77) Dracula, Sovereign of the Damned (1980)

"In Transylvania stands a sinister castle - a fortress of shelter of evil and death. The lord of this castle is the tragic and terrifying personification of the cruel conflict between the affirmation of life and the corruption of death."

Directors

Akinori Nagaoka and Minoru Okazaki

English Voice Cast

Dracula - Tom Wyner 

Dolores - Arlene Banas 

Rachel Van Helsing - Melanie MacQueen

Frank Drake - Daniel Woren

Janus - Max Christian

Satan - Richard Epcar

Over on my other movie blog, (dontfastforward.blogspot.com) I've been searching for, and reviewing underrated or lesser-known movies based on comics. It's something I came up with after the hype surrounding Avengers: Endgame (2019) - the zenith of the comic book based movie genre, evidently. 

Well, the made-for-TV Japanese anime film, Dracula, Sovereign of the Damned falls into that genre, as well as being a horror movie. And it is a horror movie, indeed! So, I've posted it on both blogs. Here, I'm certainly counting it as one of my 1,000 days of horror.

Directed by Akinori Nagaoka and Minoru Okazaki (who later directed several episodes of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z), this movie is based on Marvel's horror comic series The Tomb of Dracula. 

It was released in Japan in 1980, and then acquired by Harmony Gold Production Company, dubbed in English, and barely released on U.S. cable television in 1983. 

Marvel's comic series, created by Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, Gardner Fox and Archie Goodwin, ran from 1972 to 1979, with 70 issues surrounding a group of vampire hunters facing off with Dracula as well as other supernatural creatures and monsters. 

Once in a while, Dracula teams up with his adversaries to battle these other-worldly beings. But normally it's one against the other.

The movie starts with a narrator bolstering up how evil Dracula is.  

While living in Transylvania, he was besieged by a group of vampire hunters, flees and hides in Boston. 

Later, a cult calling itself "The Disciples of the Black Mask" attempts to summon ol' scratch himself, Satan, in order to present him with a bride. They hold this ritual inside a church for the sake of desecrating it. 

The cult's disciples do summon an entity whom they believe is Satan, and present to him a bride named Dolores.

He snatches Dolores and flies out the window. The disciples realize it was Dracula rather than Satan. 

He takes her back to his downtown apartment where he tries to turn her into a vampire by consuming her blood, but he can't bring himself to do it because he's fallen in love. 

He flees in frustration to feed on the blood of other women so as to quench his insatiable thirst.

Dracula does make Dolores his wife, and they have a son together named Janus. 

After his birth, Dracula comes clean to Dolores about his true identity as she believed he was really Satan the whole time.

The real Satan manifests himself to the leader of the cult, and the two swear revenge on Dracula for taking Dolores as his own bride. 

Meanwhile, two vampire hunters named Dr. Hans Hawker, Rachel Van Helsing, and their vampire-sniffing dog, Elijah, seek the help of a guy named Frank Drake as he's highly skilled in martial arts, in finding and killing Dracula. 

He's reluctant at first, but does decide to join their efforts.

A year goes by, and Dolores has since regained her self-esteem thanks to Dracula. And his once cold and unsympathetic heart has warmed up with love once again, just as before he was turned to a vampire. 

Also, the small gang of hunters still haven't found him. 

For some reason I missed, Dracula and his family head to the church where the cult holds its rituals. Unbeknownst to them, but knownst to us, they're followed there by the vampire hunters. 

They become trapped by the cult leader who tries to kill Dracula with a silver bullet. (I thought silver bullets only killed werewolves, but I guess in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they also kill vampires). 

The bullet misses Dracula, and hits baby Janus instead, killing him. 

Dracula kills the cult leader in anger, and the hunters then make their presence known. They intend to kill him, and Dolores begs Dracula not to attack and kill them instead. 

Filled with anger and sorrow, he flees the church. 

Later, Dolores goes to the grave of her son to kill herself in sadness and despair for having given herself so freely to the service of the devil. 

Heaven then intervenes. She begs heaven for forgiveness, and Janus is revived.

He rises from the grave as an adult, complete with body tights, and has a God-given mission to kill Dracula. She begs him not to, but he can't go against his divine duties. Janus changes to a gold eagle, and flies off to kill his father.

Father and son fight after Dracula wanders the night searching for a victim, but yet again, Dracula flees.

Satan comes around and takes away Dracula's immortality and the rest of his powers, leaving him a mortal. 

Janus won't kill him since he's mortal, but Dracula turns to another vampire named Lela requesting she make him a vampire once again.

Lela refuses, and turns on him in revenge as he's the one who turned her into a vampire.

So, he's forced to return to Transylvania where he seeks the aid of another vampire named Malissa. 

