Ripping off fingernails is always unsettling. The same with extreme close-ups of bloody red meat and a fly crawling on someone’s eyeball. Obviously, if you’re trying to freak people out in a trailer, these are the types of images you show. And that’s exactly what Netflix has done in the new teaser for its upcoming “Dracula” series.
This new take on Bram Stoker’s classic tale comes from Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, the two men responsible for coming up with a great reimagining of Sherlock Holmes in the BBC drama “Sherlock.” And if the new teaser for “Dracula” is any indication, the guys are taking their unique viewpoint and putting it through a horror lens, creating a series that aims to tell the classic story of Count Dracula, but with the style and creativity that was shown in “Sherlock.” And yes, it looks pretty scary.
The series stars Claes Bang as the title character. Joining Bang in the cast are John Heffernan, Dolly Wells, Joanna Scanlan, Morfydd Clark, Jonathan Aris, Sacha Dhawan, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Catherine Schell, Youssef Kerkour, Clive Russell, and Lujza Richter. The series features episodes directed by Jonny Campbell, Damon Thomas, and Paul McGuigan.
The new series is a co-production of Netflix and BBC, and it follows a similar model that made “Sherlock” such a hit. Instead of releasing a season of 10 or 12 hour-long episodes, “Dracula” is more like a series of movies, with three feature-length episodes.
“Dracula” arrives on Netflix on January 4.
Here’s the synopsis:
The Count Dracula legend transforms with new tales that flesh out the vampire’s gory crimes — and bring his vulnerability into the light.