“Sherlock” creators Steven Moffatt and Mark Gattis’ 2020 take on “Dracula” doesn’t reinterpret the Bram Stoker novel as much as it turns the material inside out, completely revising the plot, reworking established vampire lore, and even moving the action to the present day in the final episode. Their vampire also gets a rewrite: though he retains some of his trademarks from novel and screen, including an ability to transform (messily) into animals, the monster, played by Danish actor Claes Bang, stands apart from previous Draculas in many ways.
Bang’s Dracula is charming and urbane, much like Christopher Lee’s Dracula, but also blessed with a wicked sense of humor (“You look drained,” he purrs at one point). That sharp wit hides an abiding sense of smugness and superiority that oozes from every pore; Bang’s Dracula dominates not only by supernatural power but personality and ego. At the same time, this Dracula is plagued by insecurities: Moffatt and Gattis reveal that many of the timeworn ways to ward off or kill a vampire can’t actually hurt him in a physical sense. For all of his manners and attitude, Dracula seems to consider himself a freak, and allows superstition to keep him in the shadows where he feels he belongs. Of the many ways in which “Dracula” rewrites the vampire story, its vampire is the most modern and inventive twist.
