*** SPOILERS ***
From the same guys who brought us 'Flesh for Frankenstein', 'Blood for Dracula' is also a very odd, yet at the same time compelling movie... in that you find it hard to drag your eyes away from it, much as you may want to at times.
My favourite part of this movie is the introduction as the opening credits roll, which show the impossibly beautiful Udo Kier as Dracula making up his face in front of a mirror, ironically to hide his sickly pallor. The thing is, the count needs to drink virgin blood in order to stay alive and well. Transylvania seems sadly lacking in that area. For this reason, with the advice of his servant Anton and the blessing of his sister, he sets off for Italy, as Anton figures this is where there should be plethora of young catholic virgin girls.
Their cover story is that he is seeking a wife and custom dictates that he must marry a virgin girl. Step forward the di Fiore family, who have 4 young daughters, who they claim are virgins. However, 2 of the 4 girls have already been deflowered thanks to the creepy, sleazy handyman Mario. Sadly for the count, he discovers one of the subjects of his advances is no virgin and he immediately becomes very ill and treats us to a lovely blood vomitting scene. Kudos to Udo for the convincing acting in this scene... speaking of acting, asides from him, the acting in this movie is monumentally AWFUL. The accents are cringe-worthy and sometimes you're not sure if you should be laughing....
Oddly drinking the blood of these 2 girls turns them into droid like creatures who obey his every order. Now we know there are only 2 daughters left to make the count well again. The younger one is only 14... that doesn't however matter to our lothario Mario who decides to rape her to save her from the count. There follows a rather stomach churning scene after this... that's not to say its gorey, but one of those... "OMG Yuck!" scenes.
Anyways.... Udo manages to regain his strength as he drinks the blood of the eldest daughter who is still a virgin, but it's all to no avail. Our ending comes as the girls mother learns of the counts real identity and plans. She meets at end at the hands of Draculas servant Anton when she confronts him, but she manages to kill him before she herself dies. Mario kills the count and dismembers his body and the oldest girl (who is now a vampire) is staked...
So what did I think. That's a hard one. It definately isn't a movie I'd watch by choice. It isn't one I will watch again, but I wouldn't go so far as to give it an 'avoid' tag. I love Udo Kier and he is the only thing about it worth watching in my opinion. One for old horror fans only.
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