Dracula 3000
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| Dracula 3000 | |
|---|---|
 Dracula 3000 DVD cover |
|
| Directed by | Darrell Roodt |
| Produced by | David Wicht |
| Written by | Ivan Milborrow Darrell Roodt |
| Starring | Casper Van Dien Erika Eleniak Tom "Tiny" Lister Coolio Udo Kier Alexandra Kamp Grant Swanby Langley Kirkwood |
| Music by | Michael Hoenig |
| Cinematography | Giulio Biccari |
| Editing by | Avril Beukes Ronelle Loots |
| Distributed by | Lion's Gate Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | December 7, 2004 |
| Running time | 86 minutes |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dracula 3000, also titled Dracula 3000: Infinite Darkness, was a horror movie that brings the legend of Dracula into outer space in the distant 31st century. Despite it's name, it was not a sequel of Dracula 2000, and has no connection to that movie.
The movie can generally be referred to as a Z-movie in that it had a relatively low budget, and a direct-to-video release. It is also rated a mere 1.9/10 on IMDb and 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it statistically not only the worst movie to ever bear the name of Dracula, but also one of the worst movies ever made.
Taglines:
- In space the sun never rises. (VHS cover)
- In space there is no daylight. (DVD cover)
[edit] Plot
Taking place in the year 3000, the film opens with the salvage ship Mother III, traveling through space. Aboard is the ship's commander, Captain Abraham Van Helsing (Casper Van Dien) and his crew which is comprised of a sexy-flirtatious "Vice-Captain" Aurora Ash (Erika Eleniak); a lazy marijuana-smoking cargo specialist "187", (Coolio); a dim-witted deckhand "Humvee", (Tommy "Tiny" Lister); a worrisome "intern" Mina Murry, (Alexandra Kamp-Groeneveld); and a wheel-chair confined technician Arthur "The Professor" Holmwood, (Grant Swanby).
When Mother III happens upon the derelict transport Demeter, Capt. Van Helsing decides to check it out. After docking with the ship, Van Helsing sends Mina alone to scout the ship and she finds no one on board. However, lurking unseen in the shadows, a mysterious figure darts somewhere behind her. The rest of the crew board and head to a central control room where The Professor restarts the ship's power systems. They then proceed go to the bridge where they find the corpse of a man sitting tied a chair and clutching a makeshift crucifix - what Humvee calls a "plus sign". Van Helsing says the man was probably praying to God - something he states was outlawed in the galaxy centuries ago. Aurora asks who "God" is, where Van Helsing replies, "Nobody".
Later, 187 and Humvee explore the cargo bay looking for anything valuable and soon stumble upon a room full of coffins. Acting on a hunch that the coffins don't contain bodies, but rather smuggled goods - like marijuana before it was apparently made legal - 187 decides to smash them open with a crowbar. When he does, he only finds them filed with dirt and he happens to cut himself in the process. Some of his blood drips upon the dirt.
Elsewhere, the other crew learn the corpse is the Demeter's commander, Captain Varna (Udo Kier), who rants on screen about an evil that is loose aboard his ship. The crew also learns the Demeter has been missing for 50 years, having left "Transylvania Station" in the "Carpathian Galaxy" and never reached it's destination. Capt. Van Helsing declares salvage rights upon the ship and sets a course back to Earth.
Afterward, as if having released a curse, 187 transforms into a vampire and begins stalking his fellow crewmates. Moments later, Van Helsing and Aurora discover their ship Mother III has unexpectedly flown off leaving the crew stranded on the Demeter. Realizing something strange is going on, Van Helsing tries to contact his crew who are scattered about the ship. Aurora waits in a recreation room where she is attacked by 187. Aurora fights him off and eventually kills him with a cue stick from a pool table - the closest thing to a "wooden stake" she can find. Aurora runs to find her Captain, but she is soon cornered by the mysterious figure who identifies himself as Count Orlock (Langley Kirkwood), the last vampire from Transylvania, and he explains his plan to go back to Earth and feed. When he tries to bite Aurora, he quickly discovers she is in fact an android. She manages to fight Orlock off while Van Helsing and Humvee come to her rescue, but Orlock disappears.
Aurora explains how she got away from the vampire - revealing to her fellow crew that she is a robot and in fact, she isn't really a salvage expert, but an undercover cop investigating illegal salvage activity. Van Helsing feels betrayed and angered that his first mate wasn't who she claimed to be - especially since they've had an intimate relationship up to this point. He begins to think she's making it all up - possibly because she was really bitten by Orlock and is a vampire. Aurora allows herself to be tied up since they don't trust her - something that Humvee takes excited pleasure in doing while Van Helsing and The Professor research this Count Orlock in the computer database.
The Professor eventually learns that Van Helsing's distant ancestor, Abraham Van Helsing, fought and killed a Count Dracula over a thousand years ago back on Earth. The Captain thinks the story ludicrous but The Professor believes that Orlock will want revenge against him if he should learn of his ancestry. Regardless of the past, Van Helsing vows to destroy Orlock before anyone else is killed and orders his crew to patrol the ship and hunt the vampire down.
Mina becomes Orlock's next victim and Van Helsing, Humvee and Aurora are forced to fight her and Orlock when they attempt to destroy all the coffins in the cargo bay. During the fight, Orlock gets the opportunity to bite Van Helsing and kill him. Humvee kills Mina while Aurora finds her Captain's body. Helsing then rises from the dead but Aurora impales him with a wooden stake and destroys him.
Meanwhile, The Professor has a nervous breakdown and tries to hide in a room. Orlock hunts him down promising that as a vampire, he'll be able to walk again. Soon Aurora and Humvee arrive finding The Professor barricaded in a room, but with two puncture wounds on his neck. They decide to kill him "just in case", however it is not revealed whether or not he was truly a vampire.
Furious that all his newly created minions have been destroyed, Orlock chases Humvee and Aurora around the ship. They soon enter the bridge and close the door on Orlock's arm, severing it. Orlock screams in agony just outside the room.
Out of options, Humvee and Aurora sit on the bridge, where Humvee eventually gets an idea. He knows sunlight destroys vampires and changes the Demeter's course to fly into the nearest star even though it means destroying themselves. Aurora reveals that before she was assigned to be an android cop, her function was for sexual pleasure. Aroused by the concept, Humvee becomes excited at the idea of having sex before he dies.
The movie ends with a final shot of the Demeter nearing a star and exploding.
