Dracula: The Night Around Us (2026)
Written and Directed by Chris Schwab.
Starring Eric Toms, Marlene Mc’Cohen, Spencer Weitzel, Raelan Mackiewicz, Brenton Jones
SYNOPSIS:
A disillusioned doctor regains his faith in humanity from a mother and daughter, only to be hunted by an evil force that thrives on destruction.
It’s a bold move by writer and director Chris Schwab to have Dracula in the film’s title and to base it heavily on Bram Stoker’s original novel, but to have the Vampire pushed to the margins of the story. But in this reimagining of some of the story’s peripheries, it works. Dracula here is a force of evil, an undercurrent that blows with sinister intent and can’t be directly placed or recognised. It goes closer to a mythic demonic creature than any hammed-up arch villain sauntering around town in an extravagant suit-and-cloak get-up can hope for.
Schwab’s story focuses on one of the less well-known – but still integral – characters in Drac’s world, the professional in charge of the asylum, Dr John Seward, played here with conviction by Eric Toms. We meet Seward when he is stressed, beaten down by his stressful work in the mental health treatment centre, and missing human connection. He lives alone, drinks too much and feels let down by pretty much everything.
A chance encounter with the young Lucy (Raelan Mackiewicz), a neighbour in his apartment block, and her mother, Mina (Marlene Mc’Cohen) becomes a source of hope for all of them. However, the shadowy presence of Dracula is never far away.
Rather than a traditional scare fest of vampiric horror, this tale looks more at the psychological interplay between these characters. One of the inmates at the mental health centre where Dr Seward works is also essential to this: the emotionally and psychologically unhinged Renfield, who has a penchant for snacking on living creatures such as insects and rodents in the belief that he can capture their life essence. The detained figure (intensely played by Spencer Weitzel) is also closely linked to Dracula. He consistently provokes Seward by saying that ‘he’ is coming.
Dracula certainly is drawn to both Mina and Lucy, and Seward feels a growing responsibility to look after them both. It is this that the story focuses on: how he can keep them safe and away from this impossibly powerful figure of destructive energy.
I really appreciated this film. It manages to convey a gothic sense of melancholy in its short runtime of 70 minutes. It has a finely balanced way of capturing the mundanities of Seward’s work schedule while keeping you aware that he is just a hair’s breadth away from snapping. The added stresses and strains of trying to keep new friends out of harm’s way only increase that paranoia and stress. The resulting picture is taut and powerful. While films based on Dracula may well keep on getting made, this one is well worth a look for its original angle and deft handling of human emotion.
The slow-build up of Dracula: The Night Around Us really lets the characters create a lot of the tension and fear that surrounds them. The modern setting brings a dreamy quality to the work that is often seriously disturbing, underscored by the moments of violence and true horror that errupt. I found it a well made compact work, that offers a fresh look at some of the characters in Dracula’s world.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert W Monk
