Elizabeth has been kidnapped by the immortal dark prince Dracula. Father Uffizi has turned his back on the church and has decided to eliminate Dracula in his own way in order to save his own soul and Luke is tagging along hoping to get the girl and help out in anyway he can. There is about to be a final show down, once again, between good and evil, once again, in the mountains of Transylvania, once again.

Picking up right after the events in Dracula II: The Ascension, Dracula III: The Legacy is able to do something that hasn’t been done very well in the past, or maybe ever for that matter. It ends up making a decent horror buddy-movie.

After the cliffhanger ending of The Ascension, you kind of knew that the story was going to continue.

Well you still have Jason Scott Lee cracking the whip and Jason London still cracking wise as they pursue Dracula through the countryside trying to save the beautiful Elizabeth and rid the world of evil. Not much has really changed from part II, well except that Dracula is now played by Rutger Hauer, don’t get too excited, he’s not the best to ever sink his teeth into the role.

The fights are good and there is some decent blood splatter, but what I liked best about this one is how it added some new mythos into the vampire lore, like the ringing of church bells to aid in the fight against evil. It’s simple and it just kind of fits into the lore. There is also a good scene with a truly carnivorous carnival troupe and a lesbian, vampire, feeding pit, orgy scene that could have gone on a few hours longer if they would have just let it. The film also manages to throw in a little bit of drama into the mix by making the recent political upheaval in that part of the world a small side story to main plot line.

Like Dracula II: The Ascension, I found The Legacy to be a fairly solid movie that for B horror was quite entertaining. It has a good cast, a solid twist ending and enough fights and frills to season the whole thing just enough to make it above average direct to video fare, even if they do use the old set from Mtv’s Remote Control for Dracula’s lair.

6 of 10.