Cast
Nikolaj Cosster-Waldau as Dracula
Janelle Monae as Mina Harker
Dev Patel as Jonathon Harker
Glen Powell as Arthur Holmwood
William Jackson Harper as Dr. John Seward
Alia Shawkat as Quinn Morris
Richard Dormer as Dr. Abraham van Helsing
Billie Lourd as Lucy Westenra
Boris McGiver as Renfeld
Michael Kelly and Kyra Sedgwick as Mr. and Mrs. Westenra
Setting
Nottoway Plantation as The Crimson Dragon
Wentworth Mansion as the Westenra's Residence
Charleston, South Carolina in place of London, England
A chose Charleston for the primary setting due to it's unique, Europe-influenced aesthetic and reputation for bring one of the most haunted cities in America. It's stifling climate and unpredictable weather also make for an unsettling environment for horror in a Southern Gothic locale.
Plot
High end real estate agent Jonathon Harker departs Charleston, South Carolina to visit a reclusive new client, being separated from his wife Mina for the longest time since their recent marriage. He arrives at the secluded Crimson Dragon plantation, a relic of the Old South, hidden deep within a maze of bayous and moss-covered cypress trees. He finds his client, Vladimir Dracula, to be most amiable, but grows increasingly unsettled. After entering a forbidden wing, he is attacked by three vampiric women. Realizing the truth about Dracula, he tries to flee, but is forced to close the housing deal before being left for dead as Dracula moves to Charleston. He escapes, but is left with no means of communication or transportation.
Meanwhile, back in Charleston, Mina is unhappy living alone in an oversized loft. She seeks out her college roommate, Lucy Wetenra, a socialite heriess viewed as the most eligible bachelorette in the South. Lucy confides that she has been maintaining on-again/off-again relationships with three separate lovers, and fears they all plan to propose. Sure enough, all three - Arthur Holmwood, Dr. John Seward and Quinn Morris - do at the same party. Lucy is wrought with indecision, but her parents make things clear that they will only approve of a wedding to the wealthy Arthur. Any potential joy at the engagement is crushed, however, when news arrives of Jonathon's apparent death in a traffic colision.
Lucy tries to comfort a grieving Mina, but her own emotional state becomes more erratic, leading her to encounter Dracula, who has completed his move to Charleston. He begins to prey on her. Dr. Seward, meanwhile, is puzzled by a violent psychiatric patient, Renfield, and seeks advice from his mentor - Dr. Abraham van Helsing. Helsing arrives but is more interested in Lucy's sudden and mysterious affliction. He believes it is vampirism, but the purely rational Westenra's shut him out. This proves to be a tragic mistake, as before long Mrs. Westenra is dead from a terror-induced heart attack and Lucy from her still unexplained afflication. Overwhelmed with grief, Mr. Westenra kills himself.
In the aftermath of disaster, Mina begins to see Dracula stalking her. She and Quinn become convinced of Helsing's theory. Reports of a deranged woman matching Lucy's description attacking children at night begin to circulate. Seward, meanwhile, desperately seeks to make a connection between the deaths and his patient. Convinced that his fiance is somehow still alive, Arthur seeks her out and nearly becomes the now-vampiric Lucy's victim, but Helsing, Mina and Quinn save him, putting Lucy to rest at last. At the same time, Seward is attacked by Dracula himself, who murders Renfield. However, the doctor is saved by the still-alive Jonathon, who has finally made his way home.
Mina is overjoyed at her husband's return and together they piece together the information for the police to track down Dracula. Typical law enforcement proves woefully unprepared to fight a vampire, however, and the enemy escapes the city. But before he leaves, he visits Mina one last time, leaving her with a growing case of vampirism. On Helsing's lead, the others give pursuit back to the Crimson Dragon.
The vampire hunters reach the plantation and set it ablaze, eliminating the wives and freeing the servants. But in the chaos, Dracula ambushes and kills Helsing. In the final showdown, within the the blazing skeleton of the mansion, Quinn sacrifices herself so that Nina can at last destroy the vampire using her own powers.
The survivors return home to mourn their friends and seek any sort of return to normalacy. This proves impossible, as Seward lays claim to Helsing's work, with Arthur vowing to bankroll new monster hunting missions. Meanwhile, Jonathon and Mina return to their loft, and it is revealed that she is hiding the fact that her vampire's curse is not fully gone.
-DarkU 2.0 connections - News story covers events of The Invisible Man. Helsing's casefiles hint at other monsters-
In terms of contemporary themes, I hope to represent here a commentary on American society's willingness to paint over problems (racism, misogyny, labor issues) that we like to think were resolved in the past. Much like Dracula here is an anceint evil praying on a rational society that refuses to acknowledge his existence even when faced by clear evidence, we see historic biases and prejudices boil over into the surface, particuarly in Lucy's self-declared "progressive" parents reactions to their daughter's sexual escapades and marriage potential. The fact that Dracula himself hides away on a former slave plantation virtually untouched since the Civil War is not unintentional in that regard.