Spoof ‘Dracula’ Offers Good, Bloody Fun

It seems that comedy is a lost art in Hollywood. Even Jim Carrey movies, despite their outrageousness, have succumbed to a need for political correctness and morality.

And besides those, the only laugh you’ll have in a movie theater are one-liners screenwriters throw into their latest dark thriller to supposedly lighten up the next murder.

However, the two men who can always be counted on for a truly hysterical film have teamed up to break this spell. And break it they did. Leslie Nielsen and Mel Brooks, from “The Naked Gun” to “Spaceballs,” have been involved in some of the most outrageous, hilarious spoofs ever made.

Throwing a curve into the realms of film history, they have parodied the horror classic “Dracula.” Nielsen plays the title role, only rising from his coffin at night to drink the blood of unsuspecting victims, kill them and make them vampires.

“Dracula: Dead and Loving It” succeeds in the arena of movie spoofs for two reasons: It has absolutely no point, and absolutely no morals. While some would consider these holes destructive to a film, they merely allow the viewer to appreciate the absurd humor for what it is.

While Nielsen steals the show, the supporting cast surpasses that of a typical movie spoof - it isn’t filled with second-rate performers who, by their inexperience, merely help to keep the cost down.

Peter MacNicol plays Renfield, a British businessman who is taken under Dracula’s spell while selling his property from his homeland. When they travel to Britain, Renfield is no more than a raving lunatic, and when he is sent to an insane asylum, he helplessly tries to escape and murmurs about helping his “master.”

The director of the asylum and neighbor to Dracula’s new residence is Harvey Korman. He plays a teetotaling eccentric whose solution to all of his asylum’s problems is to give the offending party an enema.

Korman’s two daughters, Lucy and Mina (played by Lysette Anthony and Amy Yasbeck), are Dracula’s two victims. He first victimizes Lucy, draining her of her blood and making a vampire out of her. But then he goes too far, trying to kill the engaged-to-someone-else Mina, to make her his “bride for eternity.”

Also starring are Steven Weber and Mel Brooks. Weber plays Mina’s fiance, a village idiot who still manages to be charming. Brooks plays a perfect role for him - a doctor specializing in the supernatural. His insight to the Dracula phenomenon, coupled with a heavy German accent, is truly hilarious.

If you are willing to go to a movie and just laugh, you’ll love “Dracula,” as long as you don’t expect a plot or morality of any kind. “Dracula” makes outstanding use of the talents of Brooks and Nielsen, and with that, how could a movie go wrong?

Grade: A