Castlevania (2017 Netflix) – BAYOG Spoop Fest Throwback Thursday

Alrighty, this wasn’t at all the post I planned on doing today but life has a way of being strange like that. On a random whim, I opted to try watching Castlevania this morning on Netflix while I got overdressed for a customer visit that didn’t happen. So instead of entertaining suits all day, I spent the rest of my lunch break watching the last 2 (of 4) episodes for the season. Today has been one hell of an experience watching this show and delving into the surprisingly narrative world of Castlevania.

For those of you not in the know, Castlevania was originally a 1986 Konami game that, alongside Metroid, set a standard for side scrolling platformers termed “Metroidvania” games. This adaptation is based off the 3rd video game in the series and follows Trevor Belmont, last son of House of Belmont and his interactions with the folk of the fictional completely real country of Wallachia while it is under siege by the (totally justified) hordes from Hell summoned and controlled by Dracula. The story starts with a woman named Lisa approaching Dracula’s castle in 1455 and declaring her goal of becoming a proper doctor with science and all that. Fast forward 20 years to 1475, and we have Lisa being burned at the stake as a witch (because the church is pants-on-head), begging to the sky for Dracula to grant mercy upon her executioners.

Now this is where I have to admit, my hatred of ignorance and rigid institutions of religion starts to shine and my words will begin to sound biased. While walking to their home, Vlad Dracula Tepes finds a woman Lisa helped, who was leaving flowers in the smoldering ruins of their home. After hearing what happens, Vlad curses his adherence to his wife forcing him to travel as a man, opposed to the noble vampire he is (that is, slowly walking places). After her body crumbles in the pyre, the villagers of the fictional completely real city of Târgoviște rejoice in the killing of the witch, with the mayor and bishop contemplating drinks afterwards. At this point, Dracula appears and he is less than enthusiastic. Declaring his intent to burn Wallachia to the ground in a year, he leaves the city and begins to plan his summoning of an army of hellspawn, to which his son Alucard opposes and he is in turn struck down by his father.

Fast forward a bit over a year and we have people in Târgoviște celebrating to the joy of the archbishop, who declares the works of Satan to be illusions. A few seconds later, it begins to rain blood, fire, and demons, who proceed to rip and tear at the city, laying it to the torch and honestly I felt zero sympathy for them. These ignorant peasants were (as Dracula called them out on) celebrating murdering his wife because of their stupidity and close-mindedness. After the massacre of all the men, women, and children of Târgoviște, Dracula sends forth his legion to the other major cities in Wallachia to make good on his promise.

We then find ourselves in a tavern with the Wallachia equivalent to white trash and Trevor Belmont, our protagonist and hero. One bar fight and exposition later, we learn the Belmont family has been excommunicated by the church for consorting with demons and performing black magic. This is of course, the opposite of the truth and I agree with Trevor at this point, where the church has brought this evil quite literally upon themselves AND they banished the one family who could stop said evil and that they deserve their fate. Trevor stumbles his way to the nearest actually fictional city of Gresit and sees a number of Dracula’s goblins running off with a baby in mouth. One awkward sneaking through sewage tunnel moment later, he surveys the horror show that is the city. Heads on stakes strung together by entrails, with dozens if not hundreds of bodies being thrown into a mass grave were the sights in Gresit. At this point, he finds two priests accosting a priest he recognizes as a Speaker, a combination historical orator/gypsy. One rather kick ass beat down later, the Speaker takes him to his people’s residence, and he declares his intent to stay in the town offering aid and only acquiesces to leave after Trevor retrieves his grandchild from the catacombs of the city. As Trevor begrudgingly sets off, he finds a hidden passage leading to the catacombs, which are inclusive of electric lights and steam pipes. He also finds a number of statues, and a Stone Eye Cyclops, and I found out how to properly pronounce the word “Bestiary.” One kick ass fight later, he kills the Cyclops, restoring its victims, the only survivor being the Speaker, Sypha Belnades.

After returning her, the Speakers still refuse to leave the city, and Trevor sets out to only be kidnapped and brought before the asshole bishop, who offers Trevor the opportunity to leave and for some strange reason informs Trevor of his intent to massacre the speakers because they are totally the reason Dracula’s army has laid waste to Wallachia.

Trevor returns to the Speakers who convince him to stay and fight for the good of the people who had no choice in the bringing of this apocalypse. The Speakers are then hidden in the catacombs while Trevor aims to cause havoc and stop the foolish masses of Gresit from simply going along for the ride. He makes quick work of the priests, but is eventually surrounded by the villagers, and is saved by the magic of Sypha. After successfully rousing the people to common sense, the last asshole priest is struck down by the crowd and we see asshole bishop surrounded by demons and eaten as they begin to lay waste to Gresit. Trevor successful organizes the villagers and counter attacks some of the demons With this, Trevor and Sypha fall through the earth during the fight. They find a series of large devices and machinery below the city and Trevor identifies a stone coffin to belong to a vampire. One rather badass fight later, it is revealed this vampire is Adrian Fahrenheit Țepeș, or Alucard; son of Dracula and he was there healing after trying to stop his father from unleashing hell. Turns out the arrival of a hunter and scholar were part of a Speaker Prophecy all along, and it is with this epic team up I was distraught to find out that’s the end of Season 1.

All is not lost however, as I looked it up and turns out that Season 2 is coming out tomorrow. I was absolutely ecstatic and happy I would get to see the next season so soon, and I’ll likely write up on this sooner than later. Overall, I felt this had a good mix of humor and dark seriousness. I also found myself questioning if I was the baddie, because I really sympathized with Dracula and his forces over the church 90% of the time in the show. The theme and aesthetic really reminded me of the Nobles of Vampire Hunter D between the science and the steampunk style castle of Dracula. Another point of mention is the fantastic animation in this show, with the fights being exceptionally well done, as is the voice work with great choices in the cast. I can’t recommend this enough with the only detriment being the violence is VERY graphic, and while I had no issue with it I can imagine some others might feel different. For one, I find this a very solid 9.5 slaughtered priests out of 10.