| Director | Gary Shore |
|---|---|
| Budget | $70 million |
| Box office | $217.1 million |
In the 15th century, Vlad Dracula is the Prince of Wallachia and Transylvania. As royal ward of the Ottoman Empire's Sultan, Vlad was trained since a young age to join the Sultan's elite janissary corps. He became their most feared warrior, earning the moniker "Vlad the Impaler, Son of the Dragon". After becoming sickened by his own exploits, he retires and rules his domains in peace.
Discovering a helmet in a stream, Vlad fears that an Ottoman scouting party is preparing for an invasion. Following the stream to a cave in Broken Tooth Mountain, Vlad's retinue are attacked by a humanoid creature which kills all of his soldiers. Vlad barely escapes and returns to his castle. He learns from Brother Lucian, a Romanian Orthodox Christian monk, that the creature is a vampire. Once a General from the Roman legions named Caligula, it was tricked by a demon for power, but was trapped in the cave.
As Vlad celebrates an Orthodox Christian Easter-feast with his wife Mirena and son Ingeras, an Ottoman contingent arrives at the castle. The emissary demands a tribute of boys for Sultan Mehmed II, including Vlad's son. Desperate to save his son, Vlad returns to Broken Tooth Mountain to seek help from the Master Vampire.
The vampire offers Vlad blood that temporarily gives him its powers. If he resists the intense urge to drink human blood for the next three days, he will turn back into a human. Otherwise, he will remain a vampire forever, and the ancient vampire will be freed. Vlad drinks its blood and is given superhuman strength and supernatural abilities, including the ability to transform into a cloud of bats. Vlad returns to the castle in time to catch a squad of soldiers and single-handedly kills them all. He then sends most of the castle's subjects to Cozia Monastery for safety.
That night, the Ottoman army marches on the monastery. Vlad commands an enormous swarm of bats to repel them, but the soldiers are actually a decoy force, allowing a handful of Turks to infiltrate the monastery, kill many inhabitants, and kidnap Ingeras. Trying to defend her son, Mirena falls off the monastery wall. Despite his superhuman speed, Vlad fails to reach her in time. A dying Mirena pleads with Vlad to drink her blood and stay a vampire in exchange for the strength to save their son. Vlad reluctantly complies, triggering his final transformation into a full-blooded vampire. Simultaneously, the magical seal trapping the Master Vampire inside his cave is broken, setting it free. Vlad returns to the monastery and turns the survivors into vampires before he conjures black storm clouds to block out the sun.
At the Ottoman army's camp, Mehmed prepares for the invasion of Christian Europe. While his vampire soldiers arrive and slaughter Ottoman soldiers, Vlad goes after Mehmed, who is holding Ingeras captive. Aware of vampires' weakness, Mehmed lines the floor of his tent with silver coins and fights Vlad with a silver sword. He overpowers Vlad and prepares to impale him with a wooden stake. Vlad, however, evades Mehmed, kills him with the stake and drinks his blood.
When Vlad leaves with Ingeras, he realizes that his subjects have lost their humanity and want to kill Ingeras and drink his blood. The monk arrives, fending off the vampires with his cross to save Ingeras. Vlad tearfully says goodbye to his son before dispelling the storm clouds so that all the vampires, including himself, will burn away and die in the light. The man who had previously observed Vlad's nature and offered to serve him, however, drags his body out of the sunlight and drips his own blood onto Vlad's lips, restoring the vampire to life. Ingeras is crowned the new Prince of Wallachia as Europe is free from Ottoman invasion.
In the present day, Vlad meets a woman named Mina in London who appears to be a reincarnation of his late wife Mirena. The Master Vampire watches them from afar while leaving.