Lake of Dracula

A young painter has recurring dreams about an experience she suffered as a child.

Though, she seems to have repressed the memory of it having actually occurred.

Fast forward a number of years later, and this dream is starting to manifest itself in her waking life.

All after of one of her friends receives a mysterious delivery, which just so happens to be a coffin.

Now her dog is dead, her friend tries to attack her, and a farm girl has been found near her house drained of blood.

It's all the work of the Japanese Dracula, who has returned to finish what what he had failed to complete when she was a child...to turn her into a vampire...and make her his bride.

Her best friend, however, doesn't believe her, and convinces her doctor boyfriend that it's all in her head.

But that's probably because Dracula has already turned her.

Interestingly, though, the people he bites don't actually die...or fully turn, it seems...as they can still walk in the daylight.

Rather, they just sort of take on an odd demeanour.

As to their master's bidding, they keep trying to get the young woman alone, so that he can sink his fangs into her.

For he has become obsessed with her, ever since she escaped him as a child.

It's not until one of them tries to kill her boyfriend, that he finally realizes that something is actually up.

Which only acts to confirm that it's not all in her head.

He uses hypnosis to help her bring forth the repressed memory, in order to figure out if her childhood trauma was, in fact, real.

And deduces that because no one believed her as a child, she convinced herself it was all a dream.

Now, they must re-enact the experiences from this dream, in order to find Dracula, so that they can kill him once and for all.

Only then, will her friends (that are still alive) be freed from his curse.

As far as Asian vampire films go, it's no Mr. Vampire, but it's still a pretty decent flick.

It's more of a mystery, than an action film.

But there are a couple instances of cool special effects.

Dracula, here, is more of a pale blue, than the normal off white.

So, he's more intimidating through his strength, than he is his from his slightly comic appearance.

I wasn't totally satisfied with the ending...which seems to have been a bit of a cop out.

But overall, it's an interesting little vampire film, that differs from the norm.

6.5 out of 10.

Lake of Dracula is the second entry in the Bloodthirsty Trilogy, a series of Japanese movies inspired by American and European horror cinema, literature and myths. The story revolves around school teacher Kashiwagi Akiko who lives near a peaceful lake. When a coffin is delivered to a local boathouse by a strange truck driver, strange events start to occur. Akiko believes the current events are somehow related to a traumatizing event she went through when she was only five years old. Her joyful sister Natsuko doesn't believe her but her fiancé Doctor Saeki Takashi starts to investigate when one of his patients who lived near the lake is brought to his hospital with two bite marks on her neck.

If compared to the first entry in the franchise, Lake of Dracula isn't as intense from start to finish as the creepy The Vampire Doll. There are a few too many dialogues in the middle section and scenes like the two sisters going shopping in a nearby town are irrelevant to the story. However, the opening flashback has a very eerie atmosphere and the first scene in the present when a mysterious coffin is delivered sets the tone for the rest of the movie. Things start getting really intense in the second half when the protagonist gets attacked at home and her fiancé in his car. From then on, the film has intense pace and ends very dramatically as well.

The settings are perfectly chosen. The beautiful town by the lake turns into a sinister trap. The vampire's strange house has an otherworldly vibe to it. The hospital the doctor works in looks sinsiter at night. The different locations add some diversity to an already entertaining movie.

The acting performances are also quite solid. Fujita Midori delivers the goods as lead actress in her very first film and it's a mystery to me why she only starred in six movies in her whole career. Her fragile yet determined nature is perfecrly balanced in this movie. She harmonizes well with her more rational and grounded partner Takahashi Chôei. Their chemistry is comparable to the couple in the first movie. The mysterious vampire is played by Kishida Shin and truly terrifying. It reminds of several classic American horror movies in a positive way.

The second half of the film might even be better than the one of The Vampire Doll but a slightly dragging middle section makes Lake of Dracula overall a little bit less enjoyable. Still, fans of classic horror cinema will dig the combination of Japanese culture and Western horror tropes. The idea that vampirism was brought to Japan by foreigners as explained in this movie is somewhat awkward but everything else fits together very fluidly. The movie looks a little bit dated nowadays but still convinces with very good acting performances, a lot of atmosphere and great locations.

