Director: Paul Morrissey (Antonio Margheriti on prints for quota purposes only)
Year: 1974
Country: Italy/France/USA
Alternate Titles: Sangue per Dracula; Andy Warhol’s Dracula
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Nearly dying in Romania, the sickly Count and his servant leave it behind and head to an isolated Italian villa where the owner tries to marry off his virgin daughters to him, but when he continues getting sicker finds the handyman thwarting his plans forcing them to battle for the family’s safety.
Review:
This here is one of the best vampire films around. Among the better elements of this one is a rather strong setup that brings about a rather enjoyable storyline featuring a lot of great Gothic imagery and sleaze. The central idea of the Count being brought down in health due to his inability to suck the blood of virgins with his reputation preventing him from taking a bride and forcing the trip to the Italian countryside to change everything which brings him into contact with the family is a great way to bring this one along. It introduces the idea that the healing power of virgin blood to his health and mental state is a requirement and the necessity to drain blood from someone in that state is immensely intriguing for how it treats the creature and gives this a high-quality motivation for not only his trip to the house but also the rampant sleaze throughout here. Keeping up appearances with a fine cover story and a genuine motivation for why his appearances and sickly stature would go by unnoticed as well as just enough setup to explain the situation, the storyline here is quite fun and gives this something unique and creative from a simple vampire film.
The fact that this one is so sleazy for a vampire film is something to enjoy. This offers up plenty of both male and female nudity here which is always nice from sex scenes, bathing sequences, having the women dress on-screen, and even throwaway sequences like the beginning where they disrobe for no reason other than to feature extra nudity makes for some real fun to be had as this one throws the female nudity around with great abandon. That also extends to the male nudity as well since this one takes the time to show that both participants are nude during the sex scenes and reveling in it the way that very few are comfortable with showing, which means that this one is an equal opportunity when it comes to showing it off. The sleaze also extends away from the nudity as it's got a lot of sexual antics to deal with the fact that there's an incestuous lesbian couple in here that is involved in a couple of sequences alone seals the film of most of its sleaze right there and coupled with the insane amount of nudity and the continuous frank conversations about virginity and sexuality in here, this here is a really graphic and sleazy kind of film.
The other part of this that works is the last half of the film which works wonders here. This features a pretty nice selection of sleaze trying to corrupt the last remaining daughter into his corruption and the great realization scene where all the others realize what's going on as it's also where most of the violence comes in as well. The violence works here because it's a dry film up until then and then to be inundated with tons of graphic violence and bloodshed ensures some remarkable feelings from the film's ending. From a complete and utter dismemberment of all the limbs to a knifing and a couple impalings through the chest with a wooden stake, leaving a lot of blood flowing, there's a lot from these sequences. Also using some fun here is the great chase through the house, out into the garden, and continuing, which injects a lot of excitement into the film and the fact that the dismembering is done along the way is really great with some more fun to be had. All these reasons make this one enjoyable.
This one only has one flaw to it and it's a little damaging but non-detrimental to the film. That is the fact that it plays fast and loose with conventional vampire storytelling. The vampire walks around in broad daylight only shielding his eyes but no other damage is done, being able to bite his victims on the neck and draining blood to turn into vampires should work for all victims yet here only virgins are turned while others do fall under his spell can't use his hypnotic powers on them otherwise. These here are quite different from usual vampire fare, yet keep the distaste for garlic, no reflection in the mirror, and a wooden stake through the chest to finish it off are still here. That it mixes them around is something some hardcore fans could get upset about, and the dragged-out pacing involving the inability to notice the obvious for how he’s tempting and turning the daughters into vampires that no one notices could also be a factor here. Otherwise, that is the film's only flaw.
Overview: *****/5
Perhaps one of the sleaziest films in the genre, this one here is one of the best of all time and really doesn't have a whole lot wrong with it. Highly recommended to extreme European horror fanatics, sleaze aficionados, or vampire fans in general, while the weak-hearted should ignore this one altogether.
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