Dracula's Dog (1978)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

disgusting, overrated, pointless

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

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.

The Russian Army (who don't have Russian accents in this movie, by the way) are busy blasting, and they unearth the crypt of the Dracula family line. Also among those bones entombed are those of Veidt Schmidt (Reggie Nalder), the Counts' ghoulish slave, and Veidts' faithful canine companion, Zoltan. The bodies of Veidt and Zoltan are resurrected, and they travel to America in search of the Counts' last living descendant. That turns out to be family man Michael Drake (Michael Pataki), who's gone on a camping trip with his wife (Jan Shutan) and two kids (Libby Chase, John Levin). Drake will receive assistance from an intrepid Van Helsing type named Inspector Branco (Jose Ferrer), who tails the villain and his dog to L.A. Before too long, Zoltan has sunk his teeth into the necks of a few of the canines in the lake area, creating a pack of vampire dogs.Admittedly, this is a fairly novel twist which the filmmakers exploit for all that it's worth. (Although there was also a vampire dog in the 1940s horror picture "The Face of Marble".) "Dracula's Dog" is low rent, to be sure, with less than stellar acting. Ferrer is just picking up a paycheck, Pataki really isn't cut out for family man type roles, and Nalder is required to basically stand around, most of the time. He either smiles for the camera repeatedly with that uniquely unhandsome face of his, or communicates telepathically with Zoltan. Also appearing are two other character actors with great faces, Simmy Bow and JoJo D'Amore, as fishermen in the area, and the sexy Arlene Martel as Russian Major Hessel. It's the dogs that come off the best, unsurprisingly.This viewer did enjoy the decent electronic music score by Andrew Belling and the cinematography by Bruce Logan. There is also some wonderful gore devised by Stan Winston. Directed by Albert Band ("I Bury the Living"), this movie does get one thing right: the animal attack sequences, supervised by old pros Karl Lewis Miller and Lou Schumacher. These, at least, are done with skill, accompanied by rapid fire editing by Harry Keramidas. One moment has Pataki in a car besieged by killer canines, prefiguring the story "Cujo" by a few years. (See also "The Pack", made around this time.)Minor league fare, but it may work for dedicated fans of animal attack horror. The final minute or so is both cute and sad at the same time.Dog and puppy lovers may find some moments to be hard to take.Six out of 10.

Zoltan, Hound of Dracula starts in Romanian as the local there seems to be blowing holes in the ground for no apparent reason, while doing this seemingly random act of environmental vandalism they unearth an ancient tomb belonging to the Dracula's. They post a soldier there to guard the tomb until a further more detailed examination can be made, that night one of the coffins open & the soldier is stupid enough to remove a wooden stake from whatever it is embedded in & before he know's it a Vampire Dog named Zoltan has returned to life & bit his throat out. Zoltan then pulls the stake out of his master's remains, his name is Veidt Smith (Reggie Nalder) & is servant to Dracula who is long since dead. Feeling unwanted & lonely Veidt travels to California to find Michael Drake (Michael Pataki) who is the last living blood relative of Dracula, using the vicious Zoltan he plans to turn Drake into a Vampire like his ancestor & serve him for all eternity...Originally released as Dracula's Dog this American & Italian co-production was produced & directed by Albert Band, this Dog of a film really should be taken away & put down humanely as it's absolutely terrible & I had a hard time getting to the end. Everything about this lousy film is terrible, I had heard of the film before but thought it would be better. I don't know why but I always imagined it to be a period Gothic horror film featuring Dracula himself set in Transylvania in a big stone castle like Hammer Studios were making at their peak but I was wrong, I was very wrong as Zoltan, Hound of Dracula features Vampire Dog's & is set in some woods near Los Angeles. The idea of a Vampire biting another person & turning them into a Vampire is standard horror film stuff but a Vampire Dog that bites other Dog's turning them into Vampires is just weird & is as ridiculous & absurd as it sounds. It's hard to keep a straight face during the majority of Zoltan, Hound of Dracula with it's terrible attempts at tension & scares along with the barest of stories that drags on & on, throw into that a funny & utterly predictable twist ending (I kept saying out loud 'What about the puppy! What about the puppy!') in which a cute little puppy is meant to be scary as it has plastic fangs & glowing eyes. The character's are awful especially Drake who believes everything Inspectoir Branco tells him about Dracula & Vampires without questioning it, from bit part campers to Drake's wife & kids who disappear totally from the film about two thirds of the way through to Veidt Smith whose only motivation is to be a servant to Dracula. Hasn't this guy heard that slavery has been abolished? Why can't he just be his own man? Why can't he just enjoy his life with Zoltan his Vampire Dog? Why can't he & Zoltan just settle down somewhere in Romania & live happily ever after with some dignity & self respect? Why does he want to be a slave to Dracula? He may be evil but he has human rights too you know. I mean would Dracula even pay him a decent wage for his services? I doubt it. The guy's not much of a conversationalist either, I don't think he says anything to anyone during the whole film except Zoltan who he can talk to telepathically, seriously & Zoltan understands every word he telepathically says. At just over 80 odd minutes long Zoltan, Hound of Dracula drags & is very boring with not much going on. Also, has anyone else noticed that Michael Drake is constantly referred to as the last blood ancestor of Dracula yet he has two children of his own?Another big problem with Zoltan, Hound of Dracula is how seriously it takes itself with no attempt to ham things up a big & deliver on it's absurd title & premise. All we want is to be entertained & have a bit of fun while watching a film & Zoltan, Hound of Dracula fails miserably at this basic requirement. The direction is stiff & at times laughable, the Dog's on show are obviously tame & well trained so the attack scenes often look more like the Dog's are trying to play with people rather than rip them to shreds. Constant scenes of docile looking Dog's walking around with plastic fangs & glowing eye's is as silly as it gets. There's not much gore, a guy has his neck bitten, a few Dog's are staked through the heart & a camper is bitten by Zoltan but little else. Director Albert Band later went on to form the likes of Empire Pictures & Fullmoon Productions with his son Charles Band.Filmed on what must have been a low budget the effects, music & production values are all average at best, isn't it unusual how the Romanian army all speak perfect English & with Americn accents? The acting is not great, Oscar winner José Ferrer is slumming it while Michael Pataki looks likes he's there for the money & nothing else. Pataki also starred in the much, much better Vampire film Grave of the Vampire (1974) several years prior.Zoltan, Hound of Dracula is terrible, it really is & I found it pretty hard to make it to the end. It's a complete Dog of a film that sure be put down, it would be a mercy killing. Not recommended apart from the hilarious Vampire puppy at the end which is genuinely quite funny.

