You can blame Hergé. He popularized the ‘earthbound characters suddenly in space’ trope with his Tintin comic Destination Moon. After that, no one was safe. Not Robinson Crusoe, not James Bond, not the Leprechaun, Pinhead, Jason Vorhees or even Dracula.
In the year 3000, a salvage spaceship finds a huge transport ship empty floating in space. They enter it and whom do they find? A bunch of coffins and Count Orlok. Count Orlok is the character from Nosferatu, but he wears a Bela Lugosi Halloween costume so there’s that. Anyways, the captain of the ship is Abraham Van Helsing III. I would imagine there would have been more than Abraham Van Helsings between the 19th century and the 31st, but what do I know. Casper Van Dien portrays him, and this might be the only time the Helsing actor shares a middle name with the character.
Before long (30 long minutes in to be exact), Dracula turns Coolio into a vampire and chaos ensues. Will the crew manage to fight this ancient foe? Yes, yes, they will. Will it be entertaining? No, I can’t say it will.
The film is awkwardly shot, with lots of zoomed in close-up shots of cast members—perhaps for budget reasons to avoid showing barren sets. The sets are rudimentary—basic dark hallways that could be anything, but the props are where it’s at. Dracula 3000 has some of the worst ones I’ve seen. The best example is when the crew goes to the derelict spaceship, and they wear what appears to be scuba masks with the real thick cheap looking plastic tubes glued to them. This movie takes place in the year 3000.
Udo Kier is placed between scenes, talking alone to the camera. He shot his scenes in max two hours, but he is a welcome addition to the flick. Not that the main cast is bad. I mean, yeah, they are bad but entertainingly bad. I like Casper Van Dien, in the 90s I was in love with Erika Eleniak, and Tom Lister Jr. smashes everything he’s in. Coolio… Coolio is not an actor, but I’m not going to speak ill of the dead. He appears to be wearing his own clothes he came to the set in. The movie takes place in the year 3000.
Dracula 3000, no relations to the Dracula 2000 franchise, was shot for TV and does have a cheap charm to it, but it never really manages to become an entertaining romp. Watch Dracula 2000 instead.
