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Vlad III Dracula
"Because men do not fear swords. They fear monsters."
- Played by Luke Evans
- Action Dad: Vlad Dracula to his son. He was already an amazing warrior who slaughtered a group of soldiers who attempted to claim his son, but after becoming a vampire he is able to decimate entire armies.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Dracula was described as old and somewhat terrifyingly ugly in the Bram Stoker novel. Luke Evans is neither. Granted, this does take place several centuries before the period in which that novel is set. That being said, Luke Evans also appears to be significantly more attractive than the historical Vlad III, based on paintings and artist depictions.
- Adaptational Heroism: In Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula is the Big Bad through and through and lacking in absolutely any sympathetic traits. Here, he remains The Hero driven to protect his family and his homeland, despite implications this movie would have been his Start of Darkness.
- Animal Motifs: The Dragon, as seen on his armour, and after becoming a vampire, bats.
- The Atoner: He is portrayed as attempting to live a peaceful life with his family, and leave his days as Vlad the Impaler behind. Then the Ottomans arrive (again) and his attempts at a peaceful life become all for nought.
- Bad Powers, Good People: He gains his supernatural powers for good reasons but even though he uses them for such they are still considered evil, since they did originate from demons and include an insatiable thirst for human blood.
- The Beastmaster: He is capable of controlling thousands of bats at once and devastate massive armies with them.
- Child Soldiers: In his backstory, he was given as a tribute to the Ottomans to be reforged into a weapon for them.
- The Chosen One: Implied based on the Elder Vampire's comments.Elder Vampire: I have been waiting an eternity... For a man of your strength to arrive.
- Combo Platter Powers: He has all of his novel counterpart's powers cranked up: Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Flight (By way of his swarm transformation), Immortalitynote , Voluntary Shapeshifting, Super-Reflexes, Super-Senses with a side order of Vein-o-Vision, Healing Factor, The Beastmaster and Weather Manipulation.
- Dark Is Not Evil: His Impaler armour is dark red with a dragon on it. Plus, you know, vampire. Nonetheless, he is a Wise Prince and remains heroic through the film.
- Daywalking Vampire: He's actually fine unless he gets into direct sunlight.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: After drinking his wife's blood and becoming a full vampire, Vlad decides to turn everyone who survived the assault on the mountain cathedral in order to attack Mehmet's army. This includes everyone from his best friend and advisor to the lowliest lady-in-waiting.
- Flight: Not directly, but he can change into a swarm of bats at will, which has the same effect.
- Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: He only agrees to become a vampire in the first place to protect his family and his people and must not feast on blood at all costs for three days, or else he will be forever damned. Even when he does so, it's to retain the necessary power to save his son and remains noble and heroic all the way through.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: After becoming a vampire he has glowing red eyes while using his Vein-o-Vision.
- Healing Factor: Part of his vampiric power set is the ability to heal from just about any wound in seconds. Damage from sunlight takes a little longer and requires him to feed to regen from severe damage.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: While he wears different suits of armor, Vlad doesn't even wear a helmet to protect his head from getting hit.
- The Hero: He's shown to be this, being a devoted family man and dedicated protector of his kingdom. Though it ultimately get subverted in a predictable way, there were a few hints that this iteration of the character didn't quite fit the mold, considering he did earn the name of "the Impaler."
- Historical Beauty Update: Compare the actual Vlad
◊ with the movie version◊. - Historical Hero Upgrade: Vlad the Impaler gets this, his vampirism being a quasi-superhero origin tale. The fact the movie is closer to actual history regarding Dracula than most (not that this is saying much) also helps this trope. Namely, Vlad doesn't make a habit of impaling his own people, and he's known as the Impaler because of his deeds in the past, not his needs as ruler.
