Vampire Secrets

A documentary about vampires, from History Channel, tryin to explain orign of vampire myth and vampire-le behaviour:

Dracula: The True Story

This is the Full program (36 minutes) of a good documentary about Vlad Dracula. Scenes from the movies, interviews with historians, priests...
As the documentary says, Dracula is a mixture of reality, superstition, fearful fantasies and history.



Here you can find more documentaries about Dracula

Sighişoara

Sighişoara is, according to all proofs, the birth town of Vlad III Dracula.
While I never had a video-camera with me while visiting Sighişoara, I finally found one good documentary about the medieval town. The best video presentation I found about Sighişoara so far.


Thanks Angela, for letting the documentary embeddable, and congratulations to you and Dani for all the work you do in presenting the beautiful places in Romania!

Check here a short history of Sighişoara.

Short Dracula Documentary

This is a short documentary I found on the web today.
Basically, it tries to distinguidsh the historic Vlad III Dracula from Stoker's Count Dracula:

Dracula Documentary - Voyager

Here is the third part of the Documentary in Italian, made by RAI Due about Vlad Dracula. They went to Snagov Monastery to find out the truth about the burrial place of Vlad III. Altough a body has been found, wearing royal clothes, the truth is still unknown:

George Hamilton on Dracula

this is a parody of George Hamilton on the myth of Dracula, as introduction to a documentary.
I would really doubt on the number of 100000 (people killed by Vlad Dracula), but the introduction is funny

Dracula Documentary - Voyager

I know this site is in english and I should write and put documentaries in english, but Voyager is one of the best (if not the best) science TV shows in Italy. Also, some readers might know/understand italian, so today I propose this documentary:



Basically, it presents the Dracula of the literature, "born" in 1897 when Bram Stoker's novel was published. Stoker mentioned that the book's idea come after a small disturb generated by a crabs/seafruit salad. But we know that he studied books and maps in British Museum, looking for legends and traditions about the vampires. Seems like his interest in vampires started when he found out about the Wallachian ruler Vlad III (Vlad Dracula). The presentation of Vlad III (well, here I disagree with the expression Vlad Tepes III while Vlad III has been given the names Tepes and Dracula. So there was no Vlad Tepes I or Vlad Tepes II ) starts at min. 2:54, with the presentation of Sighişoara, were Vlad was born in 1931.
Life of Vlad Dracula is then placed in the historic context, all presented with maps of the XV-th century Europe. Seizing of the Wallachian throne is than presented.

Then Bran castle is presented as Dracula Castle, with mention that he used to impale people in front of the castle. In my research I never found any proof that Dracula would've spent longer time in Bran. As we know today, his princely residence was at Târgovişte and then in Bucharest, never at Bran.

Vlad Dracula. Origins of the Legend

Romania Countryside. Fear of the undead is still very powerful. For example the horses have a red tassel to protect them from deochi (the evil eye).
Romanians folk myths (very powerful among villagers) are presented. If you walk by night you have to take care not to meet the devil. We know that Bram Stoker has studied this myths.

Let's see in this documentary if Romania's death-related traditions might have represented the spring of inspiration for Stoker's novel, "Dracula". We see how people deals with the present of the undead (strigoi).

Vlad Dracula was definitely not a strigoi. He was seen like a hero, not as a vampire, as Stoker's novel presents him.

Impalement Techniques

Here is a short movie of Massimo Polidoro, presenting the medieval armor in Wallachia and Vlad Dracula's impalement techniques and the psychological effect of the view of impaled people. This is a short sequence from a documentary he co-hosted for Dicovery Channel.
To make a distinction between the real and the fictional Dracula Polidoro uses Vlad Țepeș to refer to Vlad III and Dracula to refer to Bram Stoker's character.
Seems really good documented, I would like to see the full documentary:

Vlad Dracula Documentary

Here is a known documentary that I have to link to again. It contains some inexact or misleading data, like presenting Vlad's first home in Wallachia, after his birth...well we know that Vlad was born in Sighişoara, in the middle of Transylvania.

from the series, The Most Evil Men in History, Vlad The Impaler:

In Search of Dracula III

this is the third part of the documentary "In Search of Dracula"




You can watch the second part here

Vlad Dracula Documentary

Celebrating post nb. 200

Started almost two years ago, the project "Vlad Dracula - The Truth" reached it's post nb. 200. With this occasion, I found a good documentary presenting Vlad Dracula, the real one, as well as his connections with Bram Stocker's Vampire. The documentary, In Search of ...Dracula presents Bran Castle, few images from Transylvania and every time connection is done with the fictional character of Dracula.




Part 2 of the documentary

True story of Dracula

Well, another documentary about Dracula. Anyway, seems to be quite well informed. A subject that is seldom (or never ?) touched when it comes about Vlad Dracula related documentaries is Vlad receiving the benediction of Pope.

