Romanian filmmaker uses AI to create 3-hour Dracula film while critiquing the technology

Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude has released “Dracula,” a three-hour AI-filled adaptation that deliberately uses artificial intelligence technology to critique it, featuring the vampire count in pornographic scenarios and exploiting tech workers. The controversial film positions AI as inherently “gross and slimy” while simultaneously employing the technology throughout its production, creating a provocative commentary on digital creativity and labor exploitation.

What you should know: Jude structured the entire film around a fictional filmmaker who feeds prompts into an AI app to generate various short films that comprise the actual movie.

• The director initially tried using ChatGPT to create “a Dracula porn film set in Auschwitz,” but when the AI rejected it, he decided to “pretend that I am the AI machine” and create content the technology wouldn’t produce.
• The film features extensive AI-generated imagery of Count Dracula, Romanian warlord Vlad Tepes, and other elements, with Jude deliberately choosing the “wrong results” because he found them “nicer and poetical somehow.”
• Budget constraints partly drove the decision to use AI imagery as a cost-cutting measure for the Romanian production.

The big picture: Jude’s approach reflects a distinctly European perspective on AI controversy, operating from what he calls “the margins of Europe” where there are fewer industry stakes.

• Unlike in the United States, where AI usage in film has become highly contentious due to economic concerns, Jude argues that Romania’s “nonexistent film industry” means “there’s nothing to lose.”
• The director draws parallels between AI and vampirism, calling it “the perfect metaphor for AI” due to how the technology feeds off existing creative labor.

What they’re saying: Jude embraces the technology’s aesthetic flaws as a new form of artistic expression.

• “These images are made to seem more and more photorealistic. But there is always an element of kitsch to them or an element of really bad taste,” he explained.
• “You may have someone with three hands, or a person with four heads, or with genitalia in their chest. I always kept the wrong results because I found them nicer and poetical somehow.”
• On the backlash: “I would say it’s normal and healthy if a work of art provokes different kinds of reactions—including rejection.”

Industry reaction: The film has proved divisive at international film festivals, with some critics questioning whether using AI technology at all constitutes artistic betrayal.

• When Jude appeared via Zoom at the New York Film Festival with an AI-generated backdrop, one skeptical viewer accused him of being “on fraud watch.”
• The director acknowledges the resistance: “I understand there is a backlash in the United States. I’m in the middle of a new film right now that doesn’t use a second of AI.”

Looking ahead: Jude remains open to future AI usage despite the controversy, currently finishing a short film featuring an AI-generated voice reciting Dante poems.

• “If I find I need to do it, I will do it, with no problems,” he stated regarding future projects.
• His advice to American filmmakers concerned about AI: “Come to Romania! You can do it, no problem.”