'Glen, Glen did you hear it?'
'Hear what?'
'That scream.'
Welcome back to my Dark Corner of this Sick World.
‘I see you made it.'
'Don't sound so disappointed.'
Directed by cult favourite Al Adamson,
Blood of Dracula’s Castle is enriched by the presence of a man who holds the record for most Dark Corners appearances.
‘You should be honoured.’
Please subscribe to check out our John Carradine playlist,
which doubles as a brief history of low budget horror.
We open with Adamson regular Vicki Volante falling foul of something,
#A class horror scream#
...but what?
‘That moronic giant Mango picks up the wrong girl.’
Your henchmen are much less threatening when you name them after fruit.
‘Right, now I’m going to take your blood.’
Carradine’s George is the butler of the vampires who live in this castle.
‘Mmm, delicious.’
Count and Countess Townsend.
And it does feel like more time could have been spent on that name,
but this is a fairly tongue in cheek film.
‘What kind of thing are you?’
‘Vampires’
'Good night.'
Hmm, separate coffins, but I guess they’ve been married a while.
Now I said they live in this castle, but they don’t own it, they rent,
which is bad news.
‘I think we have inherited a castle.’
Glen and Liz head for the castle,
as does escaped psychopath Johnny, a friend of the Townsends and…
A werewolf.
In this version.
In Adamson’s original Johnny is a run of the mill serial killing lunatic,
but the film was bulked up for TV and a werewolf is a handy way to do that if you can’t get the original actor back
and he keeps talking about the moon.
‘Something happens to me when that damn moon is full.’
The werewolf scenes have nothing to do with the plot but you barely notice.
What you do notice is the music, because Adamson’s orchestral score
– lifted I’m sure from somewhere –
does a lot of the heavy lifting in making this ‘scary.’
#Super dramatic music - way too dramatic for the opening of a door.#
While in the TV scenes...
#Some kind of electric keyboard playing random notes.#
Alongside vampires, werewolves and Mango, George is a devotee of...
‘The great god Luna’
These are the people Glen and Liz must evict.
‘This is the perfect setting for a murder.’
‘Yes, isn’t it’
Yours.
But there’s a problem.
‘But how can we explain their sudden disappearance?’
You’ve got 4 girls chained up in the basement and suddenly you’re worried about people going missing?
Feeding time.
Instead, they try to dissuade the young couple from moving in.
‘Johnny, tell them how dull it is at Falcon Rock.’
Sadly true. Given an entertainingly tongue-in-cheek premise
and good performances from Carradine and Paula Raymond as the Countess.
‘I know we may seem to be a novelty but there are a few of us left.’
This should be more fun than it is,
but Johnny is on the run for a massive ten minutes,
and there’s a lot of standing around talking.
‘Maybe we’ll think of something before the evening’s over.’
Finally, Glen and Liz go down to the cellar looking for a toucan.
‘It’s a beautiful bird with a large nose.’
Long story - and discover something is wrong.
‘This is fantastic.’
I’m glad you think so!
They are captured, chained up and terrorised by rats.
Oh the terror.
Before the inevitable cult ceremony.
This feels as if it was originally just about the cult.
We know the werewolf was added and as for the title.
'George says you use to be called Count Dracula.'
So why did you change your name to Townsend?
'There are some things better left unsaid, buried with the past.'
That’s the only reference to Dracula, and there’s no real reason for them to be vampires at all.
After the sacrifice they all celebrate with a glass of wine.
'To the great God Luna!'
Ah! It burns! Why did you buy the cheap stuff?
‘Don’t anybody move.’
I know bullets aren’t supposed to kill vampires but vampire lore is always a moving target.
That said, this is the most ineffectual Dracula…
‘You know, you can’t get away with that’
…since John Carradine’s version was killed by someone moving his coffin in front of the window,
although at least in House of Dracula they showed him turn to dust.
‘They’re gone.’ ‘Turned to dust.’
But Glen and Liz aren’t safe yet, as Mango races to his master’s aid.
Your bad guy walking at a speed that would embarrass the living dead, will undermine the final chase.
Just run, he’s barely moving!
Unsurprisingly they do get the better of him.
Boy and the sea was right there.
This is our 4th Adamson review, and definitely the best of his we’ve covered,
largely because of the tone.
‘Please tell me it’s a joke.’
I still wouldn’t recommend it, but there aren’t enough films about vampires facing eviction.
Thanks for watching. For an alternative take on Dracula check out my book,
there’s a link in the description below.
Does any other actor rival John Carradine’s horror longevity?
What are your favourite performances? Let us know in the comments below.
'Let's get out of here.'