Cinematical

My earliest recollections of the Castlevania video game series are of a little guy side-scrolling through a haunted castle, stopping occasionally to whip a skeleton/ghost/vampire and climb a whole lot of staircases. I loved it. And even though I know next to nothing about the later Castlevania games (and there are several), I'm still fairly psyched for Rogue's new big-screen version to hit the scene.

What's that? Castlevania is being written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson? The man who gave us Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil and Alien vs. Predator? And Soldier and Event Horizon? Yikes ... Hey wait, I really like Event Horizon! And Resident Evil (PART ONE!) And I certainly don't think that Anderson is as bad a filmmaker as the rantier fanboys seem to think he is. And, to his credit, Mr. Anderson is approaching this Castlevania flick with what I consider to be a very solid perspective. "You could also call this movie Dracula Begins," says Anderson as he practices his fan-friendly sound-bites and settles into direct what could be a fairly fine horror/adventure-type flick. (Just please don't go the PG-13 route. Please.)

For those who've done things other than play video games for the past 16 years, Castlevania "focuses on the duel across the centuries between Dracula and the vampire-hunting Belmont family, played out within Dracula's vast, labyrinthine castle." Yep, the Rogue folks are most definitely thinking "franchise" on this one. Fingers crossed, vamp-fans!

And yes: I called Anderson the "video game movie king." Any five random frames of Resident Evil are better than the complete and collected works of Uwe Boll -- and who else out there makes these movies?