Unless you’ve been living in a coffin for the past hundred years, pretty much everyone alive knows the legend of Count Dracula, as told by Bram Stoker. For decades, vampire lore has been spun into televisions shows and countless movies, often remaking the exact same scenario over and over again. Enter: Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story, writer/director Natasha Kermani’s take on the story by author Joe Hill. Eighteen years after the death of Count Dracula, Abraham Van Helsing moves with his two sons to California with Mina in tow. The hope is that they can restart as a family free from the chaos of Dracula’s reign. Fate has a different plan. Armed with a fresh concept, Abraham’s Boys unfortunately feels sucked dry by its slow pacing and refusal to embrace genre brutality.
From the onset, Abraham’s Boys teases a different iteration of this story. We see a woman snatched by an unseen figure, injured offscreen. Obviously, we assume that the cloaked figure who attacked her is a vampire. A man lurking in shadows is all we ever see of them. Do not expect an Abigail-esque surprise where the grand master shows face in the finale. No, this film wants us to question whether Dracula and the vampires are even real at all. What if Van Helsing (Titus Welliver, Argo, Bosch) has been making it up all along, actually just off his rocker and killing folks in the guise of slaying vamps?
Certainly, Abraham’s eldest son, Max (Brady Hepner, The Black Phone, The Waterfront) has begun to question his father’s obsessive methodology. He barely gets along with his brother, Rudy (Judah Mackey, Deadcon, The Young and the Restless), but Max is pretty close with Mina (Jocelin Donahue, Doctor Sleep, The House of the Devil). When Mina starts acting erratically, their father discloses some details about the past that had been hidden until now. Abraham insists that he is fearful for their souls, and requires Max’s help to protect Mina at all costs. Max does not seem at all phased by the information, even if he is inwardly questioning everything. To an average viewer, Max’s inward emotions could be interpreted as indifference. Max being so central makes the reactions that much more frustrating, though it remains unclear if due to an acting choice or to the script itself. Hepner is great in the role once actually given something to do.
Taking issue with a sluggish pace in a horror film doesn’t really seem fair—as long as a payoff of sorts arrives, the characterwork can be essential to the endgame. Unfortunately, the more time we spend with this family, the worse they seem. Mina barely gets developed at all beyond her paranoia. Max, haunted by jump-scare-addled nightmares, rebels against his father. Abraham lacks basic parenting skills, and constantly puts down Max. By the time we get to Abraham providing his son with the tools to kill, one expects a turn in the plot to happen, or at least a bit more in the way of action.
Questionable accents aside, the refusal to give actual answers will probably leave many folks frustrated. Personally, the moralistic angle to the story is far more interesting than the coming of age elements they are attempting. The script could have used a bit of work as well—did people actually say they needed to “take a leak” during this time period? Some aspects are very good, and a sucker punch of a scene near the end almost justifies the narrative slowness. The direction from Natasha Kermani (Lucky) is also notably excellent. There just isn’t enough here to fully recommend, especially not when so many other killer vampire films and series are on the rise.
Bite into Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story in theaters Friday, July 11th from Shudder and RLJE.
