For years it was striking why Romanians only produced one version of Dracula (Doru Nastase's in 1979), while so many other foreign directors dedicated themselves to making the most disparate and experimental versions imaginable. While during the Ceaușescu communist regime it was understandable that funds weren't allocated to filming stories that weren't intended as propaganda for the regime, once it fell, no projects were attempted that could compete with or ride the wave of vampire craze generated by the character created by Bram Stoker, based on the historical figure of Vlad Tepes, the Impaler of Wallachia.