Ravenloft, the Movie

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Vampire movies always seem to carry their weight.

Would a Ravenloft movie make a good D&D/vampire crossover film?

 

[Zardnaar]

Not really. Over saturated genre using stereotypical tropes.

 

[Tonguez]

Vampire movies always seem to carry their weight.

Would a Ravenloft movie make a good D&D/vampire crossover film?

I could see it as a movie. And it might do okay with gothic horror fans - but it is a bit derivative, so how would you make it special?

 

[Ryujin]

I think that in order to properly explain the universe that it takes place in, you'd need a series.

 

[Morrus]

Vampire movies always seem to carry their weight.

Would a Ravenloft movie make a good D&D/vampire crossover film?

Why wouldn’t they use Dracula, a similar but much better known and more popular—and copyright free—IP? There’s no advantage in using a more obscure vampire in a big gothic castle pining after a lost love in a Transylvania-esque land. You don’t need to use the lesser-known D&D version of Dracula when you can use the actual version of Dracula.

 

[jdrakeh]

...so how would you make it special?

I'd get Duncan Regehr back in the game! The most menacing vampire/Dracula ever to hit movie screens!* I mean, hey, he almost murders a child on screen (and also calls her a very naughty word).

*Jerry Dandrige from the original Fright Night comes in a very close second.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Why wouldn’t they use Dracula, a similar but much better known and more popular—and copyright free—IP?

Well Strahd's really just Dracula in D&D drag, but that's how you differentiate this from everything that came before -- the vampire has a different name! And instead of Van Helsing, vampire hunter coming for him, it's a ranger, barbarian, magician, thief, cavalier, and and acrobat.

 

[timbannock]

IMHO, a Curse of Strahd series would be really neat. You've got the various vampire spawn that have all the classic vampire weaknesses, but then you have Strahd who's missing a few key ones. He can enter anywhere; He is the Land, so he's got an open invitation. Also he creates the day/night cycle, so there's literally never sunlight for him to worry about. It does enough neat things with the mythology to play differently, and doesn't require anyone to know what "a D&D" is to make it work.

 

[Morrus]

Well Strahd's really just Dracula in D&D drag, but that's how you differentiate this from everything that came before -- the vampire has a different name! And instead of Van Helsing, vampire hunter coming for him, it's a ranger, barbarian, magician, thief, cavalier, and and acrobat.

That gets you the tiny D&D audience, and probably makes the mainstream audience think “huh, that’s weird, why did they change Van Helsing into a hobbit?” — I just don’t see a reason to do it from the Hollywood POV. It would come across like those gimmicky comedy rip-off horror films to anybody not familiar with D&D.

There’s a reason D&D copied Dracula.

 

[Tonguez]

I wonder if they could do a psychological ghost movie with the Dark Powers as The villains, highlight the nature of Ravenloft as a prison where the residents are locked in endless repeating cycles. Make the Mist the active threat and show the land and architecture changing at a whim. You could even do Stradh as just another cursed victim of the Dark Powers compelled to follow the narrative to his own despair.
Turn it on its head by making Tatyana the protagonist and fully aware they she needs to end the cycle....