Count Dracula (Udo Kier) is dying. He needs fresh human blood, the blood of a 'pure wirgin' as Dracula pronounces it. Dracula is to well known in Romania to be able to locate a virgin, so together with his servant Anton (Arno Juerging) he sets out to Italy to find one, because of the Italians strict religious upbringing they believe the chances of finding a virgin will be high. Upon arrival they question some locals and learn of a married couple who live nearby, the Marquis (Vittorio Di Sicca) and Marquise Di Fiore (Maxime McKendry) who have four unmarried daughters, Esmeralda (Milena Vukotic), Saphiria (Dominique Darel), Rubinia (Stefania Casini), and Perla (Silvia Dionisio). The Marquis has gambled the Di Fiore's family money away and by marrying one of their daughters off to a sick looking Dracula they think they will inherit his money when he dies. Dracula and Anton are invited to stay at their large, but run down house. Once there Dracula has the opportunity suck all the blood he needs, but thanks to Mario Balato (Joe Dallesandro) the Di Fiore's servant, some of the girls aren't as pure as Dracula needs. Before long Mario becomes suspicious of the Count, but will he find out the truth too late?
Written and directed by Paul Morrissey I was very disappointed by this extremely talky, overlong and rather dull excuse for a horror film. In fact it's more of a historical drama/sex film rather than horror. There's a lot of naked flesh and sex on show, the girls even go topless when gardening. There are only three gore scenes in the whole film, two scenes where Kier violently throws up impure blood and when Dracula is gorily killed at the end with an axe. After the funny black humour and over the top gore of Flesh for Frankenstein, which was made at the same time with some of the same cast and crew, I was expecting more of the same. Unfortunately I didn't get it. The film looks quite nice having being filmed in real historic locations in Europe and Kier is watchable as Count Dracula, as he always is. But the film just takes too long for anything interesting to happen and it becomes very boring to watch. There are very few characters in the film, once Dracula arrives at the Di Fiore's house the Di Fiore's themselves, their daughters, Mario, Dracula and Anton are the only characters seen on screen for the whole of the rest of the film. Apart from some nice scenery there is very little to recommend here for horror fans, disappointing.
Written and directed by Paul Morrissey I was very disappointed by this extremely talky, overlong and rather dull excuse for a horror film. In fact it's more of a historical drama/sex film rather than horror. There's a lot of naked flesh and sex on show, the girls even go topless when gardening. There are only three gore scenes in the whole film, two scenes where Kier violently throws up impure blood and when Dracula is gorily killed at the end with an axe. After the funny black humour and over the top gore of Flesh for Frankenstein, which was made at the same time with some of the same cast and crew, I was expecting more of the same. Unfortunately I didn't get it. The film looks quite nice having being filmed in real historic locations in Europe and Kier is watchable as Count Dracula, as he always is. But the film just takes too long for anything interesting to happen and it becomes very boring to watch. There are very few characters in the film, once Dracula arrives at the Di Fiore's house the Di Fiore's themselves, their daughters, Mario, Dracula and Anton are the only characters seen on screen for the whole of the rest of the film. Apart from some nice scenery there is very little to recommend here for horror fans, disappointing.