THE historical figure whom Bram Stoker took for his vampirism hero was Vlad Tepes (1431-1477), Prince of Wallacia.

Posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler for his charming practice of impaling captured enemies on stakes, there is no credible evidence of his indulging in vampirism. History’s first recorded human vampire, Elizabeth Bathory, lived a century later (40 years ago Paloma Picasso played her with finesse in Walerian Borowczyk’s “Immoral Tales”).

This cinematic take on Vlad is the feature debut for Irish director Gary Shore after a career in TV commercials and also for writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (with nodding acknowledgement to Stoker). It’s a sword-and-armour actioner with flocks of CG bats flying around morphing themselves into characters on Vlad’s side of the campaign against the Ottoman emperor’s attempt to take possession of what is now Romania.

Historical verity isn’t an essential element for films like this, with the sole purpose of making money from providing escape from life’s daily sameness.

When the real Vlad died, the Turks took his head to Constantinople as a trophy. Luke Evans plays him stoically. Sarah Gadon plays his wife Mirena. Dominic Cooper plays Ottoman general Mehmed. Charles Dance plays the master Vampire who initiates Vlad with powers not unlike those of modern Superman (but not his moral rectitude) and limitations invented by Stoker to beset the never-dead.

At Hoyts, Dendy, Capitol 6 and Limelight