Dracula II: Ascension Movie Review

What's the sequel to Dracula 2000? Not Dracula 2001, no, it's Dracula II, and alas, this one couldn't even make it to theaters.

Now on a direct-to-video shelf near you, Dracula II bears no real relation to its predecessor, namely in that it has none of the same cast and nothing to do with the former story, except that there's a vampire in it.

In this story, our barely post-teen heroes and heroines decide to revive a burnt-to-a-crisp vampire by soaking him in a bathtub full of blood. Naturally he's gonna get loose eventually, though when the kids start turning into bloodsuckers, you know it's gonna be messy.

Special appearances include Craig Sheffer as a crippled and wheelchair-bound medical professor with a deep, gruff voice (!!!), Roy Scheider as a priest (for a minute of screen time, anyway), a girl from Baywatch, and Jason Scott Lee as the least likely Italian priest/vampire hunter I can think of, even if he has big muscles. The ending is a bit of a surprise, but why suffer through 82 minutes just to get there?

Dreadfully boring, Dracula II offers nothing over dozens -- nay, hundreds -- of prior entries into the genre. That most of the movie takes place in a nondescript warehouse makes it all the more lifeless -- no pun intended. I'd say skip it, but believe it or not, Dracula III is already in the works. So what would be the point...

The DVD includes a number of inexplicable extras, including audition footage (four cast members plus one for a Romanian girl who got the roll of "Young Woman"), four deleted scenes, and a feature commentary.