This film was known in the UK as "Zoltan - Hound Of Dracula". Now, a 1970s horror flick with that sort of title would probably make you think of the Hammer films, but in fact this production has nothing of the look or feel of a Hammer film. In fact, I'm not sure it has the look or feel of *any* other horror film I've seen, because Zoltan - Hound Of Dracula is really something quite unique.Much of it is shot in bright, sunny open countryside, a setting which tends not to lend itself very well to the horror genre, although to be fair most of this picture's suspense scenes are reserved for the night-time sequences.The film's 'star' is a big black dog, Zoltan, a vampire in its own right. Through a brief flashback sequence we learn that many years ago he gained his vampire status after being bitten by Dracula, and thereafter served as the faithful companion to the famous vampire. And no, I've no idea why Dracula, a being that can supposedly adopt the guise of a bat or a wolf, would have need of a pet dog, but there you go. Maybe Dracula had a sentimental side to him where animals were concerned - after all, he did apparently pose to have his photo taken with Zoltan! Anyway, at some point in the past Dracula and his clan, including Zoltan, were stopped with the customary stakes through the heart, and laid to rest in an underground tomb in Eastern Europe. Military explosions open this tomb in the present day, and at this point the film is very vague as to why things happen - suffice to say contrived events lead to Zoltan coming back to life, along with his original owner, the semi-vampiric Veidt Schmidt, but not Dracula himself, which is probably just as well, because in the brief flashback glimpses we have of the Count, actor Michael Pataki looks quite ridiculous in the traditional Bela Lugosi attire.Without the proper Dracula to serve, Zoltan and Schmidt apparently have to seek out a new master from the same bloodline (yes, run that one by me again, please...) and so head off to Los Angeles to track down his only known living descendant, to turn him into a vampire. And no, it's not explained how they know where he is. Luckily, local vampire expert Inspector Branco (Jose Ferrer) realises what's going on and heads off in pursuit to stop them.The descendant, Michael Drake, is a happy family man who is just in the process of taking his wife, kids and dogs off on a camping trip to get away from it all.The bulk of the film consists of Drake and his family being terrorised by Zoltan and the other dogs, who get bitten and become vampiric themselves. Despite an overall air of cheapness and lack of depth, there are some good sequences, particularly when Drake finds himself trapped in first a hut, and later his car, surrounded by a pack of dogs clawing away at his defences, intent on getting to him, or also the brutal savaging of a lone camper. The titular canine, Zoltan, looks quite effective throughout, and certainly isn't an animal you'd want to cross on a dark night.You have to give the film some credit for trying to come up with something a little different. The Dracula aspect of this film is more a marketing ploy and the plot might have benefited from having the Dracula references removed altogether. The character of Veidt Schmidt doesn't do very much either, but given that a dog can't talk, he's really just a lazy plot device to explain Zoltan's motivations at any given point.The musical score is low key and unmemorable. This is a film that stretches credulity at times, but it is undemanding, lively and original. It's far from being a great film, but there are certainly worse ones around. If your expectations aren't too high, then you might find it enjoyable. And the closing shot is quite good!