Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat have said any children staying up to watch their new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula will be “properly frightened” as it returns to the story’s Gothic traditions.
The three-part series – a co-production between BBC One and Netflix – stars Danish actor Claes Bang in the title role and the BBC has said it would reintroduce the world to the “vampire who made evil sexy”.
Moffat told Radio Times magazine: “This is not for kids. Any kid who stays up to watch it will be properly frightened, but it won’t disturb them – it’s cracking good fun.”
Gatiss added it was time for a change after recently having “the era of the kind, teen vampire – Twilight and Buffy”.
He said: “But now it’s time to go Gothic again.
“For a time, you wouldn’t have been able to do the castle, the bats and the man in the cape by moonlight. But now you can.”
Moffat added: “There are some genuinely unsettling bits. But then there are unsettling moments on a good ghost ride.
“I’m not a fan of nihilistic things – I think, in principle, that there should be hope and human decency in everything.”
The mini-series was inspired by Stoker’s classic Gothic novel.
The drama is set in 1897, with the blood-drinking count in Transylvania drawing up his plans against Victorian London.
The cast also includes Joanna Scanlan, John Heffernan, Dolly Wells, Morfydd Clark and Lujza Richter.
This week’s Radio Times is out on Tuesday.