Story of the real Dracula - on History Channel

Here is a part of a documentary made by History Channel about Vlad Dracula, Romania's Underground.
Computerized reconstitution of the buildings, documented facts but also facts that I would put under a question mark (like the cell where Vlad Dracula was imprisoned) made of this documentary one of the best. History Channel is again at the level of the high expectations I have from them.

Explorations in caves full of bats are spectacular

Transylvania Documentary Movie

Here is the second part of the documentary about Transylvania
starts with the presentation of the cemetery of Sighişoara, in the heart of Transylvania, "unknown , but full of magic, mystery and superstitions".

A brief presentation of Bram Stoker's novel follows. Even if the inhabitants did not hear about Dracula the vampire, the vampires are well-known here in Transylvania. They area said to bring a lot of harm: after killing them own relatives, they call the other vilagers from the bell-tower of the church, so the villagers die suddenly. Very interesting is the comparison of vampire's killing with a steak thru it's hears, the same way St. George killed the dragon with a spear. Interesting because, indeed, in Transylvania I also noticed a lot of representations of this fight, cuminating with the 1373 bronze-cast statue, representation of the endless confrontation between Good and Evil, dragons, Lucifer's warriors, oposing God's Angels

While is true the merchants spread the legends about Vlad Dracula, is supposed that Matthias Corvinus contributed actively to this, in order to explain Pope why he didn't support Dracula in his fight against the Turks. Although in Rome and Venice Vlad Ţepeş was considered a hero of Christianity (due to his victories against the Ottoman Empire) the stories begun to "catch some roots", people start to believe this histories and exagerations.

This part of the documentary ends with a panoramic view of Sighişoara.


The first part is here

Vlad the Impaler on Discovery Channel

The last part of the documentary presented by Discovery on the history of Vlad the Impaler. Vlad's retreat in Transylvania, his last reign and his death near Bucharest are briefly presented:



Also watch the first and the second part of the documentary .

Documentary Movies about Dracula

Dracula Documentaries

There are a lot of documentary movies about Dracula, both amateur video as well as professional ones.

Movies about Vlad Dracula's life

1. an amateur five minutes video describing Dracula's History.

2. After following the first video here is a proffesional documentary, emphasizing more the myth part of the story around Vlad Ţepeş (Vlad the Impaler), somehow normal considering this is a commercial movie. However I didn't find big errors in the movie, my comments are inside the post.

3. The full documentary about Dracula

Discovery Channel Dracula documentary

4. A professional short documentary with History of Dracula is this one realized by Discovery Channel. You can also watch the documentary about Vlad Dracula here

5. Here we have part 2 of the documentary made by Discovery upon Vlad the Impaler

6. and the third and last part of the Discovery Channel's documentary movie about Dracula

7. Transylvania. History, Legend, Mistery. A very nice romanian documentary presenting Transylvania (even if it starts with the the Sphynx, that is not placed in Transylvania, but few meters away, in Bucegi Mountains. There really are something like two kilometers from the Sphynx to the Dragosn's Ridge, in the same Bucegi mountains, that represents the geographical and geological determination of the limit between Transylvania and Wallachia), the history and the legend of Vlad Dracula. Part II of the documentary about Dracula, the origins of the legends about his cruelty - please also read my comments for this. here is the third part of the documentary about Dracula's life.
Fourth part of the documentary presents the fortified citadels in Transylvania, the reason and the way the fortifications were built, as well as the villger's systems used to defend themselves
Fortified citadels of Fagaras, Codlea, Prejmer, the medieval town of Medias are presented in fifth part.
Middle-ages people's mentality, medieval town of Sibiu, gothic architecture in Cluj Napoca.
Last part of the documentary "Transylvania. History, Legend, Myth" speaks about the beauty of life, the pleasure of discovery and the beauty of history and ...of life.

8. Sky News about Vlad Dracula. Origins of Dracula's name, Bran Castle, Poienari Castle, how Vlad is seen today.

Lost World of Dracula (by History Channel)

9. A fantastic animation brings back to life a lost world: the World of Dracula, of the middle-ages in Transylvania and Wallachia.

10. History of Dracula: Bran Castle, Târgovişte (Dracula's first princely court)

11. Impaling - Vlad favorite punishment. Poienari Castle - it's construction, architecture, engineering.

12. Vlad Dracula's campaign against the Saxons in Braşov. His palace in Bucharest.

Another Dracula Documentary

A short sequence of a documentary aiming to present what is true and what is only myth in all the stories about Vlad the Impaler

Cities of the Underworld. Dracula

Documentary of History Channel

In search of ...Dracula

A nice documentary that I find very helpful for my project. I mind you one of the targets of this project "Dracula - The Truth" is the help distinguishing Dracula myth from the historic reality.
Here it the first part of the documentary
In search of Dracula - part II
In search of Dracula - part III

Vlad Dracula armor and impaling techniques

Here is a documentary by Massimo Polidoro about impalement methods in the middle-ages

Voyager - Documentary about Dracula

Dracula documentary in Italian

Vampire Secrets

Part 1, part 2, focused on Dracula, part 3 - about Elizabeth Bathory, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9