The first movie in this series, and my personnal favorite, is basically a struggle of power between good and bad. In this case, between two vampire brothers, named Radu and Stefan.
Radu (Mr. Bad Guy) was bannished from the castle because he refused to get along with the humans of the town. He returns at the beginning of this movie to confront his father (known as King Vladislav) about how he is the rightful successor to the Bloodstone because he is the oldest son. King Vladislav locks Radu up in a cage and is about to kill him when Radu summons up his little demon-thingys and kills his father. With this task done, Radu then proceeds to steal the Bloodstone.
Stefan, (Mr. Good Guy) who was summoned back by his father and is still unaware of his untimely demise, learns his brother is also back and gets over to the castle just a little too late. Like a couple weeks. He sees that Radu has killed his father and he relizes it is time to stop Radu once and for all. (Well, duh!)
In the mean time, three college girls (Mara, Michelle, and Lillian) arrive in Transylvania to conduct a college study on the legends and folk lore of the area. Through Karl (the keeper of the place in which they are staying) and a local gypsy they meet in town, they learn about the stories of the local vampires. The story goes that a family of vampires saved the city from an attack by the Turks. In exchange, the gypsies went to retrieve a stone from Rome that 'eternally bleeds the blood of saints'. It's known throughout the movie as being the Bloodstone. It is what allows teh vampires to survive without having to hunt the living.
Of course, though, Radu get this stone for this purpose, but keeps killing people anyway. Hmm.
Radu soon takes it upon himself to turn the three girls, one by one, into his slaves. It's up to Stefan and Michelle to defeat him, which is basically the last huge chunk of the movie.
I was about to say that I won't tell you how it ends, but I changed my mind. I'm going to anyway. All evil dies and good prevails. YEA!
Both of Michelle's friends are dead, and Michelle has been bitten by Radu and fears she will turn into a monster like him. So she pleads with Stefan to bite her so she would end up like him instead.
I'm sorry, but that is just the most romantic thing in the world.
In the final seconds of the movie, Radu's little demon-thingys are still alive and moving around, and the film shows them approaching Radu's dead form. But UH-OH! Radu's eyes open and he smiles! HE'S NOT DEAD! (hint hint: this is where the sequels come in)
But I don't like the sequels that much, so I chose to ignore this part and just pretend it ended with Michelle and Stefan's touching scene.
Characters
Click here to see the trailer. It takes a while to load, but believe me, it's worth it.
