This is a given, since the premise is equating the historical Dracula with the fictional one, although the film gets some things right, such as the complicated tribute/enemy situation with the Ottoman Turkish empire, the name "Dracula" meaning "son of the dragon" or "son of the devil" in Romanian, and that Dracula's (first) wife died because of an Ottoman attack:
- Vlad's kingdom is repeatedly called Transylvania rather than the historically accurate Wallachia, a different neighboring region.
- Although, oddly, and with the below example in mind, the silver coins seen near the end of the movie do in fact bear the inscription "VLADIS-TEPES-WALLACHIA."
- Vlad's family was not known as the House of Dracul and associated with dragons since time immemorial, as implied — the Dracul name and motif only began with his father.
- Vlad's wife and son have their names changed. In the course of his life, he had two wives and three sons, none of whom share their names with the movie characters. The name of his first wife who died because of an Ottoman attack is unknown.
- Vlad did indeed spend years among the Ottomans, but as a noble hostage, not an enslaved soldier for them.
- In the film Vlad gets his Red Baron nickname "Țepeș" ("the Impaler") for his deeds in the Turkish army. In real life, he gained this reputation by doing that to the Turks (and his own people), not for them.
- There's no mention whatsoever of Vlad Dracula's brother, Radu the Handsome. As boys, they were taken hostage together by the Turks. But unlike Vlad, Radu came to support them, converted to Islam, and led the invading army in the campaign roughly corresponding to the Sultan's invasion in the film. He seems to have been combined with the Sultan, who claims to be a former friend and calls Vlad his "brother".
- Mehmet II dies in this film far earlier compared to his historical counterpart, and it was in a completely different way. Also, the details of the real Dracula's end are varied, convoluted, and rather iffy, but however he died, the Turks removed his head and sent it to Istanbul as proof he was most definitely dead.
- The Ottoman Janissary Corps is portrayed far worse than it actually was. While Janissaries were undeniably slaves, they were also extremely high-ranking soldiers, they received the best training and the highest education in the Ottoman military, and they generally lived in much better living conditions than would have ever been attainable in Christian Europe. Hell, they could even rise to become Viziers and end up running the Empire. While many Christian families resented and resisted the devşirme system, many also saw it as an honor for their children to be chosen for Janissary service, or at least saw it as an appealing path to a better life.
- The fact that Vlad initially attained the Wallachian throne chiefly through Ottoman assistance is sadly glossed over in the film.
- Mehmet is portrayed as wanting to forcibly convert all of Christian Europe to Islam. Mehmet II is in fact remembered for instituting the Ottoman Millet, under which various minority groups could conduct themselves according to their own legal codes, for example Jews and the Halakha, or, more to the point, Christians under Canon Law. He's also remembered for allowing the Byzantine Church to continue functioning even after his conquest of Constantinople and even ordered the Byzantine Patriarch Gennadius to translate Christian doctrines into Turkish.
- Historically, the envoys Mehmet II sent to Wallachia only demanded a tithe of 500 boys, rather than 1,000 as seen here.
- The scene where Mehmet demands tribute from Vlad is a pretty drastic departure from the historical (or at least, traditional) account. According to that, Mehmet sent envoys rather than coming in person, and Vlad responded to their request by nailing their turbans to their heads, explaining later that they had impolitely left their headgear on while addressing him. Even though their religion forbade them from removing them for anyone but God.
- For that matter, the fact that Vlad was, well, legally obligated to provide that tributenote somehow doesn't come up. Historically, Vlad's excuse for not paying the jizya was not that it was morally wrong, but because he was already strapped for resources from his own wars.
- The knights seen fleeing from Vlad in the opening narration are wearing 12th-century armor, while Vlad lived in the 15th century.
