Blood For Dracula (1974)

(AKA: Andy Warhol's Dracula)

My rating - 7/10

(click on images below for larger versions)

Only about an hour after the cast and crew finished shooting Flesh For Frankenstein they were all back at it to create this companion piece. Here we get Udo Keir playing Dracula, but we also get a neat little twist and instead of him being an imposing, scary monster he's portrayed as a weak and fragile creature. He leaves his home with his assistant to find a new source of food, in this case the blood of virgins as that's the only thing that can keep him alive.

As with Flesh For Frankenstein the costumes and sets are wonderful and you'd never think this was made with very little money. There's also a lot of male and female nudity on display and numerous, quite explicit sex scenes, it also has a beaufiful score!. When Dracula drinks the contaminated blood of non virgins it causes him to convulse and violenty vomit it all back up in a couple of pretty disgusting scenes. The gore effects are great, although not as plentyful as Flesh For Frankenstien, but along with the blood vomiting we get limbs being hacked off and fountains of blood spraying everywhere, plus a double impailing at the end.

Personally I prefer this to Flesh For Frankenstein as I just think it's an overall better movie. Udo Keir again is the star of the show and this is one of my favourite performances of his. It's also said that he dropped 20lbs super quick to play the role of the fragile count that when shooting started he could barely stand. The film has plenty of campy moments and I'd highly recommend this to fans of Euro horror. I love it and I really wish the same cast and crew were given the money to tackle the other classic monster stories like The Wolfman and The Mummy, I get the feeling they would have been awesome too!.

SCREEN SHOTS

BACK TO INDEX