd get in a rolling dice adventure book. Unfortunately, it has none of the style, panache or imagery. The game borrows as much as it can from the Francis Ford Coppola film, right down to Jonathan Harker being a Keanu Reeves-style tosser with a weird mix of English and American accents. Your job is to guide Harker to Dracula's castle, save his sex-crazed spouse, kill the Count, again, and solve some incredibly boring puzzles on the way. Of course, the world's premiere vampire is still undead and sucking, prompting Harker's wife, Mina, to go to him, obviously deciding that necrophilia is the thing for her. The story follows on from where Bram Stoker's book left off, seven years after the Count has been hunted and destroyed by Van Helsing and co. Those of you who thought the Myst adventure game was dead and buried with a 3D-accelerated stake sunk deep into its monorail heart will be distressed to know that Dracula: Resurrection is here to resurrect it. Or at least the part of humanity that plays PC games. The dead are stalking the Earth, bringing a dark blanket of despair over all of humanity. Either way, they both had good instincts.Be afraid, be very afraid. Maybe John Lennon and Jess Franco had more in common in their 1970s creativity than a coincidental sound effect. Upon regaining your wits, you’re left half-asleep, yet ready to conquer the world. Dracula, Prisoner Of Frankenstein is, quite literally, a pleasant dream. A strange focus on frantic bats (both rubber and real). The expected Jess Franco Nightclub Sequence. Thankfully, even with all of the dauntless screwing around, the film never loses sight of what’s important: A Brillo-pad werewolf. It’s like a pristine concept album delivered in a made-up language - hooks without function. There’s no method to how the film moves, yet that undetermined wandering becomes the method. Compositions, whether intentional or not, are never less than captivating. ![]() The camera constantly probes, zooms, and searches. Here’s where Jess Franco cleans house - just by being himself. However, something more seeps from the splinters of Dracula‘s cheap-yet-creepy frame. Most European monster-rallies tend to leave that impression. Is that a full moon I see?ĭracula’s gaunt plot-line reads like it was pieced together by an eleven-year-old. ![]() They’re about to take over the world when Dr. Thanks to the resurrection of his Monster, that army soon consists of a top-hatted, hypnotized Dracula (Franco right-hander Howard Vernon) and a few vampiras (including Britt Nichols, a Franco regular from 1972-74). Z, this movie stands alone and fearless.Ĭastles are crumbling. Just like the previous decade’s The Diabolical Dr. Placing the film in context within Franco’s own sprawling, international filmography is a waste of time. The film makes a stand for slapdash eccentricity, swabbing illusory “take it or leave it” brashness in the face of anyone who wishes to peek behind the velvet curtain. In essence, it clears out the pores, sticking to its guns no matter what. With a few dozen lines of dialogue, mounds of greasepaint, and a wall-of-sound approach to all things spooky, Dracula, Prisoner Of Frankenstein does something special. As luck would have it, he doesn’t need to be. The early minutes of Jess Franco’s Dracula, Prisoner Of Frankenstein utilize the exact same cue. John Lennon opened the caustic and cleansing “Plastic Ono Band” with the library sound effect of a solitary church bell.
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