He has many itineraries. One can, for example, follow a path of movies with mermaids, crocodiles and (Chaode Yasuhiro Aoki, Cocodrile tearsde Purpolon, The Python Hunta documentary by Xander Robin about the annual invasive python hunting contest in the Everglades). Or go down an especially strange path with a sex worker who tries to get rid of a curse revealed by the tarot (Fucktoys)a mysterious gun (Luger), a vacuum cleaner in which a spirit has been reincarnated (A useful ghost) or the legendary Chupacabras (the short film by Jordi Serrallonga). But whichever route they chose, the majority of people stopped by yesterday at two screenings at the Melià Sitges Auditorium, both of which were filled to capacity: the Dracula by Luc Besson and the sequel by his own director, Jalmari Helander, to (Courage, Resistance), the extremely violent Finnish film whose new installment is as furious and brutal as the first, which won four awards at the 2022 festival.
Besson has surprised with a wildly romantic reading of the story of the vampire count, while Content 2 —the official title is Sisu: path of revenge— has not surprised anyone: another bloodbath by the indestructible converted commando Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommica), who is curiously nicknamed koschei, “the immortal”, as if he were the Transylvanian aristocrat. It was he, the Finn, who created the hemoglobin spill, while Besson’s Dracula and the director himself, a guest of the festival, along with the actress who plays Mina, Zoe Sidel (daughter, by the way, of Rosana Arquette, who starred in that beautiful The big blue, ), they have dispensed love in abundance. In fact, there is a surprising phrase from the count in the film: “Contrary to what is said, I don’t like blood.” The two films aroused spontaneous applause from the audience during their screening. And, significantly given that the festival edition is dedicated to horror and humor, both also laugh.
The 58th international fantastic film festival of Catalonia is approaching its end (on Sunday) leaving behind such unforgettable moments – beyond what has been seen on screen – as finding yourself in the toilets at ringmaster from the Dark Circus, the dark tent on the Dark channel, rearranging his mustache. When this special envoy to horror asked, taking advantage of the intimacy of the situation, what was in the tent, the individual let out with a sinister laugh: “Your worst nightmares.” Also noteworthy is the disturbing presence in the projection of Content 2 of a security guard who watched the public from the back of the stalls equipped with a night vision device; At least he wasn’t equipped with a chainsaw.
Throughout the day, streams of spectators have been arriving at the festival, most dressed in dark clothing and themed t-shirts printed with the iconic gorilla, with godzillasliving dead, jaws, aliensor with legends such as “die of fear”, “the mummy lives”, or the less allusive to terror but unappealable “I’m not antisocial, I’m anti-stupid”. In the always interesting booth of books, records and objects of the genre, it was tempting to get an articulated figure of Freddy, a Chucky with his clothes and his little knives, or the scale lair of Pennywise. The clown of It It is also on the posters advertising the HBO series (October 27) as is the Frankenstein by Guillermo del Toro that will be screened at the Auditori Melià on Friday. Dracula, by the way, beats Frankenstein by a landslide this year, with many films about the vampire: in addition to Besson, the German one from 1970 Jonathan, de Hans W. Geisendörfer, la rumana Dracula, by Radu Jude, the Abraham’ boysby Natasha Kermani, about Van Helsing’s children.
Content 2 recovers the solid and legendary former commando and gold prospector Aatani Korpi in 1946 trying to reach Finland from Karelia occupied by the USSR in a truck with the logs of his dismantled house and pursued this time by Soviet troops (this time there is no Waffen SS anymore) led by the ruthless Igor Praganov, murderer of his family. Korpi, inspired by the tough sniper Simo Häyha, “the white death”—about whom, by the way, a historical novel has just appeared, The winter warriors by Olivier Norek (Istoria, 2025)—will survive attacks with motorcyclists, armored vehicles and airplanes (Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik in single-seat version), countless wounds, torture and beatings to eliminate his enemies in a true orgy of blood and violence with deaths galore. Among the most amazing things, the somersault he does with a tank, the scene in which he extracts the knife that had been hidden under the skin of his thigh, the massacre of Russians that he perpetrates with two PPSh-41 submachine guns, one in each hand, or the V2-type ballistic rocket that he launches inside a train car. The film has been followed with delight by a dedicated audience that has applauded the most absurdly bloody moments.
Curiously, much of the exterior of the Dracula de Besson is filmed in Finland. The film, obviously greatly influenced by the Dracula by Coppola (some scenes and costumes seem copied, and moments of the music), begins with Prince Vlad II Dracul () having to abandon his beloved wife Elisabeta, also played by Sidel, to go fight against the Turks. The images of the nobleman at the head of his troops equipped with a breastplate of reptilian scales and a dragon helmet are spectacular and reminiscent of Excalibur The death of his wife leads Dracula to a blasphemous act that condemns him to immortality and we will see him go through four centuries, from the 15th to the 19th, synthesized in various dances in different courts, in the search for the reincarnation of Elisabeta. The film, beautifully made, has moments of humor and shocking scenes such as that of the nuns—an entire congregation—seduced by the vampire. The unexpected influence on the film of The perfumethe novel by . The character of Van Helsing becomes a vampire-hunting priest played by Christoph Waltz, Lucy becomes Mina’s Italian friend, and London is changed to Paris as the setting for the plot. The film, which literally ends with the count turned into a Quevedian dust in love, approaches the fairy tale by drifting somewhat towards Beauty and the beast and also present some gargoyles serving the Disney-style air vampire. Curiously, a mermaid appears in a fair scene, which we couldn’t be more in favor of.
He recalled in a dialogue with the audience at the end of the screening at midnight, together with Sidal, who was in Sitges with his first film, The last fight, and won a prize that stimulated his career. Both he and Sidal (she dressed in a flowing dress like a real princess) have previously attended a massive press conference to talk about their Dracula: A love story. Besson has said that he does not like horror films, which in Sitges is a provocation if not anathema. He says he is very afraid. He has stressed that his film is not about horror, although it uses canonical elements of vampire films (fangs, blood, crucifixes, stakes), but about love. And he has pointed out the need in the world for that feeling. “There is already too much blood spilled.” His Dracula, who in his castle upon receiving Harker is very reminiscent of that of , exchanging a knife for a mouse and with the addition of extensions worthy of the Golden Triplets, is “a desperate man who waits 400 years to recover his wife.” He has said that his creature is romantic and not the vermin of other versions. Regarding the comedy moments, he reflected that life is like that, that it is important “not to take yourself too seriously,” and that “it is always good to give a touch of humor.” He has commented that he has a special and strange relationship with the special effects technicians and that he always ends up fighting for what he wants and they “sweat a lot to get it for me.” Asked if he thinks there is something in the air that is causing so much interest in Dracula recently, he replied: “Honestly, I don’t care; any story is never the same.” Regarding how he films battle scenes, he has said that he takes the camera in his hand “and I run among the people fighting.”
For Sidal, with a very delicate, almost ethereal air, and on screen very similar to his mother but in darkness, the bones of this Dracula are the same as in other films, but the flesh and skin are different. To play the double role, he has said that he was inspired by the vision of a herd of deer, the adult with its antlers like a crown, he connected with Elizabeta, while the young man, the bambi, curious and inexperienced, with Mina. He has also considered that the Dracula by Besson is a love story and one that “promotes love and its magic.” And he has reflected: “In other films, Dracula is a beast, not here, or perhaps love is also a beast in its own way.” “We must not forget that we all come from love,” the director concluded.
