13) Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969)

"Don't worry. No one will suspect what goes on here at Falcon Rock Castle."

Director
Al Adamson, Jean Hewitt (uncredited)

Cast
Alexander D'Arcy - Count Dracula
Paula Raymond - Countess Townsend
John Carradine - George the Butler
Barbara Bishop - Liz Arden
Gene Otis Shane - Glen Cannon
Robert Dix - Johnny


Imagine walking into a haunted Halloween attraction. We'll call it "Dracula's Castle." It's a little cliche, but maybe it's still worth checking out. The façade of the attraction looks scary and enticing enough. It seems like it could be a fun and thrilling experience.
You walk into a dark hallway, and you're greeted with a dopey looking, poor man's Gomez Addams, just standing there. He tells you in a normal, yet tawdry voice that he's a vampire, and he drinks blood through a unique, updated, scientific way rather than biting people's necks.
He has an older, jewel-studded lady standing next to him, holding a glass of wine. There's absolutely nothing threatening in her demeanor. She tells you that she's also a vampire.
You then follow them into a room with two coffins on the floor. They wish you a goodnight, climb in, close the lid, and...that's it. The experience is over. There's the exit. Go home!
That's this movie - an underwhelming, effortless, and uninspired experience.
I found this movie in one of those movie collection packs called "Gorehouse Greats," which I stumbled upon in an antique store. Lucky me! The title seemed enticing. With blood and Dracula in the title, Blood of Dracula's Castle seemed like a movie right up my alley.
Count Charles Townsend and his wife, Countess Townsend, live in Falcon Rock Castle...in Arizona! Sunny, sunny Arizona. So, that part is different in the mythos of vampires. It's a poor decision in setting, but different none the less.
The castle's owner dies, and the property is passed to a photographer named Glen.
Though he decides he wants to live in Falcon Rock Castle with his fiancee, Liz, little does he know that Count Townsend and his vampire wife are not only living there, Count Charles Townsend is really County Dracula! And they also keep young pretty women shackled in the cellar so they can siphon their blood whenever they need to quench their thirst for blood.They also sleep in coffins because they're vampires and...it's as cliche as it can be.
Horror movie icon, John Carradine, plays the castle's butler, George, who lives in Falcon Rock as well, along with the standard castle hunchback, Mango. His purpose is pretty much being the muscle who kidnaps these women for the Townsends.
Not only do they keep these women for their blood, they occasionally sacrifice a girl to the "Great God Luna."
Meanwhile, a guy named Johnny shows up. It turns out Johnny turns into a serial killer when the moon is full. Evidently, there's a TV version of this flick where it's hinted that he actually becomes a werewolf. Anyhow, he's suddenly in cahoots with the Townsends. His allegiance to them is rather unclear. Still, he ends up staying with them, and participating in their sacrifice.
Once Glen and Liz find the women in the basement, rather easily I'll add, the Townsends reveal everything to them, even that Count Townsend is really Count Dracula. This moment of exposition is delivered in the most mundane and non-threatening way possible. In fact, everything in this "horror" movie just lacks any emotion. The actors seem to only care about making sure they get their lines out. Even the girls chained to the wall don't seem to mind much they're chained against their will. They just stand in the background, nonchalant and certainly not struggling. They're just a group of women, chained to the wall, making sure they don't move off their mark, and maybe just happy to be a part of things. It's completely laughable. The acting is ridiculous.
Glen and Liz soon get the upper hand, and Dracula and his wife turn into bats- real bats! And that's about the extent of the producer's efforts.
This was the most non-threatening, non-frightening (except for the amount of exposition the filmmakers could pack in 84 minutes) horror film I've seen to date.
John Carradine was the only actor trying to be scary.
The choice to cast Alexander D'Arcy as Dracula makes sense as his screen persona was always smooth, suave and sexy.Unfortunately, in this particular role, that didn't save his performance.
Somehow, I paid attention throughout the entire movie, but it was a complete struggle to do so. Nothing interesting was ever taking place. I mean, when Carradine was on screen it was cool to see him. Otherwise, nothing.
There's no gore. There's no scare other than scenes of Dracula and Mrs. Dracula laying in their coffins. No fangs. No biting. Just two upper-class people saying "we're vampires."
Count Charles, Mango, and Johnny are loosely based on Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and the Wolfman. It's painful to watch such a lousy rip-off.
With a movie bearing the word "blood" in the title, I would think there would be at least some of it splattered on walls, or pooled on the floor, or even dripping from Dracula's mouth. Nope! Any blood is daintily sipped out of pretentious beverage receptacles.
This flick isn't even accidentally interesting.
This felt so amateurish to me. The dialogue plays out like an old EC Comic such as Tales from the Crypt or Vault of Horror. Unlike the comics, it gets boring. Very boring!