- Historical Domain Character: Vlad III, better known as Vlad the Impaler, was a prince of Wallachia (a neighboring state to Transylvania, both part of Romania today) whose life has been conflated over the past 150 years with Bram Stoker's fictional Dracula. He was infamous for impaling the bodies of enemy soldiers and criminals alike on upright wooden stakes and leaving them to die while he ate his lunch nearby.
- Informed Attribute: His theoretical cruelty. While several characters state he killed thousands of innocents, we never see him doing any of that - though we do see him impale an Ottoman army and a single vampire. Justified, as it's made very explicit that he's been trying to leave that side of himself behind.
- Meaningful Name: He is from the "House of Dracul" or House of the Dragon, from whence "Dracula" is derived. Although it can be translated to "son of the Devil," "Dracula" actually means "son of the Dragon". Vlad says the dragon symbolizes a protector of the innocent, but the Elder Vampire says it stands for the Devil (as in the Bible). By the end of the film Vlad does claim to be the "son of the Devil". In real life, his father Vlad II was a member of the anti-Ottoman Order of the Dragon, hence they were known as Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Dragon) and Vlad Dracula (Vlad son-of-Dracul).
- Mythical Motifs: Dragons, from where he, his clan and his castle take their names.
- One-Man Army: He takes on an initial attack force of a thousand Turks. By himself. And wins!
- Papa Wolf: He kills the Ottoman Envoys when they say they are taking his son. The fact that Vlad was willing to become a vampire to save his family, including his son, instantly earns him this trope.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Once he becomes a vampire, Dracula is able to devastate entire armies singlehandedly with his supernatural powers.
- Pragmatic Villainy: While fighting for the Ottomans, he earned the name "Impaler" by impaling thousands. When questioned by the Master Vampire as to why, he states that he did it as an intimidation tactic - kill one village horribly, and you'll be spared the need to kill ten more.
- Religious Vampire: Even though he sought an demonic source to gain the power to defeat his enemies, he still remains a Christian at heart considering the cross has no effect on him and he attends a church while seeking for fortitude against his thirst. Brother Lucian's initial attempts to frighten him with the cross fail because he has not fed on human blood. After Vlad feeds on Mirena however, the cross glows with a painful aura from his point of view, suggesting that now that he is a full vampire, he suffers the same fear.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: He is the Prince of Transylvania and gives up his humanity to gain the power to destroy the Ottomans and protect his family.
- Took a Level in Badass: He was already a badass as a human, stepped it up a notch after becoming a vampire.
- Weather Manipulation: Upon fully embracing his identity as a vampire, he is capable of making clouds to blot out the sun, as well generating as thunderstorms. Thunderstorms with a cloud formation that looks like a roaring dragon, in fact.
Mirena
"This is not who you are"
- Played by Sarah Gadon
- Canon Character All Along: While initially set up as a character created to serve the role as Vlad's wife, she dies and is reincarnated as Mina Harker.
- Mama Bear: She stands up to defend her son Ingeras when he is threatened by the Turks.
- Morality Pet: She encourages Vlad to live up to his principles as a Wise Prince, but reminds him that nothing should come before his family. Once she learns about his transformation into a vampire, she does everything she can to help him overcome his temptations and resume his human form. In the end, she actively encourages him to drink her blood and fulfill his curse in order to protect their son.
- Named by the Adaptation: Vlad's first wife never had her name recorded in history. The movie names her Mirena.
- Voluntary Vampire Victim: Towards the movie's climax, she is mortally wounded and begs Vlad to complete his transformation so that he can have the necessary power to save their son by drinking her blood.
Mehmed II
- Played by Dominic Cooper
- Badass Normal: He's the villain, but he is a worthy opponent for a nascent Dracula - he doesn't bat an eye at an impaled army, he rolls with the tales of Vlad's new powers, he distracts his soldiers from their fear and gives them more reason to trust him when he leads them on a march blindfolded, leaves a decoy for Vlad to focus on as he tries to invoke a Decapitated Army by going Straight for the Commander, and then he figures out one of Vlad's weaknesses and lures him into a tent full of silver, very nearly killing him. Not bad, for a mere mortal.