He orders her, as her master, to make him a vampire once again, but she also refuses. 

Malissa says she has a new master named Sir Tomo, whom she calls on to destroy Dracula.

Sir Tomo raises other vampires from the dead to attack him. 

The vampire hunters have also followed Dracula to Transylvania were both the undead, and the vampire hunters, battle him in the ultimate showdown.

There's so much happening in this 60 minute film, filled with a lot of exposition. 

The poor English dubs, and stiff animation reminiscent of early 80s Saturday morning cartoons, it was a bit difficult to get invested in this movie. 

At times, I didn't know who I was supposed to be rooting for. Did Dracula turn good despite being labeled all sorts of nasty things pertaining to darkness and evil? He's even called the "tragic and terrifying personification of the cruel conflict between the affirmation of life and the corruption of death." But, in the plus column, Dracula is a good husband and father. 

Tomb of Dracula #10 - first appearance of 
Blade, the Vampire-Slayer

With that being the case, do the vampire hunters need to step back in their quest to kill him? Does he deserve a second chance? Well, no, because in the end, he wants to be evil. Why, though? He felt love once again just like he did before becoming a vampire. And he embraced it. It brought him happiness once again.

At other times, I couldn't follow certain decisions made by the characters. For instance, after Dolores repents for having turned to Satan, she goes back to the church where the rituals take place. Why? 

Dracula, Sovereign of the Damned is very much a melodramatic horror love story.

Somehow, overall it's a fun watch despite the flaws, loads of exposition, bad English dubs, choppy animation, and a scene where Dracula eats a hamburger. Yeah!...That's in there.  

Scenes of horror are also depicted, mostly with close-ups of Dracula's gleaming fangs piercing the slender necks of his female victims, draining their blood, and leaving them as soon-to-be undead corpses doomed to continue his evil work of creating more vampires.

The ending is a fun horror ride as the movie saves monsters and mayhem for the last act. 

It took some patience to get there.

Some of the animation was good. At other times, it seemed far less than perfect, even cheap. Despite that, some of the imagery is memorable and well done, making the movie a true horror film indeed.

The storyline for the movie diminishes a lot of the subplots from the comic series, or omits them altogether.

For instance, the comic series introduced readers to Blade, the Vampire Slayer in The Tomb of Dracula #10. He becomes a reluctant ally to the vampire hunters in the comics. Had Blade made an appearance in this animated movie, chances are it may have been more well known that it currently is.

He was portrayed by Wesley Snipes in the films Blade, Blade II, and Blade Trinity. Sticky Fingaz played the character in the TV series Blade back in 2006. 

Comic book fans, and fans of horror in general, can certainly find something enjoyable in this production. But it could certainly use a retooling for sure.

76) Better Watch Out (2016)

"What delusional infant thinks a break-in is going to get him to second base?"

Director

Chris Peckover

Cast

Olivia DeJonge - Ashley

Levi Miller - Luke Lerner

Ed Oxenbould - Garrett

Patrick Warburton - Robert Lerner

Virginia Madsen - Deandra Lerner

 

While reviewing the horror film Friday the 13th back in 1980, on his and Gene Siskel's old program Sneak Previews, critic Roger Ebert asks, "Why is it open season on women? What did these female victims do? What was their crime?" 

Siskel replies, "I'm convinced it has something to do with with the growth of the women's  movement in the U.S. in the last decade. I think these [slasher] films are some sort of primordial response by some very sick people saying 'get back in your place, women'."

Siskel notes that women in horror films are generally depicted as independent and enjoying life. Meanwhile, the killer in the movie is typically a sexually frustrated man - frustrated by these liberated women. 

Siskel and Ebert site titles such as Don't Answer the Phone (1980), Silent Scream (1979), and I Spit on Your Grave (1978) as examples of horror movies where innocent women are brutally murdered for, I guess, the sake of being brutally murdered. 

They do, however, praise the movie Halloween (1978) for being a "ground breaker" for "women in danger" films.

Halloween tells the story of babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) who fights back against the knife wielding masked maniac, Michael Myers. 

I'll add a sort of annotation here. With earlier horror movies such as Dracula (1931) for instance, it's true women were often portrayed as being in distress as a looming monster threatens their very lives. Siskel and Ebert respond that in "classic" horror movies the audience normally sees the story unfold through the victim's eyes, rather than through the killer's (a la Friday the 13th) which forces the audience to identify with the killer.

Anyhow, these critiques of theirs came to mind after watching the overlooked independent Australian/American Holiday horror flick from 2016, Better Watch Out.