Somehow, while being a fan of Japanese horror and ghost story movies, I managed to never have heard of the so-called Bloodthirsty trilogy. They are loads of fun.

Lake of Dracula is the middle film in the trilogy. It has an atmospheric opening, an entertaining if periodically slow moving middle portion, and a fantastic climax, including quite an ending. Wow, did they ever go for it with the ending!

There are a couple of annoying inconsistencies in the script, but really, perfect logic is never really the point in most modern Japanese horror. It's more about atmosphere, mood, and, in the case of these wonderful and unusual Japanese Gothic horror movies, a garish luredness lifted straight from the Hammer movies. The actors are also appealing and competent, and when consistently applied (it doesn't always cover the necks) the blue-gray vampire makeup is pretty cool.

Interesting context: the Bloodthirsty trilogy was produced by Toho, and Lake of Dracula was released the same year as Toho's Godzilla vs. Hedorah.

Highly recommended for fans of Hammer horror, Gothic horror, and Japanese horror cinema.

I had some difficulty with this one. Interesting as a Japanese version of a Hammer horror but although it looked fairly good, with all the expected cobwebs, old house, awkward fangs, multiple shots of bite marks (same every time and repeated?) and sounded okay, creaking doors, thunder and lightening and plenty of screams, this did creak a bit (pardon the pun). A leisurely start is basically followed by a wordy middle and amazingly a rather slow ending, just when things really should have been going bump. Some nice late 60s/early 70s costumes including some pretty English coats and suits plus an extensive use of scarves which were presumably to hide bite marks that weren't there. Colourful but slightly annoying in that the makers had clearly seen many Hammers yet the cast had not because they seemed oblivious to the end, when all had to be spelled out. Nice that it was made clear that these were not Japanese vampires but foreigners. Of course!

Arriving at a small lake-side town, a new teacher comes to suspect that someone is behind the strange incidents and dead bodies piling up around town, and when she learns that a master vampire has moved into the area she sets out to stop his blood-soaked reign against the villagers.

This was a decent enough if slightly flawed vampire effort. One of the few solid points involved here comes from the way this goes about trying to instill the idea of the vampire in the area as the build- up here is somewhat credible. Building the strange crate delivery alongside her arrival at the same time is quite nicely handled, and the first attacks, as well as the discovery of their aftermath, all come off rather well as the mystery starts to unfold. Even some of the fine action scenes throughout here, from the abduction in the woods before being startled away and the hospital resurrection of the first body to the idea of the nightly romps through the woods where he's able to feast on her friend despite continually denying it all makes for a rather fun time here and sells the idea of her mental competence rather well which runs through the first half of the film. Once it's confirmed that there are vampires involved, things pick up far more here with the Gothic action scenes really enhancing this one from the ambush in the car at the same time the two of them trap her in the home and begin tormenting her or the hospital awakening sequence give this some really energetic and lively moments. However, it's really the big confrontation at the end which really works best here with the Gothic imagery and action really making for a great finish and gives this one a lot to really like here with the way it all wraps up inside the basement and spreading throughout the rest of the house. Still, while these are the film's good points there are a few negative issues. One of the main problems is the fact that the film really suffers from a stiff and dragged out beginning where not a whole lot really makes an impact. Despite the series of events that play out here detailing the emergence of the vampire around the village, it's still a somewhat dull and dragged-out effort where those brief spurts feel like exceptions to the bland dialogue-heavy sequences that are much more commonly featured so this one really feels like it takes a while to get going. By focusing on her burgeoning mental instability doesn't make for a fun time here regardless of how well the vampire storyline is built through these events, this one really takes more time than it should in letting loose with its story and comes across as somewhat duller than it should be considering what goes on. Likewise, there's also the rather economical manner this one manages to make the heroine think of her predicament and how she buys into it all, as a few throwaway lines regarding the Western methods of dealing with vampires and yet it's completely bought into without so much as a real questionable thought. This makes for a tough time overall, although it does still have its moments.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language and violence-against-animal aftermath.