DRACULA IS IN DACRE'S BLOOD; Bram Stoker's relative resurrects tale of the famous vampire.

Byline: Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt

DRACULA was one of the most ruthless blood-suckers imaginable. Luckily his nefarious plan to turn the human race into one giant milkshake straw that he could schlurp through never came to fruition.

Probably because he was only a fictional character, created by that Victorian master of nip and suck Bram Stoker.

However, blood-bolting bad guys don't only appear in Gothic chillers. There are real-life ones too ready and willing to turn healthy humans into hellish husks.

Blood-sucking lawyers, for instance. Or what about all those neck-noshing accountants? And, perhaps most deadly of all... the Hollywood wheeler and dealer.

Ironically, it was one such LA vamp who practiced the old attack-n-snack on Stoker's relatives, after the author's death in 1912.

It was a Hollywood mogul who nabbed the copyright for Bram's most famous creation, resulting in the family receiving not a penny from all those horror blockbusters starring Count Dracula.

Understandably, the Stoker family have been wary of getting involved in any other Dracula-related project... until now. Canadian-born PE teacher Dacre Stoker is the great grandnephew of Bram.

Along with screenplay writer Ian Holt he has written what is billed as the official sequel to Dracula.

This chapter in the count's life is titled - rather unoriginally, perhaps - Dracula The Un-Dead. Dacre has no background as an author. He didn't even read his famous relative's Gothic chiller until he was a university student.

So why should Draculovers accept he is the ideal person to put his name to a sequel? Is it just because he happens to be a, er, blood-relative? "One of my roles in writing the new book was to focus on the research," he says. "Which meant talking to relatives about Bram, also looking at the extensive notes he made for a sequel.

"I found it really fascinating, dipping into the mind of the man who created Dracula. The man who also shares my name."

Yes. That name. It must be most peculiar being raised a Stoker, especially at this time of year - on the cusp of Halloween.

Dacre chuckles. Or perhaps it's more of a chilling cackle. OK, I'll fess up. It's just a chuckle.

"At parties, people tend to ask whether I want red or white wine, or perhaps a little blood, instead," he says. "And at Halloween, when I was a kid, there was always a lot of interest in what would be happening over at the Stoker house.

"Unfortunately, we were just biting into sweets and apples, like everybody else. No virgin necks at all."

The Dracula sequel may not be the work of a Bram, but it is certainly the child of a Stoker. For one thing, Dacre and his co-author have re-introduced many characters created in the book, but never mentioned in the films.

They have also "resurrected" a character who only appeared in Bram's notes, but never made it to the final draft of the novel.

Knowing the Stoker's troubled history with the movie industry, would Dacre now like to see his book turned into a film? "Definitely," says the firsttime author, who now lives in California. "There have already been talks. When Ian first came to me with the idea of writing this book, it was always his intention that it should eventually be a movie. He's a screenwriter after all.

"However, it would be really nice if any film made was close to our book. Most of the Dracula movies have been very un-Stokerish. "Though I still like a few of them, including the one Francis Ford Coppola made in the 90s, starring Gary Oldman.

"But even though that film was called Bram Stoker's Dracula, it was nothing like the original book.

"If this new novel manages to make a few vampire fans more interested in the original Dracula, then I think this will have been a job well done."

Published by Harper, pounds 7.99

CAPTION(S):

Dacre Stoker (below), bloodrelative of Bram Stoker, hopes his Dracula book based on the writings of his famous relative, will be turned into Hollywood blockbuster