Blood of Dracula’s Castle (1969) (1st viewing) d. Adamson, Al (USA)
Oh man, I had no idea I was signing on for an Adamson flick when I popped this one in based on its awesome poster art and fairly generic title. Truth be told, it’s relatively harmless; a modern vampire flick (a year before Count Yorga, Vampire) that has no great aspirations and doesn’t take itself too seriously in the process.
Basic story revolves around Count and Countess Dracula (Alexander d’Arcy and Paula Raymond, giving very plummy performances), who have re-named themselves the Townsends (in order to fit in better?) The pair have been setting up residence in the shoreline residence of Falcon Rock Castle for the past 70-odd years, kidnapping young nubile passersby and keeping them in the basement to be tapped when necessary. (For blood, you perverts. Get your minds out of the gutter.)
This lifestyle seems to be going along great for everyone, right up until hip young photographer Gene O’ Shane and his hip young model fiancée Jennifer Bishop (Mako: Jaws of Death) inherit the digs and head up to give the toothy ones, their trusty butler John Carradine and mongoloid manservant Ray Young the boot. That weekend is of course the same one that Townsend family friend and resident homicidal maniac Robert Dix (son of silver screen mainstay Richard Dix) escapes from the loony bin and beats a (very) bloody path home.
About halfway through, just to keep things lively, it also turns into a cult flick with Carradine leading several cloaked ones around for day-for-night torchlit ceremonies on breezy California hilltops. Not as painful as its 2.6 IMDb rating would have you believe, but it still probably would have been better served in November.
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