Well worth a look, if you go in with the right expectations, even if you haven't cared in the past for Don Glut's favored sub-genre - 'The Parade of Young Models with Big Boobs'.
- Monique Parent looks and is perfect as a feline and slinky vampire. Whatever she wants to come back for the next episode in this series, Don Glut will be wise to give it to her. She clearly knows exactly what this job is about and delivers 110 percent. She could easily initiate a whole new sub-genre - 'Hot Vampire MILF'.
- Also doing his job well is Del Howison, the proprietor of Dark Delicacies Bookstore, in the continuing misadventures of the much put upon 'Renfield', a mash-up of Dwight Frye with Willie Loomis from Dark Shadows. He's even given a nice story arc this time. But, in between keeping all the rooms in the castle dust free, Renfield's main job is to signal the audience this is a comedy, and not to expect something else. The comedy is an essential ingredient in this formula. If your lead character is a riff on an historical figure who was a sadistic mass murderer, playing it deadpan is a whole different category of movie.
- The music, much of it by Lucan Wolf, also adds significantly to the enterprise and the feeling its a 'real' movie this time.
Its not all great.
-'Dracula' is pretty terrible. Even though he's only in the first 15 min he still sets up the wrong tone for the rest. Why didn't Glut just bring back Arthur Roberts from his last vampire opus and call him 'Dracula'? He was fine as Ruthven. They had it nearly right in the very first one with William Smith. At least he could convey a weary gravitas just standing in front of the camera. With Tony Clay, they may be trying to do a riff on 'Count Frankenhausen' from a couple of fondly remembered Mexican movies (The Bloody Vampire, etc) dubbed by K Gordon Murray. (They even replicate the glowing eye effect from the Mexican movies.) But to say they fall a wee bit short is putting it mildly.
- Silicone implants in the Egypt of the Pharaohs. I guess this was another lost art of the ancients. But an inevitable part of any Don Glut production. To be fair, some of these short scenes look to be ported over from earlier movies.
Still, the pluses far outweigh the minuses, if you go into it with the right attitude. Remember, its a comedy. If you prefer the sickly aroma of the real Countess Bathory, try 'Hostel II'. Myself, after a hard day I'd prefer this for distraction.
