Matrixiole
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Dirtylogy
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
a_baron
There are castles in the United States, but not many, and even fewer that are homes to vampires, in this case The Vampire himself. There is a bit of a twist here because Count Dracula - who is using a different name - has a wife. They are living happily undead forever after until they experience a major glitch; they don't actually own their castle, and when the elderly owner dies, he leaves it to his nephew, a photographer whose future wife insists on living there, and that in spite of the isolation, apart from the bats in the attic and the rats in the cellar.There are also three mortal bad guys in the shape of the faithful butler, the servant, and an escaped psychopath who murders no fewer than three people on his way to the castle to meet up with the undead who had promised him eternal life. Then there is the little matter of the shackled damsels keeping the rats company in the cellar. Oh yeah, and vampires worship the Moon.There were snatches of humour early on, and the film would have played out better as a black comedy, but if you don't take it too seriously, there are worse things to do on a Tuesday night, like watching UK soap operas.
jacobjohntaylor1
This is a Dracula sequel and if it does not scary you no movie will. Dracula and his wife live into modern times. This movie has a great story line. It also has great acting. It also has great special effects. It is very intense movie. Alexander D'Arcy was great has Dracula. He real know how to be scary. He was a great actor. John Carradine was a great actor. Paula Raymond was great actress. This movie is not has scary has Dracula (1931). Dracula (1992) is also scarier. But still it came close to being has scary. This is one of the scarier movie from 1969. See it. Gene Otis Shayne is a great actor. This is scarier then The Exorcist and that is not an easy thing to do.
lemon_magic
So there I am, watching the opening moments of what obviously is going to be a clunky mish-mash of horror movie clichés (complete with John Carradine), when the Count finally makes an appearance, and Oh My God, it's "Bob Boxbody", (Alex D'Arcy) the actor from "Horrors Of Spider Island" (thanks to Mike Nelson and the robots from MST3K)!! And there's "Johnny", the poor guy from some crappy Frankenstein film, and of course, John Carridine himself.Here's the kind of movie it is: for almost the entire duration of the movie, there are three women chained up on the wall in the "dungeon" and two of them (the extras) never get a single line, poor things. They're just there as window dressing. (Actually, I tell a lie - one of them gets to yell "LOOK OUT" to the hero at the climactic struggle near the end. She's terrible.) And yet, in spite of the whole "women in chains" and "vampires feasting on the blood of young virgins" theme, and in spite of the fact that the movie wastes nearly 10 minutes watching Johnny kill various people as he evades a manhunt after his escape from prison,the movie is somehow bemused and kind of softened and gentle around the edges. I think this is mostly because the Count and his bride are depicted her as being quite genteel and decorous in their habits, and so there is less of the usual sense of relish and glee in the suffering of the young victims that most movies of this type rely on. Instead,it's all got a feeling of "Well, sorry about this, but we need our morning livener, after all. George, would you do the honors?" It also helps that the heroic young couple who get caught up in the events in the castle are likable and attractive in a grainy 70 film stock kind of way.There are even some amusing war-of-the-sexes lines of dialog scattered here and there. And while the couple may be pretty dumb, they are portrayed as being happy and proud to be with each other.Anyway, if you watch this one hoping to be frightened, or titillated, you'll probably be disappointed. But there are worse ways to warm up for Halloween.
capkronos
Considered the worst vampire movie ever made by many (nah!), this Al Adamson bomb is nonetheless chock full of laughs and tacky entertainment value. Mr. and Mrs. Dracula (Egyptian born schlock star Alexander D'Arcy and Paula Raymond) disguise themselves as the Count and Countess Townsend and are living it up in Falcon Rock; RENTING a secluded castle located in the middle of what appears to be a desert (a great place to avoid the sunlight, eh?). The castle comes complete with the usuals... lavish rooms, coffin-filled bedroom chamber, candles, a large dungeon, a pool table (?!) and two faithful employees who have to do ALL the dirty work as the bloodsucking duo lounge around spouting their insipid dialog. The two servants are a hulking, facially-scarred, hunchback retard named Mango (Ray Young) and a slack-eyed butler named George (John Carradine), who worships the "great God Luna." Mango kidnaps beautiful girls (because, of course, the blood of 'beautiful young women' always tastes the best), takes them to the dungeon and chains them to the wall as a sort-of personal live-in blood bank. George uses a huge syringe to extract blood from victims and serves it up as cocktails to Dracula and wife.The most recent addition to the harem is Ann (Vicki Volante, a star of many other Adamson movies), who has a bad habit of passing out whenever the going gets tough... a problem that got her dumb ass abducted in the first damn place. She screams her head off when a rat gets within ten feet of her, has a tarantula crawl on her dress and may end up being the chief sacrifice to Carradine's Moon Cult (yes, there is also some kind of black magic mumbo jumbo going on here). There are a few other prisoners as well; two or three other ladies in ripped-up dresses whose expressions never change despite what is going on around them. When one of those ladies is all used up, Mango is given permission to drag her off into a dark corner of the dungeon (hmm... For what, I wonder?) This comfy living situation is threatened when the owner of the castle dies, leaving the place to a favorite nephew (Gene O'Shane), who wants to boot them out and move in there with his fast-track fiancé Liz Arden (Barbara Bishop). Liz is a model and aspiring "Universal Magazine" cover girl, who will end up having more problems to deal with than being upstaged in her saggy bikini bottoms by dolphins, seals and a flipper-chewing walrus while at Sea World.And as if that isn't enough... There's this family friend named Johnny Davenport (Robert Dix), who has just bought his way out of prison. Get this... A guard accepts five thousand dollars to let Johnny out. But to make it look more convincing, the guard actually turns around and allows this convicted mass murderer to knock him unconscious! So, not surprisingly, instead of just laying him out, Johnny just beats the guy to death before taking off! BEFORE even making it to the castle, Johnny has a fun-filled day of murder and mayhem. He's chased by a posse with dogs, drowns a woman in a polka-dot bikini under a waterfall, bashes an old man over the head with a rock, shoots a hitchhiker in the face with a rifle and wrecks a stolen car over a cliff. And all this before he even arrives in the castle. There is mention of Johnny being a werewolf, but there are no make-up effects to convey it.When Liz and Glen arrive at the castle, they sleep in separate bedrooms. And when she hears one of the women downstairs screaming, he comforts her by saying "I think it's probably someone using an electric tooth brush that just got short circuited." (??) After an encounter with Mango, the two find themselves prisoners in the dungeon as well, but they manage to escape after being forced to perform in a black magic ceremony. During a struggle with Johnny over the gun, Glen aims the gun way off target, but ends up pulling the trigger and shooting Johnny in the stomach. Carradine falls down a flight of stairs and attacks with a whip. Will Liz, Glen and the imprisoned lovelies escape with their lives? Does this entire film seem like an odd extended dirty metaphor for the joys of S&M? Also in the cast are future director John "Bud" Cardos (who was also the production manager) and Ken/Kenny/Kent Osborne (who also did the make-up). It was shot by "Leslie" (Lazslo) Kovacs, who also worked with Ray Dennis Steckler before becoming a respected Hollywood cinematographer, so you know this movie looks pretty good. Gil Bernal performs the non-hit single "The Next Train Out." I've seen the production year on this film frequently listed as 1967, but according to the original credits it is 1969.Not the "worst vampire movie ever made..." It's Grade A schlock! But going by the rules of normal film review, I am unable to award this one any better than 3/10. General entertainment value is around 7/10.
