Radu Jude, the Romanian filmmaker behind recent works like Bad Luck Banging Or Looney Porn and Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World, is already gearing up to release one new movie this year, Kontinental ’25. Based on the first trailer for that, it looks as surreal and darkly comic as his last couple of works. But he’s got another one in the pipeline, too: Dracula. You may be wondering: how did Jude manage to create two films in such close proximity, one of which has a runtime of nearly three hours? Speculating here, but, at least in the case of Dracula, it could have to do with the copious amount of AI used in the first look clip, shared today.
That’s not necessarily a dig at the quality of Dracula, which seems to be about the use of AI in filmmaking as much as it has used AI in its own filmmaking. A logline teases: “What happens when a young and curious filmmaker challenges his creativity with the limitless possibilities of a fake A.I.? A surprising mix of various stories, from new and old times, about the original myth of Dracula: a vampire hunt, zombies and Dracula crashing a strike, a science-fiction tale about Vlad the Impaler’s return, an adaptation of the first Romanian vampires novella, a tragic romance, a vulgar folktale, A.I. generated kitsch stories… and much more!” The AI, which looks completely ridiculous, is very much presented as a selling point here; you can check out a first look clip from the film below.
While the use of generative AI is still, understandably, a non-starter for a lot of film professionals and fans, those familiar with Jude’s work probably won’t be too surprised by the auteur’s embrace of it. (See: the Snapchat filters that proliferateDo Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World.) However, Jude claims it was also a “practical” decision. “We had major production problems: loss of financing, a change of producers, a lot of instability… At one point, I told my producer: I’ll make the film with the budget we have,” Jude says in an interview in Dracula‘s press notes. “That meant working with what we had: phones, cheap AI software, no lighting setups, a smaller crew. We had to invent solutions on the spot. And I think those constraints pushed the film into more interesting territory.” You can make that decision for yourself when Dracula arrives in the U.S… eventually. As of right now, the film is scheduled to have its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival on Sunday, with no further festival screenings confirmed. Seems like Dracula might still need to be invited in.
