Since author Bram Stoker published "Dracula" in 1897, countless adaptations of the novel have been released from films seeking to bring the words on the page to life to authors adding their own spin to the tale through original works. One such adaptive work is author Joe Hill’s "Abraham’s Boys," first published in 2007 and now adapted for the big screen by writer/director Natasha Kermani ("Imitation Girl;" "Lucky") in "Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story." Kermani’s original work held its world premiere at The Overlook Film Festival 2025 and is now set for a theatrical release on July 11th.
In the second of four interviews, EoM Contributor Joel Winstead sits down with actor Titus Welliver (Abraham Van Helsing) to discuss how he approached taking on the role of Van Helsing, what he felt he brought to the role, and more in this short conversation.
In theaters July 11th, 2025.
Official Synopsis: Max and Rudy Van Helsing have spent their lives under the strict and overprotective rule of their father, Abraham. Unaware of his dark past, they struggle to understand his paranoia and increasingly erratic behavior. But when they begin to uncover the violent truths behind their father’s history with Dracula, their world unravels, forcing them to confront the terrifying legacy they were never meant to inherit.
Official Trailer: youtu.be/-2BJrCzvEZQ
Directed/Written By: Natasha Kermani Based Upon the Short Story by: Joe Hill Cast: Titus Welliver, Jocelin Donahue, Judah Mackey, Aurora Perrineau, Brady Hepner, Corteon Moore
00:00Hey guys, contributor Joel here again. I had a slew of interviews for Abraham's Boys.
00:05One of them was sitting down with Titus Welliver, the lead, and playing the Patriarch, Abraham Van Helsing, in Abraham's Boys.
00:14This story takes place kind of years after his run-in with Dracula, and it's kind of like where he's at now,
00:21and like the pain and the trauma of going through that and, you know, living in a world post-Dracula.
00:30It's a great little story that was written by Joe Hill, and I've got to talk to Titus about his approach to that character and what he brought to it and why.
00:39Great conversation. Thanks for checking it out.
00:44Perfect. There you are.
00:46Sorry about that. Hi, Titus. How are you?
00:48No. Good, good. How are you? Thanks for having me.
00:51Thank you so much for your patience.
00:52So, as I wanted to ask you about, when we're heading into this film, kind of reaching this very storied, iconic character,
01:02kind of years after one of his maybe most traumatic moments of his life, he's got these children.
01:08When you're approaching this role, are you bringing all that baggage with you,
01:12or are you kind of more focused on where he's at when we meet him in the story?
01:16I think it's a combination of all of it.
01:19There's definitely a, we all know, you know, there's been so many different iterations.
01:26We all know Van Helsing's backstory, so we didn't have to retell that through exposition.
01:33This is what I've done.
01:34And I felt that it was important to, you know, certainly to some level for the audience needed to see a man who had been tested, right, in life.
01:51Perhaps a sort of a post-traumatic stress disorder.
01:55But he's seen a lot and done a lot.
01:59And, you know, I said to Natasha, I want Van Helsing to be a man who his survival instinct has been to be a practitioner of stoicism.
02:13So that is sort of, you know, his way of coping with that.
02:17But where we find him is a man who is, he's more vulnerable than he's ever been.
02:25And because it's many years later, but now he has, he can be gotten to, right?
02:30He has a wife and he has two children.
02:32So the idea that this darkness, this evil is coming, has followed him.
02:39The stakes are considerably higher, yet he's managed to manifest a level of kind of calm through stoicism.
02:48But there's something off about him.
02:51There's no question about it.
02:53So what was essential to me for the audience's sake because of who he is and how we see him and interpret him visually in the film was that we have very, very small bits of his expression of affection towards his family.
03:12And they're very, very subtle, you know, and they're, you know, and they're very brief.
03:17But without that, then the audience is going to go, well, he's just fucking, you know, he's this stoic kind of crazy person.
03:26Right.
03:27And the boys were, look, it's a great cast of actors.
03:32And the boys really are, the audience experiences this, this story through the eyes of the boys.
03:39So they, there are the circumstances and it's, you know, we don't have, it's not in the story.
03:48You don't see, we're not replaying.
03:51We don't have vampires running around bats flying in and out and, and seeing him doing all the things that we have seen him.
04:02So I thought in that, in that way, this is a much more psychological thriller than necessarily it's not.
04:13It is a Dracula story, but it's not, doesn't, it's not like a vampire film.
04:18It's more, it reminds me of The Innocents or, you know, Debra Kerr or, or, you know, Polanski's The Tenet, right?
04:29Or is that what we're seeing?
04:31Is that, is that our reality as well?
04:35Or is, is that, or is.
04:38Yeah.
04:38So very smart directing and, you know, exceptional, exceptional cinematography.
04:47For sure.
04:48I love, it's like a micro look at what caught, what's, what's causing this generational trauma from Van Helsing's father into what he's passing on to his sons and breaking the cycle.
04:57And, and the, the cast of actors I was talking to Jocelyn about, even though she's playing, she's playing a mother, but she's also had this great traumatic moment in her life that we, that we know about that we're not seeing.
05:09And so, you know, she saw us to love her kids and Van Helsing saw us to love her kids, love his kids in the midst of what's going on.
05:16And I thought that all that coming together was, was great.
05:19Was that on the page or did you work together with those boys to kind of like create that like unit within the amount of time that you had?
05:27Yeah, I think, I mean, look, every, you, you, you, everybody had the responsibility of their individual characters, but we didn't have rehearsal time or anything.
05:37You know, there were no dinners or anything like that.
05:40So that those relationships had to be established there literally within the scene.
05:47So, which I think, and also look, you know, you have, you have, you have time constraints, you have budgetary constraints, which I think lends for, you better have your shit together and, and be open and be receptive.
06:02Cause I, I, I, I don't like performance, right?
06:06I, I, I, it's the, the part of, of this that makes it interesting are those relationships and, and, and that which occurs within a scene organically.
06:16Everybody knows their lines.
06:18We know the story, but the, the, the, the stuff that happens, um, that is the, uh, and, and everyone was so open there, um, you know, it could have been, and because of the nature of the film, you know, it could have been disastrous.
06:36If, you know, if you have one, one, one, one cog, you know, it, it, it could derail it, but there was, everyone was prepared and everyone was very open.
06:50And so we found stuff that was not on the page.
06:52So I think the, the, um, the, the, the kind of emotional ambiance that that's in, in those scenes is something that is just, um, good actors listening to each other, you know what I mean?
07:10And working together, um, and, and also a very, very, um, smart director who gave everyone enough real estate to be able to kind of inhabit that.
07:21And so her, her, uh, her directions were very, very specific, but she, um, you know, in the same way that I think smart directors, they sort of, they hire you to do a thing and expect you to do your thing.
07:36And they, they, they then go, okay, now this is your time.
07:42And they hang back and watch and come in and make adjustments.
07:46And Natasha is marvelous.
07:48And this film is a springboard for her, for the next level.
07:51She's a brilliant, brilliant, um, uh, uh, artist.