The vampire movie tends to be one of romance, or revenge. Robert Eggers' Nosferatu hones in on the darkly sexual nature of F.W. Murneau’s silent film adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic tale, while Gary Dauberman's take on Salem's Lot focuses on the ubiquitous nature of evil and defeating the thing that has already taken so much from us. Abraham's Boys: A Dracula Story, however, is about something else entirely: family.
Shining a light on the under-the-radar theatrical releases that you need to know about, with a new article every Friday
Natasha Kermani's take on Joe Hill's 2004 short story is full of wooden stakes, holy water, and examination tables, but it centers mainly on the unwavering trust that a child has for their parent. After the death of Count Dracula, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Titus Welliver) moves his wife Mina (Jocelin Donahue) and his two sons, Max (Brady Hepner) and Rudy (Judah Mackey), out of Europe and into California in hopes of starting a new life away from the trauma of what he and Mina experienced all those years ago. For some 15 years the family has managed to live a relatively normal existence in a house on the hill, just outside of town and adjacent to the new railroad that's being built. Things start to change, however, when Mina begins to feel Dracula's presence in the house, but Max and Rudy don’t believe in vampires.
"It feels more like an art film. And, certainly, visually, it works that way," Welliver tells GamesRadar+. He's right: The film is set against the same picturesque backdrop where Little House on the Prairie was shot, tucked away in the hills of Simi Valley, California at Big Sky Ranch – and the beautiful, serene scenery directly contrasts with the horror that unfolds. He also reveals at a screening of the film attended by GR+ that There Will Be Blood also heavily influenced the film's overall aesthetic. "You don't have the vampires running around. You're not seeing fangs and spraying blood and things. It's much more subtle and psychological, and it kind of seeps into you as the audience. The boys are representative of the audience, so they're experiencing everything through the eyes of the boys. But they also have knowledge that the boys don't have."
The viewer believes Mina immediately, and her descent into madness is validated by Max's constant nightmares and visions of his mother being taken by Dracula – not to mention Rudy's insistence that he hears crying and scratching coming from inside the house. The boys, however, aren't so sure. They've come to accept that their father is a strange, strict man who stays in his locked office all day and has unconventional methods when it comes to healing the sick, but as Mina gets sicker, he becomes more impatient and cruel – and more insistent that the dead indeed walk among us. It's not lost on me that Max and Rudy go through a similar journey to that of Fenton and Adam in Bill Paxton's 2001 supernatural horror Frailty, which sees their father enlist his reluctant sons to become demon slayers. Though reluctant to do so, Max and Rudy feel as though they have no choice but to trust Van Helsing. Why? Max puts it simply: "Of course I trust you: you're my father."
"You have a parent, and they are the person that's supposed to keep you safe and do all those things, and that's what Van Helsing is. But if you had a chronic alcoholic or an addict parent, there's a level of unpredictability," Welliver explains. "And he's saying, 'I'll protect you, but this is what we're dealing with.' [His] two boys really depict that kind of loyalty and love and dedication, but also a resistance."
Resistance is the key theme throughout the tight, 90-minute film: Max and Rudy do as they're told, but not without immediate refusal and questioning. Van Helsing seems to refuse to listen to any logic or reasoning at any turn. Mina is sure that Dracula is present, even though nothing is creeping in the corner, or lurking just outside the window. At some point, it's hard for the viewer to discern what's truly going on: we develop our own trust issues. But at the core of the film remains two sons who want so badly to believe that their father's intentions are pure – even when said intentions become a little violent.
Van Helsing has always been portrayed as a strange and stoic man, but I can't recall the last time he's been portrayed as a father in media – but that’s what makes Abraham's Boys so unique: it grounds the film in reality, making the viewer almost question their own beliefs in the supernatural and the unknown. If the boys believed their father with no problem, and were more than game to aid him in his quest to hunt down those who are infected with 'vampirism,' it'd be a fantastical, horror fantasy. Instead, it's a dark and upsetting drama about the loss of innocence and how the people who are supposed to protect us from the horrors of the world can end up being the horror themselves.
Abraham's Boys: A Dracula Story is streaming now on Shudder and playing in select US theaters. For more on what to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.
