Castlevania netflix discussion (use spoiler tags)

It's the best videogame adaptation from the West. Period. And I don't mean that in quantifying terms either due to game adaptations being pretty terrible. Castlevania is actually a good, Gothic horror, dark fantasy swashbuckling series (man, genre blender is set to puree) and gives a great blueprint for how to do adaptations of gaming.



The casting was spot on, all the main players turning in great performances, such as Armitage as a drunken, surly, embittered Trevor whose content to drink himself to death due to his family's exile and excommunication. MacTavish also does a menacing Dracula with showing both the man and the monster, the monster being a product of man's ignorance. His chemistry with Lisa (Swallow) was delightful, playing a feisty scholar who has a thirst for knowledge wherein they find common ground (which makes sense that Dracula would be a learned scientist considering his in-mythos background as a tactician and scholar. He probably had nothing better to do for hundreds of years besides run experiments). Despite it being so short, it's convincing that she was indeed someone he would kill for. Sypha is delightfully sassy and plays idealist straightwoman to Trevor's bitter, snarky former lord and Reynoso nails the part. Callis does good with what little screentime he has as the brooding Alucard who chose to respond to his mother's death in the opposite manner of his father and is one of the few who has no snark. And of course we get to Matt Frewer (Max Headroom himself) as the Bishop and is clearly having the time of his life portraying the man of the cloth as an utterly despicable, contemptible, hypocritical, self-righteous, ignorant zealot so convinced of his warped idea of faith it's not until freaking Pazuzu and a horde of demons show up in his church and bite his goddamned face off that he sees he knows nothing of God.



The story itself is basic: Dracula goes on a rampage against the ignorant and complicit masses of Wallachia for burning his wife at the stake for practicing medicine and Trevor Belmont is brought into the fray as the entire mission of his family is to hunt creatures of the night, Dracula being the main one. However, knowing that wasn't enough to base the series on and wanting to save the big bits for the followup, it's really the human element that the story is centered around. Ellis is best known for his comics writing which takes place mostly in the modern day or the future. However, he manages to make his own sardonic wit fit into a medieval Europe setting, modernizing it but not feeling out of place.



Armitage sells Trevor as a bitter man, a sort of parallel to Lisa who was punished for helping people just because it didn't fit 100% with a stupidly narrow idea of how to do things. Armitage is humorous and snarky, but the script shows that his quips and sarcasm are really hiding someone who's angry that he could help people who ostracize him for arbitrary reasons, even when the legions of Hell are literally bearing down on them. Heck, the further along the series goes the less snarky he becomes and starts to morph into a more heroic, swashbuckling Errol Flynn figure who tells the people who has actually misled them and helps them even if they had been trying to kill him just minutes ago. A lot of it you can also chalk up to Reynoso as Sypha who tells him that there is always a choice and you can either roll over, run, or fight because it's better to have done something than done nothing.



The church plot is definitely very heavy-handed, Ellis pulling no punches in showing that the upper echelons of the church are really corrupt, even putting thugs into their employ as a way to enforce their narrow-minded, anti-intellectual viewpoints and the archibishop gleefully brags about burning Lisa at the stake on the anniversary of her death before claiming he was one day away from retirement. I could almost imagine Dracula seeing that and every denizen of his castle face-palming at once. Dracula even gave them a grace period to flee out of respect for Lisa's memory. He's not wrong in his condemnation of the church and the complicit masses only making things worse. And here's the thing: Ellis may be heavy-handed with this, but he's still probably holding back. Things really did get this bad with the church. That's why the Reformation occurred. Of course, this also brings up an egregious error in that Romania is not predominantly Catholic, but Orthodox. Even with the Bishop giving a throwaway line about his differences with the Archbishop it's still odd. In spite of that Ellis does a great job of a tale of ignorance vs knowledge, religion vs zealotry, and complicity vs action.



There are also a ton of neat Easter eggs and nods to the franchise mythology, like the introductions of Sypha and Alucard being like their game intros, Trevor walking around town in similarities to NPC conversations, platforming and boss fights, Alucard using his teleport move from Symphony of the Night, and mentions of the Speakers' prophecies being based on info from the future (referencing Saint Germain from Curse of Darkness as well as the series bouncing around the timeline constantly). Trevor uses three of the five sub-weapons from the game, omitting only the stop watch and oh-fuck-me boomerang cross (though we have to save something for Season 2). With over three decades of mythology and lore to draw from Ellis and the team did great at weaving together story elements from different entries to make a whole (especially if they decide to adapt Lament of Innocence, Simon's games, or Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night).



On the visual side the series is stunning. Every frame drips with atmosphere, bringing to life not only medieval dark fantasy exemplifying the bleakness of the middle ages, but the Gothic horror element that maxes out the settings and just keeps going. Wallachia is grim,

gruesome, and vicious. It's really out of stuff like Berserk, Vampire Hunter D, with a smattering of the Universal and Hammer horror films. Blood flows like a river, guts splatter across the walls and streets, heads are impaled on spikes with intestines serving as rope, this is Hell on Earth.



The art style also taking steampunk elements like in the games makes for cool locations, like the giant clockwork room before Alucard's keep. It sells the aesthetic that makes Castlevania not only unique in gaming culture, but also unique in anything. The only problem is most of the action is kept to Gresit which is a typical medieval city and we only get a sneak peek of stuff like Dracula's castle. Creature design is good, but limited to just gargoyles and the Pazuzu demon who dines on delicious clergy faces. There is also the Cyclops, which gives one of the best fights in the series. They can probably turn the notch up in the sequel with stuff like Medusa, the mummies, the water dragons, and of course Death himself.



The standout moments are definitely in the first and final episodes. Dracula literally making it rain blood before it then hails HOLY FUCKING SHIT, DEMON FETUSES and summoning his gigantic Dracula's Moving Castle Death Star to begin the slaughter of every last denizen of the city. The image of Dracula ordering his forces to go forth via a murder of crows conjuring his image is haunting and terrifying, Dracula being no mere vampire but more akin to a dark god with the forces of nature at his command.



The other standout is the duel between Alucard and Trevor which kicks things into high gear, Trevor using his whip to full effect while Alucard dances around with the kind of grace only a dhampir can pull off. Trevor charges while Alucard dances and it's completely believable at how a guy like Trevor can match a supernatural creature like Alucard with training, guile, and guts. It's a real nail biter and a great climax for the show.



On the score front Trevor Morris does an admirable job at building the spooky atmosphere and gives pulse-pounding entries when needed.

It still can't hold a candle to Michiru Yamane's eclectic repertoire that has included eerie compositions, bombastic overtures, electronic beats, and even heavy metal guitar, but it fits and there's always Season 2.



The only real flaw of the series is that it's clearly a pilot. It's something meant to sell the project and ends on an obvious entry for the second act. All in all though, Castlevania is a great adaptation of a classic game franchise and it's definitely a landmark in how to adapt gaming properties. It's fitting that one of the biggest victories for a gaming adaptation is one of the most long-lived, beloved, unique and oft-copied franchises ever, having a setting and aesthetic that is one-of-a-kind not only in gaming, but pop culture as a whole. Even bigger than that though is how this is a serious adult animation as opposed to the deluge of comedies. It shows that animation can do so much more and tell adult stories. If you're a fan of the series, check it out and if you're not check it out anyway and then bring yourself up to speed on the franchise.