When I was a kid, my mom wouldn’t let me watch or participate in anything she thought was evil or satanic. I grew up in a pretty strict southern baptist home where god, heaven, hell and the devil were all super real entities that constantly waged spiritual warfare for the souls of my family. This also applied to any video games I was allowed to play growing up. A video game that had demons, magic, and vampires was strictly off limits in the house. Therefore Castlevania was was also banned from my Nintendo. This was my reality. Despite my mother’s best efforts, I not only watch WAY too much horror, but I also write about how awesome it is on the internet.
(these are clearly images that would certainly lead a child into the grips of a satanic bloodletting cult!)
Netflix has just released the first season of Castlevania, an adaptation of the video game Castlevania: Dracula’s Curse, and is combined with the artwork style of Ayami Kojima‘s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Season one tells the story of Dracula’s revenge against humanity, with only our hero, Trevor Belmont, to stop him. Castlevania stars Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, Graham McTavish as Dracula Tepes, Alejandra Reynoso as Sypha Belnades, and my boy, Giaus Baltar (er.. I mean James Callis) as Adrian Tepes. The voice acting, fight scenes, and artwork all do a fantastic job introducing us to the Castlevania universe.
The first season is only four episodes long and each episode is only twenty-five minutes, which for the story they are trying to tackle is far, far too short. My favorite aspect of the story is that they treat the Christian priests of the catholic church like a bunch of sadistic, short sighted villains (which is very true to life IMO) The artwork is fantastic, the voice acting is awesome, and the story is compelling, but they seem to have taken that adage ‘leave your audience wanting more,’ to a whole new obscene level.
It’s so short in fact, that I cant even tell you much about it without giving away any spoilers, but I can tell you to check it out. I think this first season was a feeler to find out if it would resonate with audiences, and I think it has already because the second season of eight episodes has been greenlighted for production. Keep the momentum going, I need to find out what happens next!