You know, a perk of watching not-so-well known horror movies is finding that one gem every so often. A gem that I proudly display in my mental curio cabinet of highly esteemed and favorited films which I manifest in the form of a horror movie blog and podcast. 

Better Watch Out became one such movie. 

It's the pre-Christmas season when teenager Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) is hired to babysit 12-year old Luke Lerner (Levi Miller). 

She's well aware of the crush Luke has on her, but certainly doesn't share those feelings. Still, she treats Luke as respectably as a 17-year old girl can to such a kid. 

Before she arrives, Luke chats with his geeky friend Garrett (Ed Oxenbould) about trying to entice Ashley to make out with him while his parents are gone. It's typical sexually curious teenager banter.

As he and Ashley order pizza and watch a horror movie while his parents are out for the night, Luke tries to pull some corny moves before all-out attempting to take advantage of her. 

Olivia DeJonge and Levi Miller in Better Watch Out

Ashley doesn't go for it. Suddenly, they hear strange occurrences happening outside, and Ashley keeps finding the back door open. 

As she investigates to see who's outside, it turns out to be Garrett.

After a few moments of berating him for scaring her, they hear a window break upstairs. The three of them investigate and  find a brick on the floor that reads "U leave and U die." 

Garrett panics and tries to run through the backyard as Ashley and Luke see him get shot by an unseen sniper.

The two run upstairs and hide in the attic. They can hear movement down below in the house. 

After a while, when it doesn't sound like there's anyone near the attic entrance, they try to climb out as quietly as they can. 

But Ashley falls and almost breaks her neck. Luke catches her, and they sneak into his bedroom closet. 

They can see an intruder with a gun and a flash light enter the room as they peer through the slits of the closet door. 

This is when Ashley notices something unusual yet familiar about the man in the room. The premise then takes a completely unexpected turn. And boy, did it pull me in. 

SPOILER

There's clearly an underlying narrative in this movie that males believe they have an unconquerable dominance over females. The movie uses stereotypes to depict this point which I didn't care for. 

In the end, males appeal to the powers that be to save them from the consequences of their crimes. 

It's a hard pill to swallow, especially in this day and age. With movies, I'll add that it's easy to interpret narratives which may not actually be there, or may not be the intention of the writers. So, I'm speculating on this being the movie's actual narrative. 

One thing is for sure, male sexual frustration, an attempt at absolute dominance, and pulling the strings of the system to escape consequences are strong elements in this movie. 

On top of all that, there's a scene that takes inspiration from the 1990 Christmas movie Home Alone were this time we see the bodily damage a paint can swung from a second floor and slamming into someone's face can do.

As a horror movie, it's absolutely fantastic as far as story goes. Entertainment is the top priority for me when I watch a horror movie. This movie doesn't fail in that department. Not in the least.

Better Watch Out is a satisfying thriller that hits the horror fandom spot. It deserves to be among other popular Holiday horror titles such as Krampus (2015), Black Christmas (1974), and maybe even Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984). Hopefully the latter doesn't divert far from the wise words of Siskel and Ebert. 

Perhaps, it should also be found among other babysitting horror flicks such as When a Stranger Calls and of course Halloween. 

Watching this made me wonder how actors manage to stay terrified for an entire movie. Olivia DeJonge's performance brought this question to mind as her character has to maintain anger and fear through the majority of the movie. She does it connivingly well. 

While open season on strong independent women Siskel and Ebert say was too common in the sloppy slasher pics of the 1970s and into the 1980s seems to be over (or, at least its glorification) now, I would love to hear what they would have thought of Better Watch Out. I don't know for sure, but I highly suspect Siskel and Ebert would have seen the babysitter, Ashley, as edifying as Laurie Strode.

The year before, DeJonge and Oxenbould worked together with M. Night Shyamalan on his refreshingly enjoyable thriller The Visit.

Here, she and Levi Miller, whose character is hellbent, terrified, arrogant, and juvenile, work well off each other to create such a different kind of babysitter movie. Should these two ever make another horror movie together, I'd pay to see it. 

Olivia DeJonge

This movie pulls inspiration for its story from Home Alone, but the twist in the first act takes it someplace else - someplace much more sadistic and evil than Kevin McCallister (Home Alone's main character played by Macaulay Culkin) comedically attacking two burglars through unique traps at Christmas time. The tagline even reads "Home Alone meets The Strangers." 

I appreciate movies that take an idea audiences are familiar with, and goes elsewhere with them. The horror/ thriller film Happy Death Day (2017) did that, too. It took the premise of 1993's Groundhog Day and made it, it's own. Clever! 

If movies like these became a new trend, I'd be o.k. with it so long as those movies are as creative and entertaining as Better Watch Out and, for that matter, Happy Death Day.