DRACULA: THE NIGHT AROUND US

***

Directed by Chris Schwab.

Starring Eric Toms, Marlene McCohen, Raelan Mackiewicz, Brenton Jones.

Horror, US, 71 Minutes.

Reviewed as part of Tubi FrightFest 2026

There have been so many variations on Dracula over the centuries now that surely nothing new can be said about the world's favourite vampire. Enter writer and director Chris Schwab who attempts to do just that over the course of seventy plus minutes in his contemporary, Los Angeles based take on the tale. Gone are such elements as the vampire's arrival via ship from Transylvania, Transylvania itself and such characters as Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker. Instead we concentrate on John Seward, a lonely doctor who strikes up a tentative friendship with his neighbour Mina and her young daughter Lucy. All the while a dark, spectral figure is stalking the streets, getting closer and closer to John and his newfound companions, threatening their lives and very souls.

Over its swift running time, Schwab manages to ingest the bare bones of the story with a certain amount of style, commendably achieved on a low budget. Replacing the dark, gothic stylings usually associated with the character and the majority of films that tell his story, with a washed out palette, usually lit to the nines, accompanied by the ever present soundtrack of the city's freeways and the ever present rumble of traffic. Certain scenes, set in the mental hospital where Seward works and interrogates his patient Renfield (played with an off kilter, unsettling grin by Spencer Weitzel) are reminiscent of Michael Mann’s classic MANHUNTER, where Brian Cox’s iteration of Hannibal Lecter is quizzed by the troubled Will Graham. 

While it may strike the viewer with the impact of that film, that is of course an unfair comparison. Nevertheless, there is a lot more here to suggest that Schwab could be more than capable of delivering so much more with a higher budget. Other scenes on offer, including Seward’s early encounter with the titular vampire in his own apartment, lit by the static screen of his television, carry his own, already impressive style. To tackle such a monumental work of literature, and immortal character, in this limited manner certainly suggests a level of brave, perhaps foolhardy, confidence but Schwab’s confidence pays off with a film that promises even more interesting and distinctive work in the future. Whether it is something entirely of his own creation or another re-interpretation, the results will certainly be worth checking out.

Iain MacLeod