In a recent, brief post on summer movies, the subject of the upcoming Dracula Untold came up, and I have to say, I feel like I’m more excited than anyone else about the potential of this film. In fact, I glanced at Coming Soon for a look at the rest of the year to come, and I may actually be more interested in Dracula Untold than anything else on the slate (though Interstellar and Hot Tub Time Machine 2 are in the running). So here’s my version of filtering my own thoughts and explaining why you, too, should be super excited….

Are vampires even cool anymore?

This is fair skepticism. After all, the Twilight phenomenon is now a couple of years behind us, and even HBO’s True Blood is sort of past its prime. Vampire fiction isn’t quite in the spotlight the way it was a few years ago… but you know what? Both Twilight and True Blood were equal parts teen (or close to teen) romance and vampire stories… Dracula Untold is straight up blood-sucking action! Which brings me to another fair question for skeptics….

Can vampire fiction be dark?

Again, fair question, given that the popular vampire fiction of the past decade was largely fluff. But does anybody remember the Blade series? Somehow over time these Wesley Snipes-starring action/superhero movies landed somewhere between The Matrix and Underworld in comparisons, when in actuality Blade himself was part vampire! This was real, dark, awesome vampire fiction, and it retains a huge following even today. The slots at Betfair, which are known in part for hosting a lot of movie-themed games, even offer a Blade game alongside the popular heroes of more recent Marvel flicks. Popularity in gaming is actually a pretty major indicator of what people want to see, especially in terms of mobile or online gaming. And in keeping with the prominent place of this casino game, the last film in the series (Blade: Trinity) racked up over $120 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo, despite pretty rough reviews. So, yes, vampire fiction can be dark!

So if it’s darker, what’s it about?

Your guess is as good as mine as far as the details go. However, according to the summary at IMDB and judging by the trailers, young prince/soldier Vlad Tepes basically sells his soul to a super creepy supernatural demon/vampire and invites dark forces (like gradually becoming a vampire) into himself. It’s all a way for him to gain the power to save his family and homeland from opposing forces. Ultimately, it looks like a sort of medieval war epic spun into a vampire tale, which actually sounds oddly original—not unlike Greek epic battles (think 300 and Troy). However, instead of intervention from standard Olympian gods, we get dark supernatural vampire demons.

Well, who’s in it?

The aforementioned soldier prince, Vlad Tepes, is played by Luke Evans, whose face is probably vaguely recognizable to a lot of trailer viewers that just can’t quite place him. So far though, Evans is actually on a bit of a roll in his relatively young career. He’s best known as the suave, self-assured villain Shaw from Fast & Furious 6, but he also stole the show (in my opinion) as a young Zeus in Immortals. Additionally, he was terrific as Bard in the second Hobbit movie (he’ll be in the third as well). Sarah Gadon (a relative newcomer), Dominic Cooper (best known as the young groom-to-be in Mamma Mia), and Charles Dance (aka Tywin Lannister) will also star.

So, add it all up and we’ve got our darkest vampire saga in a while. It’s also one that happens to feature an exciting cast and, rarest of all, a seemingly original take on the medieval war film. It could flop, sure, but for now I’m looking at it as one of the major events yet to come in 2014.