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raise the Lord and rejoice! Dracula Untold reinstates the mythical creatures known as vampires to where they belong as monstrous yet charmingly captivating beings.

Dracula Untold, the feature film debut of director Gary Shore, is a refreshing take on the original prince of darkness and his legion of bloodthirsty nocturnal monsters, who in past years have found their horrific reputation tarnished by cheesy movies like the Twilight saga that feature metrosexual-looking teenage vampires.

It is worth to note that Dracula Untold not only brings back Dracula, who is based on real historical figure Vlad Tepes III '€œThe Impaler'€ from Transylvania (present day Romania), in his infamous true brute form, but also gives humanistic reasoning behind his decisions to move to the dark side.

Dracula Untold poses important questions through Vlad'€™s tragic figure. Are we ready to risk everything, including our own soul, to defend everything and everyone we love? Does the end always justify the means?

In most of Europe, particularly in Germany, Vlad has been depicted as an evil and genocidal maniac but for Romanians, he is a hero and the protector of Christianity. Without Vlad to fight the Turks, Europe would have surely fallen to Turkey before the year 1500.

In Dracula Untold, Vlad (Luke Evans) is the wise ruler of Transylvania. He is a family man, loved by his people and respected by his generals. But behind all this, Vlad hides scars '€” both mentally and physically '€” from the past.

Vlad, as a child, was forcefully taken away from his father by the Turks, who threatened Transylvania unless the tiny kingdom gave 1,000 boys, including the crown prince, to be trained as soldiers for Turkey.

And what a ruthless soldier Vlad became. He garnered the nickname '€œThe Impaler'€ for impaling thousands of the Turks'€™ enemies, including women and children.

After several years service Vlad was allowed to return to Transylvania to rule under the condition that each year he provide huge amounts of silver to Turkey.

Transylvania becomes prosperous under his rule but dark times return when the Turks demand that Vlad provide 1,000 boys, including his son Ingeras (Art Parkinson), for their plan to conquest Hungary.

Vlad tries to renegotiate terms with his longtime friend and nemesis, Sultan Mehmed II (Dominic Cooper), but fails. The sultan still demands his terms to be met or Transylvania will have to face 100,000 Turkish soldiers.

In desperation, Vlad finally agrees to give away his son but before Turkey'€™s messengers can take Ingeras away, he changes his mind and butchers them. This is when Vlad knows that he needs to take extreme measures to protect Transylvania from the Turks.

For the sake of Transylvania and its people, Vlad goes into a cave located at the cliff of the broken tooth mountain, encountering a demonic being that almost kills him.

The being (Charles Dance), later revealed as the legendary lunatic Roman emperor Caligula, who became an immortal vampire after making a pact with the devil, almost kills Vlad again but decides not to after he sees the monstrous potential inside the desperate ruler.

Caligula agrees to give the vampire power after Vlad tells him that in desperate times, the world needs a monster '€” but the gift comes with a price.

The demonic emperor warns Vlad that although he will gain the strength of a hundred men, magical powers and the authority over the creatures of the night to crush the Turks, he will be damned to become a vampire forever and will lose everything that he loves, including his family if he cannot withstand his lust for human blood in three days.

With the power, Vlad is confident that he can beat the Turks in three days and regain his humanity by not drinking human blood during that period.

Upon Vlad'€™s return to Transylvania, he sees his kingdom walls are being bombarded by the Turks'€™ catapults. He decides that it is the perfect time to test his newfound power. The audience will enjoy one of the most epic beatings carried out by a single man in cinematic history.

The dynamics within the Transylvanian combined with Mehmed'€™s cunning strategy to overcome Vlad'€™s vampiric power are the beginnings of the complete transformation of Dracula. An accumulation of tragedies later on will eventually make the ruler, who was once so human, fully grip onto the dark side and become eternally damned in darkness.

Let it be clear that Dracula Untold, a dark fantasy movie with a huge amount of special effects fanfare, might not be as good, in terms of drama and acting, as the 1992 Dracula movie or the 1994 Interview With The Vampire, but it is definitely not a bad effort to reboot the imagery of the prince of darkness. On a scale of one to 10, Dracula Untold deserves to be given a seven for bringing vampires back to where they belong.

'€” JP/Hans David Tampubolon