Director: Michio Yamamoto
Year: 1974
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Chi o suu bara; The Bloodsucking Rose
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Taking a job in a remote village, a man is promoted instantly to be principal of the all-girls school he teaches and comes to learn that the previous boss was a vampire still lurking around the school grounds and must find a way to stop him before he claims more of the student body.
Review:
This was a highly enjoyable and engaging effort in the series. What tends to give this one a lot of it's best qualities is the fact that there's quite a creepy atmosphere developed from the very start. The ride to the school where they witness the damaged car on the side of the road gets this off to a nice bit of foreshadowing, especially once the real motivation for his arrival is given which is what really starts this one off. Moving into the school's bunkers is where this one starts in on the Gothic atmosphere that's present throughout here in his first encounter with the three brides in his room which is full of tense Gothic images as they chase him around as well as the later scene in the basement where he discovers the coffin of the dead wife unknowingly turned into a vampire. That they appear so early into the film help make the film's tangent into the mysticism and lore of the backstory for the main villain all the more interesting as there's quite a large influence of Western mythology which readily enhances this as a whole.
As that itself leads into their behavior later on when they start attacking the schoolgirls in much more frantic encounters out in the woods attacking the transfixed girls or brawling with the faculty chasing after them which feel far more commonplace in Western efforts rather than these Eastern tales which adds immensely to their appeal. Once we get into the finale where the bodies of the students under his control come out and are shown to attack the others in his basement, this one becomes quite fun with the added fun of some cheap-looking gore to enhance the experience while giving this one some nice action to close it out. Along with the chilling look to the vampires and the way it moves rather nicely along, there's enough to like here to hold this one up over it's few minor flaws.
The film's biggest issue is the way it resorts to lengthy, somewhat drab dialogue-heavy scenes to tell a vast majority of its plot points, as rather than feature them battling each other or investigate anything it's all driven by speaking to everyone and then drawing conclusions based on that so it tends to run into sections where it's not nearly as exciting as the events that are supposedly being put forth end up being. Likewise, there's also the fact that this one does look rather cheap at times, especially in the bloody kills which are like colored water in their consistency and the day-for-night scenes in the woods are somewhat obvious and embarrassing. These are the film's only real problems, though.
Overview: ****/5
With a lot of enjoyable elements and only a few minor pieces that hold it back, 'Evil of Dracula' is a solid end to this mini-franchise which makes it a wholly enjoyable series overall. If you've enjoyed and liked the previous ones then there's no reason not to take on this final part of the series while those that haven't liked the others should heed caution with taking on this last one.
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