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By Shala Carlson

Open wide: Zhang Wei-Qiang and Tara Birtwhistle dance around an innovative-if-irritating adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

In adapting one of the most familiar terror tales ever told, bloodsucking ballet dancers would definitely be one way to go. Silent-movie succubi would be another. Canadian director Guy Maddin decided to try both in his alternately sanguine and sucky Dracula -- Pages From a Virgin's Diary, a silent treatment of the Bram Stoker book as performed by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

All of the usual suspects are here: the Transylvanian vampire, the pervy Van Helsing, and juicy Lucy and her feckless friends Mina and Harker. But for all its adherence to the original, this dream-world Dracula has an identity problem -- it's a silent movie that's not always without sound, a black-and-white motion picture that frequently features saturated colors, and a filmed ballet that lacks the immediacy of a physical performance or the visual coherence of a cinematic effort. Like the undead it strives to bring to life, Maddin's Dracula wanders between worlds; there are feverish flashes of brilliance, but the shadows threaten to swallow them whole.

The ballet idea, for instance, is not all bad. Mark Godden's frenzied choreography frees Lucy, as danced by Tara Birtwhistle, and Mina, as danced by CindyMarie Small, to boldly explore the often-ignored sexual hysteria at the very heart of Dracula. But attempts to turn the vampire himself into a dark-lord-a-leaping are laughable at worst and, at best, tolerable. It's not just him, either; when the time comes to safeguard Lucy's home against nocturnal invasion, pretty, pirouetting chambermaids are a bit too Nutcracker.

The black-and-white silent-movie shtick would work also, if that were all there was. Paul Suderman's cinematography is exquisite, and Maddin's shot selection makes for a few truly stunning visuals. The players over-emote admirably, but one cannot help but wonder why their voiceboxes are stricken when sometimes footfalls sound and lanterns scratch against coffin lids. Similarly, Maddin introduces color to great effect, as when Dracula reveals his cape's crimson underside; at other times, the hue of the entire film -- from blue to rosy to orange -- annoyingly changes like a mood ring.

Dracula's innovation and Maddin's eccentric ambitions have been well received. The film boasts a slew of honors, including the 2002 SITGES Film Festival's Best Film award, Best Performing Arts Program and Best Director of a Performing Arts Program or Series from the 17th Annual Gemini Awards, a selection as one of the top 10 Canadian feature films of 2002 by the Toronto International Film Festival, and a 2002 International Emmy Award for Best Performing Arts Program. And there is something nice about this movie's messy, operatic overreaching, but, in the end, its pretentious extravagance will drain you dry.

Dracula -- Pages From a Virgin's Diary (NR) Directed by Guy Maddin Starring Zhang Wei-Qiang and Tara Birtwhistle 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 12; 9:45 p.m. Monday, Oct. 13 Canal Place C-

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