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April 9, 2020 By Brittani Tuttle Leave a Comment

Go on a virtual tour of Bran Castle, the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’

Another unique attraction is offering virtual tours in light of the ongoing global health crisis, giving people the chance to visit one of the creepiest places in the world — Bran Castle, a 14th-century castle in Bran, Romania that allegedly inspired Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”

bran castle
Photo courtesy of Bran Castle
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: bram stoker, bran, bran castle, Dracula, featured, Google, romania, transylvania, virtual tour

August 22, 2018 By Brittani Tuttle Leave a Comment

‘Universal Monsters’ revealed as final maze for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood

The final maze for this year’s Halloween Horror Nights lineup at Universal Studios Hollywood has been revealed: “Universal Monsters”!

universal monsters
The final maze for this year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood has been revealed.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Event, Halloween, Movies, Slider, Theme Parks, Universal Studios Hollywood, Video Tagged With: Dracula, Event, featured, frankenstein's monster, Halloween, Halloween Horror Nights, haunted house, horror, John Murdy, Movies, The Mummy, Theme Parks, universal monsters, Universal Studios, Universal Studios Hollywood

October 10, 2014 By Matt Roseboom Leave a Comment

Movie Review: Learn the origins of the world’s most famous vampire in ‘Dracula Untold’

Film Title: Dracula Untold

By Matt Roseboom

Have you ever wondered how Dracula became a vampire? Have you ever imagined what the man was like before he became a vampire? Wonder no more. “Dracula Untold” isn’t just a vampire movie, it’s the origin story of the world’s most famous vampire. This movie doesn’t portray him as the villain you may know him as. Yes, he does evils things, but for good reasons.

“Sometimes the world no longer needs a hero. Sometimes what it needs … is a monster.”
— Prince Vlad III, “Dracula Untold”

Dracula Untold movie posterThis movie is a bit of an unusual Dracula story, not just because it tells his origin, but because it portrays a real historical person, Vlad the Impaler, as Dracula. History says Vlad was actually known by the name Dracula and was born in Transylvania. The original Dracula author borrowed Vlad’s Dracula name for the vampire story. It’s an interesting idea, and if you believe vampires are real, this could be a true story.

As the movie starts, and it’s been 10 years since Vlad (Luke Evans) has left his old life of killing and war. He’s now the prince of a peaceful kingdom and has a wife (Sarah Gadon) and a son (Art Parkinson). While searching the mountains near their town for signs of the Turks, who are looking to conquer Europe, Prince Vlad and his men come across a powerful vampire (Charles Dance) living in a cave. Vlad thinks this is his new worry over the Turks, until the Turks leader (Dominic Cooper) says he wants to take 1,000 of the boys living in Prince Vlad’s village and train them as soldiers, including Vlad’s son.

Will Prince Vlad give up the boys? Of course not, but how will he fight the Turk soldirs off? That’s when he seeks the vampire’s help and he becomes one himself to fight them off. But there’s a catch: if he can resist the lure of human blood long enough, he can become human again.

Everyone in our group enjoyed the movie. It’s a simple story, but it has enough twists and details to keep it interesting. Most of the things you know about Dracula are there, with new aspects too. It’s a great movie, worth seeing.

It’s rated PG 13 and that warning should be heeded. As you would expect in a Dracula movie, there’s lots of violence and are a couple of very scary, gross scenes. But I would categorize this more as an action adventure movie than horror. It’s available on IMAX but not in 3D. There’s no extra scene at the end of the credits.

Universal is planning on launching a series of classic monster movies that will be a part of one universe, sort of like the Disney Marvel movies. Dracula Untold started production before this decision was made, but they added an extra scene to the film to help tie it into the series. Our guess is that it’s the final scene of the movie. The official launch of the series will start with “The Mummy” in 2016.

It’s very rare for an attraction to open before the movie it’s designed after, but that’s the case with this movie at Universal Orlando and Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights. The Dracula Untold: Reign of Blood haunted house has been giving guests a preview of the film since the event began in September.

Here’s a look inside the maze thanks to our friends at Theme Park Review:

Here’s the official trailer for Dracula Untold:

Filed Under: Movies Tagged With: Dracula, dracula unleashed, featured, Halloween Horror Nights, monster, movie review, spoiler free, Universal

August 7, 2014 By Banks Lee 1 Comment

Dracula Untold to sink its teeth into guests at Halloween Horror Nights

HHN 2014 Dracula PR Image sans txt (980x552)

Halloween Horror Nights will bring to life a classic Universal monster in a modern way with the maze “Dracula Untold: Reign of Blood.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Event, Holiday, Universal Orlando, Universal Studios Florida Tagged With: Dracula, featured, Florida, Halloween Horror Nights, house, maze, reign of blood, resort, Studios, Universal Orlando, untold

October 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Stars in the Parks: Tippi Hedren, of Hitchcock's "The Birds," visits Halloween Horror Nights

tippi-hedren

Amidst being in Orlando for the Spooky Empire “Ultimate Horror Weekend,” Tippi Hedren, star of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” is seen here visiting Dracula and his brides at the entrance to one of the haunted houses in this year’s Halloween Horror Nights event at Universal Studios.

This photo makes me wish the old Alfred Hitchcock attraction at Universal Studios was still around. The 3-D scene from “The Birds” was always entertaining.

You can see Hedren signing autographs in our summary of the Spooky Empire 2009 convention and in our photo gallery.

Filed Under: Event, Holiday, Movies, Theme Parks, Travel, Universal Orlando, Universal Studios Florida, Video Tagged With: Alfred Hitchcock, Dracula, Halloween Horror Nights, Stars in the Parks, The Birds, Tippi Hedren, Universal Studios

October 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

A look inside Halloween Horror Nights 19 haunted houses

Universal Orlando has released an official video giving you a look inside a few of their haunted houses from Halloween Horror Nights 19 including Saw, Chucky, the Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein.

Since our cameras are only allowed to shoot outside the houses, not inside, this video is the closest you’ll get to being there:

To see all of our Halloween Horror Nights videos, visit this playlist on YouTube.

And to read more about what went into making Halloween Horror Nights 2009, pick up a copy of the Fall 2009 issue of Orlando Attractions Magazine.

Filed Under: Event, Holiday, Movies, Theme Parks, Travel, Universal Orlando, Universal Studios Florida, Video Tagged With: Chucky, Dracula, Frankenstein, Halloween Horror Nights, haunted house, Saw, Universal Orlando, Universal Studios, Wolfman

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