We know, right? You can probably hear the Smashing Pumpkins tune buzzing in your head, “The world is a vampire.” But no, this is a world of vampires. The legend isn’t some far-flung children’s bed time story in the age of Vlad, either. In fact, it’s the unspoken yet somehow viral knowledge of beings who are spiritually tormented and bloodthirsty. In the early moments of the film, when Vlad tries to understand what attacked him and his men in the cave on Broken Tooth Mountain, a monk (Paul Kaye) unveils all of the documentation necessary to pinpoint the culprit. Despite Vlad asking the monk to keep the knowledge to himself so as to not disturb the people, it seems they’re already well aware of the creature of the night.
After Vlad flexes his newfound vampiric muscles, his own people revile him as a demon knowing full well what he is. This indicates that the idea of vampires isn’t foreign to the world. Dracula, and even the vampire of Broken Tooth Mountain are not the first creatures of the night as legend would have you believe. When Dracula confronts Mehmed, the sultan already knows how to defend himself against the undead. While vampires might be rare, they’ve existed long before Vlad came along. In fact, historically, the first tale of a vampire dates back to 1500 B.C. Her name is Sekhmet, and she was a goddess of ancient Egypt (via Oldest.org). While the term “vampire” didn’t exist in these times, she’d often be scourge upon humankind as punishment from the gods for mankind’s disloyalty. In tales, she is known to slaughter humans and drink their blood. So in the world of “Dracula Untold,” vampiric entities were perhaps also of ancient origin.
