Starring - Wayne W. Johnson (Night of Something Strange, Star Trek Phase II), Tom Delillo (Cyberkill, Hollow's Ridge), and Olga N. Bogdanova (Graveyard Shark, Castle Rock)
Release Date - 2023
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "The fang and claw death match!"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)
Rating (out of 5):
I've been reviewing films over here at Horror Society for over a decade but it doesn't feel like it has been that long. Honestly, it feels like it has been a handful of years at most but that is about it. It's crazy to think that I've been here for as long as I have and I'm grateful the opportunities that writing for the site has presented to me. September of this year made exactly ten years ago that I reviewed the indie tribute to Universal monster movies Tales of Dracula from director Joe DeMuro. It doesn't feel like it had been that long but I just looked up my review of the film and was shocked by the date. The reason I'm talking about this is because Joe recently sent me a copy of the film's sequel, Tales of Dracula 2: Dracula Meets the Werewolf. I knew I had seen it but didn't remember a lot about it so I turned to my review to familiarize myself with the film. Once I did that I was ready to dive into this sequel.
The film follows a man who has been marked by the curse of the werewolf to transform into a heinous creature every full moon with an insatiable appetite for flesh. He partners with a group of Ramani people to destroy Count Dracula with an ancient cross but betrays them when Dracula promises to cure him of his curse. Things then take an unexpected twist when Dracula crosses paths with his brother, the original werewolf.
I went into Tales of Dracula 2 after rereading my review for the first film and then revisiting it. I liked the first film. It's a solid tribute to the classic Universal monster movies while giving viewers a somewhat original story. I went into the sequel hoping I would be getting more of what we had already established in the first film but that wasn't the case. The movie had a solid start but wasn't able to follow up with that. The acting in this is a bit uneven but not bad. Wayne W. Johnson is a man that has appeared in several films that I've reviewed over the years, including one of my favorite indie horror flicks Night of Something Strange, and he always does a solid job. He goes above and beyond to get into character with this one but his dialogue was so bad. I love campy and cheesy horror but the dialogue given to his character just didn't work. It almost felt like a parody of the drive-in era Dracula films that were a dime a dozen back then. It doesn't fit the film and created some unintentional humor for the most part. Tom Delillo returns as the man cursed by the werewolf and delivers another solid performance as well. He does a great job at pulling on the viewer's heartstrings which may be exactly what I said in my review for the first film but it still holds true here. The supporting cast is hit or miss but they all suffer from extremely awkward dialogue that doesn't fit the look of the film at all. The story for this one is not enough for a feature length film. It runs for around an hour but some of it could be trimmed down to about 40ish minutes. With that being said, the story kind of goes nowhere. Dracula prevents his assassination by a werewolf only to fight his brother who was the first werewolf. I liked the lore that was provided but it's not fully explored as I would have liked. I feel like the story had more planned and something happened preventing them from giving us their original vision. Finally, the film has some make-up effects that look great with a lot of traditional methods used to give viewers that classic Universal monster magic. However, if you want blood and gore then you will be very disappointed. Overall, Tales of Dracula 2 doesn't live up to the first film. It does miss it's mark and feel incomplete. I wanted to like this one but just couldn't. Skip it.
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