With nearly 100 years of cinematic immortality, Dracula remains one of the most beloved horror movie vampires on record. In February 2024, acclaimed French filmmaker Luc Besson announced plans to revive the dashing bloodsucker inDracula: A Love Tale, adding to a roster of over 100 feature films featuring the fiendish foe. AsA Love Taledevelops, it’s worth steering horror fans to arguably the most bizarre movie mash-up, pitting Dracula against two of the most unlikely cinematic criminals.
Written and directed by Timothy Friend,Bonnie & Clyde vs. Draculais precisely as weird and wonderful as it sounds. The movie concerns notorious bank robbers Bonnie Parker (Tiffany Shepis) and Clyde Barrow (Trent Haaga) as they continue their crime spree across rural America. Alas, following one of their robberies, the violent gun-toting couple meets their match when they hide out in a mansion inhabited by Count Dracula (Russell Friend), the lethal lothario with an insatiable bloodlust. If a sequel made 40 years later wasn’t bizarre enough, it’s time to highlight the most outlandish aspects ofBonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula.
Bonnie & Clyde Vs. Dracula
What Is Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula About?
Produced 41 years after the original,Bonnie & Clyde vs Draculais a direct-to-video sequel toBonnie and Clyde, the landmark American gangster movie released in 1967. Directed by Arthur Penn, the original moviestarred Warren Beattyand Faye Dunaway as Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, respectively. The notorious bank robbers hit the road and evade the law while continuing their brazen crime spree until they meet their doom. The film remains a watershed moment in American cinematic history for the depiction of extremely graphic violence and popularizing stylish gunplay. Considering the level of violence the two characters inflict, a collision course with Count Dracula seems like a good idea on paper.
InBonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula,Bonnie is the domineering partner who calls the shots. This is made apparent when the bank-robbing couple happens upon a pair of rapists in the middle of nowhere after deciding to rob a moonshine shipment. Bonnie gorily subdues the assailants and drags Clyde along behind as they continue to hit the road and commit more crimes. Meanwhile, a disfigured scientist named Dr. Loveless (Allen Lowman) is experimenting on a weakened Count Dracula to learn about regeneration while tormenting his strange sister Annabel (Jennifer Friend). Soon, it becomes clear that Bonnie and Clyde are destined for the mansion where Loveless, Dracula, and Annabel reside. Sadly, it takes over an hour to get there.
With roughly 30 minutes left, Bonnie finally arrives at the mansion looking for a cure for a wounded associate. Dracula bites Bonnie, who is rapidly reinvigorated by her youthfulness, and begins devouring everyone in sight until the macabre charnel house is full of bloodsucking vampires. While there may not be as much bank robber versus grave robber action to speak of given the movie’s intriguing title, the final act and ultimate resolution are wherethe obscure low-budget horror effortshowcases its abject weirdness.
A History of Monster Mashes
Harking back to the halcyon days of Universal’s Monster Movies, Dracula has seen no shortage of bizarre monster movie mashups. The seductive bloodsucking Count has encountered bumbling comedians Abbott and Costello, the Mummy, Frankenstein, Scooby-Do, and many more. The character has also been turned into a Blaxploitation hero inBlaculaand outright parodied inDracula: Dead and Loving It. The character has been turned into an animated antihero inHotel Transylvaniaand made the butt of jokes in obscure German sex comedies likeDracula Blows His Cool.
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Considering Dracula’s bizarre encounters with other classic movie characters, pairing the killer Count with the ultra-violent criminals Bonnie and Clyde sounds like an inspiring idea, at least in theory. Alas, the movie delivers little on the promise of its compelling title, and it becomes so bizarre in the final act that it genuinely does warrant ranking among the weirdest Dracula movies ever made. Ironically, the most outlandish parts have almost nothing to do with the infamous title characters facing off with each other.
Why Is Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula So Weird?
First off, fans are deprived of a sinister showdown between Dracula and Bonnie and Clyde for most of the movie. The film keeps the two sides from each other, cutting back and forth between Dr. Loveless' experiments with Dracula’s body and the bank robbers hiding in a ramshackle hut. Viewers wait anxiously, if not impatiently, for the “Versus” part of the title to come to fruition. Unfortunately, when they do finally come face to face after 60 minutes, it feels rushed, unsatisfying, and over before anything of note occurs. It calls to mind throwbackGrindhouse movies in the 1970swhen titles and marketing materials would promise one thing but deliver something entirely different. Dracula hardly appears in the movie at all. Perhaps the movie should have beenBonnie & Clyde Briefly Meet Dracula.
Beyond failing to give what the movie directly promises, the weirdest and most compelling part ofBonnie & Clyde vs. Draculainvolves Dr. Loveless' sister, Annabelle. Loveless keeps his sister held captive like a hostage in his mansion. She creepily talks to herself and begins conducting strange experiments on her bother, and Dracula’s moribund body, whose visage remains shrouded for most of the movie. The infamous iconography of the killer Count — the slick black hair, sharp fangs, tuxedo, blood-red collar, etc. — all devoid from most of the film, an odd creative choice given the title.
Somehow, the lack of Dracula and the absence of Dracula fighting Bonnie and Clyde are not the weirdest aspects of the movie. In the end, vampire Bonnie and human Clyde reunite and hit the road to continue their crime spree, a plot point that makes very little sense. Why Bonnie wouldn’t bite Clyde is unclear, just as Clyde’s decision to continue with Bonnie is. Even odder yet, Annabelle wanders off and becomes a homeless nomad. The most likable character may have escaped captivity from her evil brother, but at no point is she given a satisfying conclusion after viewers root for her success. Moreover, with her developmental challenges, Annabelle isn’t likely to survive alone. Her so-called happy ending is more fraught and perilous than the alternative, another bizarre development in the story.
In the end,Bonnie & Clyde vs. Draculanever comes together to deliver on the promiseof its franchise character crossover. The result feels like two different movies barely tied together with a loose story strand involving Dr. Loveless' interest in vampiric regeneration. Alas, this interest is never explained or fleshed out, leaving viewers scratching their heads as three vaguely familiar cinematic characters briefly cross paths. Unfortunately, what could have been a truly inspired crime-horror mashup feels like a weirdly disjointed disappointment. The film neither functions as a worthy sequel to the originalBonnie and Clydenor is unique enough to make a worthy contribution to the annals ofDraculamashups. That the film exists at all is arguably the weirdest characteristic ofBonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula.
