Luke Evans portrays the title character, with Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Art Parkinson, and Charles Dance cast in supporting roles.

Now ruling his domains in peace, Vlad and his soldiers discover a helmet in a stream and fear that an Ottoman scouting party is preparing for an invasion.

Vlad barely escapes and returns to his castle, where he learns from Brother Lucian, a local monk of the Romanian Orthodox Church, that the creature is a vampire; once a General from the Roman Legions named Caligula, who was tricked by a demon for power, but was trapped in the cave.

Vlad commands an enormous swarm of bats to repel them; however, the soldiers are actually a decoy force, allowing a handful of Turks to infiltrate the monastery, kill many inhabitants, and kidnap Ingeras.

Dying, Mirena pleads with Vlad to drink her blood before the sun rises and lifts his curse so that he will have the strength to save their son.

[19] In 2012, when Universal terminated the deal with director Alex Proyas,[4] Sam Worthington backed out from the project and was replaced by Luke Evans the following year in April, playing the role of Vlad the Impaler, the man who would become the mythological bloodsucker Dracula.

[9] Samantha Barks joined the cast to play a character from Slavic folk tales known as Baba Yaga, a beautiful young woman who transforms into a savage witch, but her scenes were later cut from the film.

[20] Along with Barks more cast was added, including Charlie Cox (who was cast as Caligula, but his scenes were later cut), Charles Dance, Ferdinand Kingsley, William Houston, and Thor Kristjansson, the latter of whom would play the role of Bright Eyes, an Eastern European taken as a slave as a young boy and now an assassin in the Ottoman Army.

[24][25] Luke Evans revealed in 2014 that he received training every day after work, rehearsed with the stuntmen, and ate only chicken, beef, fish and green vegetables to get ready for the shoot of the film.

[28] The official trailer features Lorde's cover of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", which was produced by Michael A. Levine and Lucas Cantor.

[36] The Blu-ray release comes with an alternate opening, deleted scenes, The Land of Dracula (Interactive Map), and Luke Evans: Creating a Legend.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Neither awful enough to suck nor sharp enough to bite, Dracula Untold misses the point of its iconic character's deathless appeal".

[56] The Village Voice's Alan Scherstuhl criticized the film, saying that the greatest villain in cinema "was bitten on the neck and drained of his hottest blood".

[59] Stephen Whitty wrote a negative review for The Star-Ledger: "If this Dracula can kill hundreds of enemies by himself—and he can, and does, in several dull and protracted battle scenes—then where's the suspense?

"[60] The Seattle Times' Moira MacDonald said that the film falls into a category of studio offerings that aren't good enough to be noteworthy or terrible enough to be truly entertaining.

Club[62] and New York magazine's Bilge Ebiri gave a mildly positive review, commenting that the film is neither the worst nor the definitive adaptation of Dracula that they expected.

[64] Daniel Krupa from IGN said that Dracula Untold recasts the famous vampire as a dark superhero and called the film a "fast-paced", "shallow" fun.

[65] Tim Robey of The Telegraph was positive to the film, commending acting of Luke Evans as Dracula, and considered to be superior to Snow White and the Huntsman from 2012.

[70] Toronto Star's Peter Howell asked: "Whatever possessed the makers of Dracula Untold to think we'd be interested in a tragically unhip romance that backstories the infamous bloodsucker?

[73] James Berardinelli reviewed for website ReelViews and said that Dracula Untold is a generic vampire tale in the vein of Underworld franchise, combined with Van Helsing (2004) than a memorable re-interpretation of a legendary monster.

[74] The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Hiltbrand said the film attempts to humanize one of the most fearful monsters in the Western crypt, but thought that it goes way overboard, past domestication and into canonization.

He later said that Evans carries Untold by admirably fulfilling the two essential functions of a period-movie hero: to enunciate comic-book dialogue with Shakespearean authority and his "great" look with his shirt off.

[77] Graham Killeen of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gave a positive review and wrote that Dracula Untold tries to be The Lord of the Rings of horror movies.

[78] Kofi Outlaw of Screen Rant gave a fairly moderate review to the film, stating that Dracula Untold is not a masterful or deep re-introduction to the franchise, but as basic genre fare, called it a "relatively" fun in its depiction of the monster in a different light.

[79] Los Angeles Times critic Gary Goldstein wrote a positive review, saying Dracula Untold is an "absorbing", "swiftly comprehensive" origin tale.

[87] Producer Alissa Phillips hoped that Evans's character might have a cameo in a future The Mummy film and also spoke of a potential sequel to Dracula to reboot the franchise.