Romania, Realm of the Supernatural: 'Transylmania' (2009)
Specifications:
Title: Transylmania
Release Date: December 4th, 2009
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Directors: David Hillenbrand, Scott Hillenbrand
Writers: Patrick Casey, Josh Miller
Characters: vampire king Radu, sorceress Stephenia, vampire hunter Victor Van Sloan, Rusty, Draguta, Teodora, Dean Floca.
Distributed by: Full Circle
Country: USA
Running time: 92 minutes
Language: English
Setting: the Corvin Castle in Hunedoara, Romania.
Synopsis:
Spoof horror/comedy in which a group of college kids do a semester abroad in Romania and realise that if the partying doesn't kill them, the vampires just might!
Summary:
In Romania, during the 16th century, vampire king Radu and his lover, Stephenia, an evil sorceress, are creating chaos and are continuously terrorizing the people who live in the villages near the Corvin Castle. To destroy the evil, vampire hunter Victor Van Sloan tries to kill the couple but he just succeeds into tricking Stephenia to open an enchanted music box, which sucks in her soul and traps her in it. While trying to escape the hunter jumps through a window and dies, making the box to fall into the river and be carried away; as such, Radu will try for centuries to get back the box and his love.
In Romania of 2009, the action revolves around the same castle located in Hunedoara, now converted into Razvan University, where a group of American college students will spend a semester and will try to combine their thirst for knowledge with discovering a new culture and meeting new people, as Rusty is eager to meet his online girlfriend Draguta. But they are not the only ones who have plans...
Tropes: vampires, thirst for blood, land stuck in the past, manipulation and lies, Frankenstein’s monster (?), sorceress woman, gothic castle,innocent and naive Americans, space in which the supernatural lives freely.
Personal opinion:
Under the layer of horror cliches and not so good humor it is easy to see the line that separates the good from the bad, the "normal" world from the supernatural one and even from the beginning of the film this delimitation is very strong: the American innocent college students got themselves in trouble by going to Razvan University, a place full of manipulative people, dangerous creatures and revenge plots that have crossed centuries. Just from this, we understand that Romania is a place where the supernatural exists, hence creatures lurk around in the shadows or in broad daylight, being as real as electricity and technology. Revenge, thirst for power and lies are something normal and natural, moreover Romanians will do anything to solve their problems by using foreigners, attracting them in idyllic places, counting on their amability and naivety, and making them think that dangers are far away, while they are just waiting for the perfect moment to hit.
As such, the plot of the movie is a race, because every character desire something or has something that is wanted by others: Rusty wants Draguta but then he is scared when he finds out that her ex is trapped in the torture room, put there by Dean Floca; Teodora, as Victor's descendant, wants to stop Radu from getting the box back; Dean Floca, as the studends will find out, kidnaps girls from the university and uses them in experiments, taking their heads, because he wants to give Draguta a normal body; Radu comes to the castle and tries to collect blood for a ceremony to revive his lover; a girl has the box and accidentally fills it with blood, which makes Stephenia to possess her body. And all these interests and conflicts evolve and backfire, causing even more trouble, funny moments, romantic ones, drama, and making the viewer curious – is the evil and supernatural going to win or are the Americans going to defeat it?
In the end Radu and Stephenia are defeated, dean Floca is arrested for his crimes and the American students solved the conflict and stopped a revenge plot that was ticking as a bomb for centuries. And this end not just makes us think of the happy ending which is a trademark of American cinematography, especially Hollywood movies, but also of Said's words, that Orientals can't govern themselves and find solutions, leaving the problems to grow bigger and bigger; if they care, because usually Orientals and by extrapolation Romanians seem to not see the difference between good and bad, and are just interested in victory. It doesn't matter how they achieve their goal, because Romania is not made by people who are led by morality, faith, truth, hard work an ambition.
As Transylmania describes it, Romania is a country caught between old and new, tradition, supernatural creatures, bloodsheed and revenge, which tries to copy the American values, culture and technology just to cover the fact that, as Todorova says, is barbaric and stuck in a dark and bloody past. All the Romanians, which seem good, nice, connected to everything that is new and appear to have moral sense, are simple copies of the people from the 16th century; they didn't change or evolve, they didn't get rid of their animalic behaviour and they still use violence, manipulation and revenge to go through their day.
To conclude, we can say that Romanians and Romania are cheap copies of the civilized people and world, because they covered up all their brutality, old habits, bloody and barbaric traditions with Western values, but continue living as in the past. And no one that comes or anything seems to solve all for once the problems and get rid of the evil; because it's always coming back, being in the land and in people's blood.