- Batman Gambit: While the entire plot might be this (it's implied that, like Ottoman Sultans in Real Life, he sees Wallachia as part of the gateway to Europe and intentionally provokes war), the monastery battle stands out. He dresses up a soldier in his armour, knowing that Vlad can and will go Straight for the Commander to try and enforce the Decapitated Army trope, while dispatching a task-force to take the monastery while Vlad is occupied with the army. It works like a charm.
- Big Bad: The leader of the forces trying to conquer Wallachia.
- Cain and Abel: Of a sort. He and Vlad are not blood-related but they were raised together and Mehmet even mockingly calls him brother on occasion.
- The Chessmaster: He plays Vlad repeatedly, responding to each unexpected move Vlad makes (namely, becoming a vampire, then becoming a Master Vampire with an army of vampires), finally luring him into a trap that very nearly kills him.
- Composite Character: Mehmet II is combined with Vlad's brother Radu the Handsome. The whole "Vlad's brother who supports the Ottomans and sides against him" motif in the film belonged to Radu in real life.
- Crazy-Prepared: Scatters thousands of silver coins on the floor, fights with a silver sword, and has dozens of bags filled with more silver tied to the ceiling waiting to be slashed open in the event of vampire fighting.
- Evil Genius: The Chessmaster variant. He plays Vlad like a harp, out-thinking him every. Single. Time. The only reason he doesn't win is a last minute burst of Heroic Willpower (plus some inopportune Evil Gloating).
- Evil Gloating: During the final fight. If he hadn't stopped to gloat, he'd have killed Vlad.
- Flat Character: He acts like a dick to Vlad for very little reason. He even states at one point that he sees very little value in Wallachia - though he may be interested in it as a gateway to the rest of Europe, as the Ottomans historically were.
- Historical Domain Character: Mehmet the Conqueror was a Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, famous for conquering Constantinople and for beginning the Turkish conquest of southeastern Europe. He serves as the film's antagonist.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Played with. While he certainly got his hand dirty at points, or ordered his people to do so (the conquest of Constantinople was not clean or bloodless), the real Mehmet did not condone forcibly converting people to Islam and had considerable regard for Christianity. Furthermore, the Janissaries were treated more cruelly in the film, and had fewer opportunities, than in real-life.
- Light Is Not Good: When he fights Vlad, he is surrounded by silver coins, wields a silver sword, and dresses in bright gold armour. This is still the same guy who demanded a thousand boys to use as soldiers. The silver is justified by being a vampire's weakness.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: He marches with his army and is one of the better fighters among the Ottomans.
- Weak, but Skilled: He's a skilled and experienced fighter, but he's still a human being who has to use traps and anti-vampire weapons to hold his own against the supernaturally strong Dracula.
- Would Hurt a Child: Mehmet demanded a thousand boys to use as "soldiers" for their war, and planned to use brutal methods to train them, including making them fight to the death and use the survivors.
The Master Vampire
- Played by Charles Dance
- Blessed with Suck: He's immortal and incredibly powerful, but he's visibly inhuman and he's cursed to be imprisoned to a cave high in a remote mountain. He mentions that if he makes a "worthy offering to the darkness", the curse will be broken and he'll maintain all the benefits of vampirism.
- Deal with the Devil: He got his powers from an actual demon, according to himself and a history book Vlad had in his library.
- Faux Affably Evil: He kills two of Vlad's men without hesitation, and when Vlad returns, he treats Vlad with a degree of politeness when Vlad is unarmed. Though his Hair-Trigger Temper and Obviously Evil mannerisms shine throughout the dialogue.
- Femme Fatalons: A rare male example, he has long and sharp fingernails, though he never uses them as claws.
- Flat Character: He gives almost no reasons for his stated goal of conquering the world (though he does suggest that part of it is to get revenge on the one who betrayed him and another is simply that he has very little else to do for all eternity).
