Dracula's Dog (1978)

Unearthing a tomb in Romania, a half-man/half-vampire servant to Count Dracula and Dracula's dog discover the last remnants of the family living in California and set out to make them a part of their vampiric family using whatever they can to ensure he joins them in their quest.This here turned out to be quite the enjoyable cheesefest. A large part of what makes that so endearing is the fact that there's quite a lot of encounters and confrontations that paint this one in quite a cheesy manner from the outset. The central idea at the core of the film is the fact that this one has the reanimated dog of Dracula's servant running around taking out the animals near a family vacation that contains their next ancestor comes off as simply way too silly to take seriously, yet that doesn't really detract from this one as that comes about from the beginning of the film, and it remains consistent throughout here which makes the cheesiness grow quite well. It's no surprise that the best moments involve the dog, outfitted out with glowing eyes and ludicrously over-sized fangs, the dog often looks amusingly nonplussed with what is meant to be going on around him. He is certainly one multi-talented dog, however, as he drags heavy looking coffins out of crypts, removes stakes with his teeth and provides several other highly impressive stunts that come off as very well done and give it a certain amount of menace. It also makes the action of this one quite enjoyable throughout here, with the opening encounter in the crypt where the reawakened dog takes out the lone guard reviving his handler and the excursions into the campsite attacking the family are caused by this inclusion which is what makes for a fun time. The scenes of him gathering the dog army are just as cheesy, and the scene of the vampire-puppy crawling out of the ground are even more good cheesy fun here. That serves nicely enough for the set-up at the end, as the house-siege scenes do have some quite tense moments as the ethereal howling from the dogs in the background, their frantic assaults to get in anywhere they can in the house offer rather chilling and the several attacks do build up the tension quite nicely. There is some rather nice bloodletting in the attacks as well, but otherwise, this was still just a giant cheese-fest. That is the film's main strength as well as the great flaw in here, as it all depends on how much the plot points stack up in the cheese factor. There's quite simply too many to name, from the inherent stupidity of the soldiers early on who discover the corpses, to the reanimated dogs who spend the majority of the time simply staring at others, while the servant gazes at the dog who hypnotically stares at the other dogs in the area. The ludicrous situation that the film comes to, which has the dog army invade a small barricade set-up to stop them, to the events that preceded them, are just plain cheesy, and there's no getting around them. The amount of cheese that can be absorbed from a film will be about equal to how much you can find wrong with this one, as it's the only factor that really seems off in this one, but it's still a major one.Rated R: Violence, Language and violence-against-animals.

An extremely dumb soldier guarding an ancient Romanian tomb removes the wooden stake piercing the body of Zoltan, canine companion of Count Dracula, thereby bringing the malevolent mutt back to life. After killing the soldier, the pointy-toothed pooch revives his half-vampire master Veidt Smith (Reggie Nalder) and together they go in search of the last adult descendant of Dracula: Michael Drake of California, USA, who has just set off on a two week camping trip with his wife and children, a pair of German Shepherds, and their adorable puppies.Zoltan: Hound of Dracula is every bit as silly and as terrible as the laughable title and above synopsis suggests; but while it might sound like a horror comedy, everything in this film is played absolutely straight, making it one of the most ill-conceived attempts at a scary movie I have ever seen. Dog flashbacks, a vampire puppy, repeated gratuitous close-ups of Nalder's 'unique' visage, snarling dogs sporting plastic fangs, animal actors easily out-performing their human co-stars: this one is utter nonsense from start to finish, with just the occasional unintentional laugh to relieve the boredom (I had to giggle at how irresponsible Michael and his wife were, both as pet owners and as parents, and the film's closing shot—I won't say what it is—is absolutely priceless!).

I actually love this film. I saw it in the late 70s as a kid and it scared the heck out of me. Nowadays it isn't scary. However there are some nice effective moments where Zoltan watches the sleeping humans. But come on guys... for sheer inventiveness this film deserves a better rating! Features the great Jose Ferrer in his silliest role, vampire dogs, a great pre-Salem's Lot Reggie Nalder as the baddie, and a preposterous plot about Dracula's descendants. But... the set pieces are really very good. Some unforgettable moments of suspense, great music, and who can forget those glowing dog eyes? Not quite a cult classic, but certainly worth watching. Unintentionally funny? Yes. But this is film with its heart in the right place... held there firmly by a wooden stake!

A group of Russian soldiers discover the tomb of the Dracula family, and one of them foolishly removes the stake from the body of Dracula's dog Zoltan, and in which the dog raises Dracula's servant/original owner too. Needing to find the last of their master's bloodline, they end up travelling to California to discover their descendant Michael Drake and his family are going on holidays in the woods. Wanting to convert him they follow the family there, and transform dogs in the area into vampires to get the task done, but Inspector Branco has arrived to inform Michael about his problems.How about that! Fun assured? Well not of the intentional kind or even camp, but this trashy and completely static b-flick makes for a lightweight and brainless distraction. You got a meaningful flashback… from Zoltan, Dracula's dog, so we could see what a lovely dog he was before being bitten by Dracula. Yeah that's a sight to see. Actually there's quite a bit of Zoltan biting dogs and the unexpected traveller, so don't be looking for the any bathing beauties to be bitten on the neck. When we cop a grin from the dogs there are nice dental work on show, oh and the glowing eyes of pure evil was a super touch. Terrifying! I'm sure you'll think this sounds whacked! But no there's far more to share. You like puppies? Cute puppies? How about Dracula puppies? Yeah dog lovers beware. The dog's master (amusedly played by Reggie Nalder) looks likes a stunned mullet as he communicates telepathically with his mean looking mutt Zoltan, and this is quite rib tickling. This is just the cream of the crop too. A junky, and quite limited production (which is directed by Full Moon founder Albert Brand) comes across being rather grizzled and glum. The inventive concept, which is dreamt up by Frank Ray Perilli, is quite an unusual one, but it can't seem to sustain the idea and it soon becomes terribly old. There isn't enough to hang a story off it and too many holes open up. The stiff script and stuffy performances ( Michael Pataki really does grate away) added to unwanted crinkles too. Jose Ferrer doesn't seem to be putting a whole lot into his haggard performance, however he still comes off reasonably well. The dogs are the ones who out-perform their fellow co-stars. Brand might seem like his on cruise control, but he does construct some atmospheric moments within the brooding woodlands, and there are one or two intense build-ups. However most of it is downright silly to be effective, like the dog attacks involving obvious puppet work. The make-up effects are minimal and basic, and Stan Winston was part of the FX team. The photography is colourless and the hovering score hits all the generic notes with a blunt sounding synthesizer.Watchable, but a long way from good.