Publication Date: 07-10-2025

Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story (2025) review

Dir. Natasha Kermani

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★

Although we are in what I believe to be one of the greatest renaissance periods the horror genre has ever seen, there is one rampant trend I’m hoping we leave in the 2020s, if not discard sooner. The trend is aesthetically beautiful, usually Gothic horror movies with slow, foreboding dread, underscored by hushed, antiquated dialog, as the narrative lumbers to a lackluster and usually unsatisfying conclusion. From The Witch to Lamb, this year’s The Damned and now Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story, it’s a long played-out trope of which I’ve grown increasingly weary. I’m tired of praising aesthetics and not having much to say about anything else.

Based on a short story Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son, also the author of The Black Phone), Abraham’s Boys is set 18 years after the demise of Dracula. Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Titus Welliver) now resides in rural California with his wife, Mina (Jocelin Donahue), and their two sons, Max (Brady Hepner) and Rudy (Judah Mackey). Grappling with demonic visions and paranoia, Mina finds herself falling ill, with Max, the oldest, taking the reigns of the house in lieu of his father retreating to his locked study for long periods of time. Abraham is hardly a model father when he is present. He’s verbally and physically abusive, and though he desperately wants his boys to emulate him, he doesn’t communicate to them the dark, frightful truths he’s concealing.

The house in which the Van Helsing family resides is one of the more intriguing visuals in the entire film. The exterior is painted a pristine white, and suggests a farmhouse interior; on the contrary, the inside of the home is Victorian-style. Even when we know it’s daylight outside, the house’s rooms are dark as if it’s the middle of the night. Nearby railroad construction is occurring, much to the chagrin of Abraham, who is clearly a man of seclusion. It’s the duality of a brighter, braver, more connected new world and a cold, uninviting home that’s in part rendered its inhabitants despondent of their lives and the world as a whole. At least approaching the world with a sense of curiosity and wonder is Abraham’s sister, Elsie (Aurora Perrineau), who makes maps and strikes up a familial friendship with Max, who is so closed-off he hardly knows what to say to someone who might as well be a total stranger.

Director Natasha Kermani (who co-wrote the film with Joe Hill) astutely frames everything from the Van Helsing home to the rural California backdrop in always-pleasant 4:3 aspect ratio, which makes for claustrophobic interiors. While Kermani and Hill spend the first act setting up an intriguing premise, they sadly don’t find a second gear. The bulk of the film is Max struggling with the actions (or inactions) of his father, simultaneously wondering if vampires might still walk the Earth based on what he isn’t being told, or if Abraham has effectively lost his mind. By virtue of the script’s straight-forwardness, the answer becomes clear relatively early, robbing the film of the suspense and red herrings it needs to, I dunno, hold your attention when much of the dialog is recited with in a hushed monotone.

Credit is due to Kermani and cinematographer Julia Swain, for the effectively ominous atmosphere they generate. It’s worth noting that a lion’s share of Abraham’s Boys‘ crew is female, including: director, cinematographer, composer, casting directors, and costume designer. All banded together to make a film that, due to a ponderous script, I think would have the same or maybe added effect if it were a silent film.

Starring: Titus Welliver, Brady Hepner, Judah Mackey, Jocelin Donahue, Aurora Perrineau, and Jonathan Howard. Directed by: Natasha Kermani.