- Historical Domain Character: He is indicated in the original script to be none other than the Roman Emperor Caligula.
- Informed Attribute: He is evil and immensely powerful. Beside the heaped skeletal remains on the floor of his cave, none of this is ever showcased, save by implication (going by how powerful Vlad becomes).
- In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves: He mentions that a part of the vampire repertoire is to turn on one another, and his first act when he gets out of the cave is to destroy his jailer. While this appears to be a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, there was some vindication when Vlad's army of vampires nearly turned on him to get at his son, though a good argument could be made that they were overcome with gluttony or they might have legitimately believed "freeing" him from his last loved one was in his best interest. In the modern day epilogue, the Master Vampire shows up, ready to make Vlad's life difficult.
- Karma Houdini: He's implied to be a far greater evil than Vlad, escapes to run free in the world.
- Looks Like Orlok: He is bald, white-skinned, has pointy teeth, and long claws. He lacks the elongated nose, but other than that he's pretty much Count Orlok. When the curse is broken, he's allowed to leave the cave and has reverted to or assumed his fully human appearance. In fact, he looks like Charles Dance pointy fingernails.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Was once a Roman Emperor, and after surviving into the modern age, viewers see that he has become a Sharp-Dressed Man, so it's a fair bet that he is still this trope.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Despite his big talk about conquering the world, he only attacks people who come to his cave - though that's mostly because he can't actually get out until Vlad releases him. When he's released to the world he does absolutely nothing for more than 500 years. Or at least, nothing that we see - though his dialogue in the final scene suggests that he's been waiting for five hundred years, quite possibly just to screw with Vlad.
- Villains Never Lie: He is completely up-front with Vlad about both the benefits AND consequences of his "help". From what we see, everything he said was the truth.
Brother Lucian
- Played by Paul Kaye
- Badass Preacher: He's a monk who recognized Vlad's nature as a nascent vampire, and rather threateningly asked Vlad to allow him to give a Mercy Kill. Eventually, he was the sole survivor of the massacre at the monastery, and braved an army of vampires with just a cross to ask Vlad to save Ingeras. Vlad accepted.
- Hero Antagonist: He is presented this way, abhorring Dracula's nature as a vampire and begging to allow to give him a Mercy Kill, either not realizing that Dracula needs his powers to defend his people from the Turks or considering it a Fate Worse than Death (which, to be fair, is a reasonable point of view). By the end, he and Dracula take the same side against Vlad's treacherous vampire army, saving Ingeras in the process.
- Religious Bruiser: See Badass Preacher. He's religious, and he is more than willing to take on a group of vampires who just slaughtered an entire army (and their leader, who had already slaughtered armies all by himself, though Vlad turns out to have kept at least some of his humanity, all to save a child.
Ingeras
- Played by Art Parkinson
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: At the end. Becomes the new Prince of Wallachia at the end of the movie after his parents' deaths.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Attempts to make one of these by voluntarily joining Mehmet's army to spare his father the anguish of choosing for him. His father has other ideas.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: His primary motivation is to live up to the reputation of his father and grandfather.
Shkelgim
- Played by Zach McGowan
- All There in the Script: His name is not said onscreen. To the audience he's not much more than an anonymous guy Vlad met in the woods.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He shows up in the beginning, showing Vlad the helmet of a Turkish scout(which washed downstream from the Master Vampires cave), then shows up in the woods for a short scene in the middle of the movie and is forgotten about. Clever tropers will know that he'll be important later. He shows up after Vlad's Heroic Sacrifice, and saves his life by dragging Vlad to shelter and then giving Vlad his blood.
- The Renfield: He recognizes Vlad as a vampire partway through the film, and makes an offer to serve him, offering some of his own blood for Vlad to drink. Vlad, in the midst of resisting his bloodlust, angrily refuses him. He appears at the end of the film, and uses his blood to revive Dracula's body.
