Castlevania: A Surprisingly Good Video Game Adaptation

When discussing adapting video games into either movies or television, it is unavoidable to bring up the past and how most adaptations of these are either bad or downright awful. This is mainly a trend when it comes to films as there really haven't been many tv shows based on video games. Because of that, when I heard that Netflix was producing an animated Castlevania show, I can't say that I had overly high expectations. For anyone who has never played a Castlevania game (no judging), it is a games series that was at its highest in popularity from the late 80s to the mid 90s that follows a member of the Belmont family, renown for their vampire hunting, as they attempt to kill the Prince of Darkness himself, Dracula. It's a great idea for a fantasy movie or show that I had always hoped would be adapted at some point. Recently, however, it became clear that in this state of cinema, Castlevania wouldn't succeed. Last year saw the failure of four highly anticipated video game adaptations in Warcraft, Assassin's Creed, The Angry Birds Movie, and Ratchet & Clank. Honestly, it was starting to look like we would never see a quality video game adaptation on the big screen. 2016 was supposed to be the year that finally broke the video game curse, but instead just added fuel to the ever-growing fire. While Castlevania might not be the big screen smash hit to break this curse, it is a small screen wonder that gives a little hope for the future of these adaptations.
So what is it that makes this show so good? I could drone on and on about good editing and solid storytelling, but instead I'm going to focus on the the big strength of the show that I haven't seen from a single video game adaptation yet: solid, well-rounded characters. It is undeniable how great the writers and voice actors did at crafting these beloved characters, making them three dimensional and quite likable. Trevor Belmont, our main hero, is a character that can be done very wrong very fast by making him pompous, melodramatic, or moody. Thankfully, he is a strong central lead to the series that the audience wants to see succeed. The real scene stealer, however, is Dracula himself. Unlike Belmont, we already know that Dracula can be done well, and that is where his problem begins. Dracula has had many iconic performances in film, especially from the likes of Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, and Gary Oldman. How then can this Dracula stand out in an already crowded room? To make matters more complicated, he's animated, severely limiting any sort of body performance an actor could do. Additionally, we have also seen this character done horribly wrong. Look no further than Blade Trinity or Van Helsing to name a few. What makes this Dracula so good, though, is how sympathetic he is. His reasons for becoming the absolute evil he will become make sense given his predicaments. In fact, I would almost argue that I wanted to see him succeed to at least a certain point in his quest for revenge and justice. I've always had a soft spot for the character of Dracula, but I can't say I've ever actually seen his point of view and agreed with what he was trying to do. Hence, this show has actually given me a strength of Dracula I can't say I've ever seen before.
The heart and soul that was put into this show is quite obvious, which is great. Most adaptations feel like a shameless cash grab to capitalize off of an already existing audience. In fact, it isn't uncommon for a video game movie to have very little to do with the actual game that it is adapting. While these things may not be obvious to those watching with no experience playing the games, I do feel that the emptiness beneath the material is noticeable to anyone watching one of these adaptations. With this show, Castlevania was able to find two valuable traits in its producers and writers that are hard to come by: fandom and talent. It's easy to find fans that have no filmmaking talent or talented filmmakers who have no fandom, so that makes finding that perfect hybrid rare but extremely valuable. It is clear that Netflix has found this hybrid to put together this show that will hopefully begin to reverse the curse that has existed since the early 1990s.

The Themes of Castlevania

The Castlevania anime is a fantastic adaptation of the original game series. The story follows Trevor Belmont through a dark and dying Western styled fantasy world. Although far too short, remaining unresolved, and holding some minor hiccups. The story sets up an interesting dynamic between both faith and science while using demons and vampires as a backdrop. This post will focus less on the series and more of some of the underlying themes that I believe to be the intent of the creators. If you have not watched the series and do not wish to be spoiled, leave now. This is your spoiler warning.

The world of Castlevania is a superstitious and run seeming solely by the church. Much of what goes wrong was caused by the church. The entire plot of the show is kicked off by the Church burning the wife of Dracula for witchcraft. She was only a simple medicine woman who sought to aid those in need, but whose methods did not line up with the churches.

While this seems like an open and shut case for what Castlevania is trying to tell us it becomes more muddled. The Church may be this season’s primary antagonist Dracula remains the current villain of the series. Dracula has access to both magic (a seeming science in this world) and actual scientific marvels of his own. It can be argued that almost all that has gone wrong in this world has been a result of man lost to madness and his sciences.

The show does not take a side however, rather it seems to believe in a middle ground. That both should be accepted and neither is evil. While the Church is the antagonist, Trevor Belmont uses holy weapons, the aid of a priest to create holy water, and not at all subtly references The New Testament. Using salt to fight demons and saying to spread it around. Sypha Belnades and Alucard both use magic, and Alucard is surrounded by technology. Both characters remain on the side of Belmont.

The story will most likely not deny one or the other, but it certainly has much to say on fanaticism and the consolidation of power in a single entity. The Church in this story is corrupt and using people’s faith to control them. The bishops use holy words and ideals to push their will upon the world instead of Gods. Turning the entire world astray. This idea is most blatantly stated in the fourth episode when the bishop, who proclaims himself as the Church, is confronted by demons. They say, “Your god's not here, this is an empty box”, the bishop replies saying that all he has done he has done for the lord. This is shows that the bishops do not even recognize that his blind fanaticism has led him astray. The demons reply in many ways to reveal his folly, “Your life's work makes him puke”, “God's love is not unconditional, he does not love us, nor does he love you”, and “He knows we can not be here without you”.

Castlevania focuses on the dangers of fanaticism from any source. It also warns about putting too much power in one corruptible being. Much of what happened was caused by an unwillingness to expand horizons while they internally rot. This is a story and idea told time and time again, but always seems to need to be repeated.

So how did I do? Was there something I missed or did I get it all. Was I way off, hit it on the head or somewhere in between. Leave me your thoughts in the comments.