Dracula Untold is a 2014 American action horror film directed by Gary Shore in his feature film debut and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.[4] The plot creates an origin story for the title character, rather than using the storyline of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel. In this adaptation, Dracula is the historical figure Vlad III “the Impaler” Dracula and transforms into his monstrous alter ego to protect his family and kingdom from Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. Luke Evans portrays the title character, with Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Art Parkinson, and Charles Dance cast in supporting roles. Principal photography began in Northern Ireland on August 5, 2013.

In the 15th century, Vlad Dracula is the Prince of Wallachia and Transylvania. As a child, he was a royal ward in the palace of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and was trained to be a soldier in the Sultan’s elite Janissary corps, where he became their most feared warrior, earning the moniker “Vlad the Impaler, Son of the Dragon”, but became sickened by his own actions and abandoned his past.

Now ruling his domains in peace, Vlad and his soldiers discover a helmet in a stream and fear that an Ottoman scouting party is preparing for an invasion. The stream leads to Broken Tooth Mountain, the top of which has a cave carpeted in crushed bone. Within the cave, they are attacked by a humanoid creature that kills Vlad’s retinue. Vlad barely escapes and returns to his castle, where he learns from Brother Lucian, a local monk of the Romanian Orthodox Church, that the creature is a vampire; once a General from the Roman Legions named Caligula, who was tricked by a demon for power, but was trapped in the cave as the price for this. Vlad celebrates an Orthodox Easter feast with his wife Mirena and son Ingeras as an Ottoman contingent arrives at the castle, but the emissary demands a tribute of boys to be trained as Janissaries for Sultan Mehmed II, including Vlad’s son.

Desperate, Vlad returns to Broken Tooth Mountain to seek help from the Master Vampire. The creature offers him his blood, which will temporarily give Vlad the powers of a vampire. If he resists the intense urge to drink human blood for three days, he will turn back into a human; otherwise, he will remain a vampire forever, and the ancient vampire will be freed. Vlad accepts the offer and is given supernatural abilities, as well as the ability to transform into a cloud of bats. When he returns to the castle, the Ottoman army attacks, but Vlad single-handedly kills them all. He then sends most of the castle’s subjects to Cozia Monastery for safety.