Terrific, smart, and VERY bloody. That is, in a nutshell, Stephen King’s review of the three-part Dracula series currently playing across Netflix and the BBC.
The master of horror himself took to Twitter late last week to shower praise on Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ gothic reimagining, and if that isn’t a ringing endorsement for Dracula, we don’t know what is.
While it’s been billed as a modern-day incarnation of Bram Stoker’s blood-sucker, Moffat and Gatiss’ three-part drama is still rooted in the Victorian era, where Danish actor Claes Bang steps out of the shadows as the cunning Count. According to the show’s creators, the vision was to create a story in which Dracula is the lead character – as opposed to some fantastical, shadowy figure who resides in darkness – meaning that Moffat and Gatiss have naturally taken some liberties when it comes to the source material.
Be that as it may, Dracula has been good enough to impress Stephen King with its clever mix of gore and drama. And that, dear readers, is good enough for us.
Via Twitter:
The BBC incarnation of DRACULA (Netflix) is smart, involving, and bloody terrific. Which is to say it's terrific and VERY bloody.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 9, 2020
Also starring John Heffernan (Jonathan Harker), Dolly Wells (Sister Agatha), Joanna Scanlan (Mother Superior), Morfydd Clark (Mina Harker) and Lujza Richter as Elena, all three episodes of the Dracula miniseries are currently available to stream via the BBC or Netflix, depending on which side of the Atlantic you find yourself on.
And we’ll leave you with this fang-tastic bit of trivia: Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss first twigged on to the idea of creating a Dracula TV show during the production of Sherlock, when an in-costume Benedict Cumberbatch appeared to resemble Bram Stoker’s world-famous creation. And the rest, as they say, is history.