Evil Of Dracula (1974; Chi o Sū Bara) is a Japanese cinematic riff on the Hammer Horror formula. It’s your basic Dracula story, this time imagined as taking place in an all-girls residential college out in the countryside. A new hunky psychology teacher, Professor Shiraki (Toshio Kurosawa) arrives by train and becomes acquainted with the Principal (Shin Kishida). Seems like a nice enough guy, this principal, even though his recently departed wife is resting in a coffin in the basement. Oh, and one or two students tend to disappear every couple of months. Thankfully the school’s doctor (Kunie Tanaka) has read up on vampires and this might help the few students staying on campus during the holiday break including Mariko Mochizuki as Kumi. This movie gives you everything you could want in under 90 minutes: floating vampire brides, moonlit houses, foreboding forests, grey-white ghoul make up. The music switches between easy listening jazz and psych-guitar fuzz when it gets violent (score by Riichirô Manabe). Then there are the fetching 70s era fashions with your hero wearing a turtleneck and your villain identified by a fetching giant white scarf. My favourite part was that the hero – without any insight into how to defeat a vampire – just rushes at Dracula for a punch up and hopes for the best. One of director Michio Yamamoto’s Bloodthirsty Trilogy, a series of vampire movies produced by Toho and gloriously remastered by Arrow Video (available to stream on Tubi in Australia). Perfect Halloween viewing – it’s not scary or depressing, but atmospheric and fun. Recommended. Will definitely check out the other two movies, Lake Of Dracula and The Vampire Doll.
VHS Tracking 