Favorite Moments: The End of ‘Dracula 3000’

We all have our favorite moments in movies, books, and games, moments that stay with us long after the story is over. This column is my attempt to examine my favorite moments and see why they stick with me.

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The Movie:

The scene, and why it’s great

One constant source of unintentional comedy in film is movies that are rushing to get to the end credits as quickly as possible. While great stories take the right amount of time – whether it’s a few minutes or a dozen – to wrap things up, say goodbye, and give characters closure, other stories say, ‘nah, screw that’ and just wrap things up in a few seconds. One of my favorite examples of this comes from ‘Dracula 3000,’ a story that re-imagines Bran Stoker’s timeless tale, but in space! Oh yeah, and Dracula is now called Orlock, and all vampires are now aliens who come from the planet Transylvania (yet dress up in the finest vampire apparel you can get from Spirit Halloween specially tailored for them by their fellow vampires)

As you might imagine, the film doesn’t have the best reputation. Most would say the best thing about it is the H.R. Giger inspired cover art, and maybe Coolio being in outer space. But for me, the best part is the final ten seconds. Behold:

I just love how, when the space station explodes with a cheesy stock explosion effect, it doesn’t even wait for the explosion to subside before starting the end credits. It’s like the filmmakers just gave up and wanted to go home, and the end result is several seconds of unintentional comedy genius that arguably redeems the whole experience. Well, that, and watching a man in a vampire costume running around a spaceship, getting his arm cut off, and giving one of the most amusing screams ever.

Further reading:

‘Dracula 3000’ at TVTropes.

SomethingAwful’s review of ‘Dracula 3000’