Welcome back to Dark Corners Streaming.
The third part of Michio Yamamoto’s so-called Bloodthirsty Trilogy,
Evil of Dracula follows Vampire Doll and Lake of Dracula but is a stand-alone story
despite the presence of actor Shin Kishida,
who played a very similar vampire in Lake of Dracula.
The film is quite different to what we expect from Japanese horror,
heavily influenced by the European gothic boom of the 60s and 70s,
with its Hammer horror interiors,
creaky doors,
picturesque graveyards and silhouetted women in diaphanous gown.
The entrance of Kishida’s ominous principal is even reminiscent of Christopher Lee’s Count.
And there is a perhaps some inspiration of Hammer’s Lust for a Vampire,
in the setting of a girls’ school into which a newcomer arrives,
in this case, young teacher Professor Shiraki, who experiences the standard first night of all new visitors in these movies
which he quickly writes off as a dream and gets down to work meeting his students
and flirting with them more than is really comfortable.
But all is not well at the school,
she’s not the first
and she’s unlikely to be the last.
The plot is as simple as you would expect as Shiraki fights to save the girls’ from the evil influence of the seductive vampires
but it’s engaging enough that you seldom stop to wonder why this vampire has taken such a proprietorial interest in girls’ education for the last two hundred years.
It has all the requisite atmosphere both inside and out in the obligatory woodland,
it’s all kinds of creepy,
occasionally bloody,
with flashes of action
and some arresting images.
I also like the fact that this doesn’t just plonk the European vampire tradition into Japan with no explanation.
There are a couple of shocks,
but very few surprises,
this is pretty much exactly what it is trying to be and as subscribers will know I love this sort of euro-gothic horror
and the fact that this one was made well outside of Europe makes no difference –
it’s a really enjoyable example.
You can currently find it on BFI player but not for much longer so seek it out while and where you can.
Thanks for watching. Have you seen this film and if so, did you enjoy it as much as I did?
Hammer’s influence spread pretty widely, what are the most unusual Hammer-inflected films you’ve seen?
Let is know in the comments below.