Dracula Untold‘s opening sees first-time feature director Gary Shore’s unique visual style immediately showcased – a quick Google will soon bring up links to the mock trailers that helped secure him his three picture deal – as the camera pans in slow motion through the three dimensional graphics he used in Wolverine Vs The Hand, and it’s one of the film’s strongest assets. That visual identity remains a constant presence and succeeds in lifting Dracula above the monotony that usually accompanies CGI-based horror films, where large-scale destruction is now quite the norm. There’s a real sense of thought put into what is and isn’t seen, especially when it comes to the violence. Action isn’t the focus of the film, though, which is a surprisingly bold move for a film being sold as an effects-driven blockbuster. If anything, Dracula Untold is a family drama, and it’s a gambit that pays off well. The film chooses to start with Prince Vlad, who’s since locked his days of torturing people away in favour of a fresh start with his wife and son, caught in an ethical dilemma that believably sells his path towards darkness. To its credit, at every point where convention dictates that you can predict the outcome of events, the movie takes a different turn. So where protagonists such as Vlad’s wife (played by Canadian Sarah Gadon with a faultless British accent) would usually succumb to histrionics upon finding out that her beloved husband is prone to crackle like bacon in the sunlight, in Dracula Untold her love and support grounds her into the supportive and strong moral backbone that Vlad needs. It gives their mutual love a sense of realism, that a film dealing with such fantastical themes really needs. Evans and Gadon take up most of the screen time, but there’s also a brief but always enjoyable chance to see Charles Dance as a cave-dwelling, Faustian monster with an affinity for licking Luke’s handsome face. Dominic Cooper (aka Howard Stark) also pops up as Vlad’s former ally turned terrible shit, though he doesn’t get as much screen time as we’d expected. Both Evans and Cooper do get a rather finely choreographed face off against each other though, combining silver, stakes and swords in an exciting encounter, though Untold’s standout action set-piece comes from Vlad facing off against a thousand men on his own that sees his new-found powers and bat-fuelled fighting style rolled out in a very good set piece. Dracula Untold is out in UK cinemas on the 3rd October. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.