'Stoker' is less Dracula and more Hitchcock

Posted Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 4:26 PM Central
Last updated Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 4:28 PM Central

by John Couture

When I say the title of the movie Stoker, I'm sure the first thing to pop into your head is Bram Stoker and Dracula. It's ok, you're not alone.

In fact, this trailer dropped late yesterday, but I put off watching it because I just figured it was yet another Elizabethan period piece about blood sucking vampires. Finally, my colleague Tim gave me a bit of a push and I'm glad that he did.

The trailer doesn't have anything (other than the same name as the author) to do with Dracula and actually feels like an homage to Alfred Hitchcock more than anything else. The trailer was creepy as you would expect from a thriller, but it was the line delivered by Nicole Kidman at the start that chilled me to the core.

She's talking to her daughter and, well, the words aren't very motherly. Unless your child is Norman Bates, then it makes perfect sense.

Naturally, I started to do a bit of legwork on the film since I wasn't familiar with it and I came to find out that it was filmed down here in Nashville and Murfreesboro. Given that Kidman lives here now, I wasn't too surprised by that, but I was surprised to see a local landmark that I drive past each and every day show up on screen.

At about the 1:30 mark, check out the building in the background behind the phone booth. Yep, it's this one that I pass each and every day on my way to work.

Talk about a small world.

If that wasn't interesting enough for you (and let's be honest, it was way more interesting for me than you), you might be surprised to learn that Stoker was written by Wentworth Miller. Apparently, he wrote it under a pseudonym and it ended up on the 2010 Hollywood Black List, a compilation of the best scripts in Hollywood not being produced as yet.

And if you're more into the dick and fart jokes crowd, it's got a little something for you too. Dermot Mulroney plays a character called Richard Stoker. I'll let your imagination connect the dots on that one.

Stoker hits theaters on March 1, 2013.