Evil of Dracula

Professor Shiraki (Toshio Kurosawa) travels from Tokyo to the countryside by train to work as a psychology teacher in the Seimei School for girls. There is a driver waiting for him and he sees a car accident on the road. He learns that the principal´s wife died in the accident. When they arrive at the school, the Principal (Shin Kishida) welcomes him and Shiraki offers his condolences to him. He tells that the coffin of his wife will stay in the basement for seven days as per the local costume. He also tells that Shiraki was chosen to be the next principal of the school. During the night, Shiraki has a dreadful nightmare with the principal´s wife. Soon he befriends three students and learns that a roommate has disappeared and other students are also missing. What is the mystery of the Seimei School for girls?

"Chi o suu bara", a.k.a. "Evil of Dracula", is the third vampire film by Toho Studios. There is no Dracula in the story despite the American title. However it is cult and does not disappoint the fans of a vampire movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Maldição de Drácula" ("The Curse of Dracula")

The last part of Yamamoto's Vampire Trilogy has been described as the worst, but it's still very entertaining. The main problem is that it obviously tries to copy the Hammer Vampire movies, and the man with the cape always looks a little bit out of place. Otherwise, most 'scary moments' are carried out in the `Kaidan Eiga'- fashion with slow camera movements and impressive lighting. Here, and in some beautiful long shots, it shows that some skill was involved, and that the movie could have become a minor classic if it had stuck to the Japanese tradition of the Horror Film. The sound track sounds too European, too and the dubbing is a total nightmare, but I think, a subtitled version recently got released in the U.K. Recommended viewing for fans of offbeat seventies horror.

The Evil of Dracula is the third and last of director Michio Yamamoto's vampire movies, after The Vampire Doll (1970) and The Lake of Dracula (1971).

Toshio Kurosawa plays psychology teacher Shiraki, who takes a position at a girls school in the country only to discover that the principal is a vampire (NOT named Dracula, despite the film's American title). And to be honest, not a lot of interest happens, the entire film spent following Shiraki as he tries to unravel the mystery (not that there is much of a mystery to unravel) while unsuccessfully protecting three students from the principal (Shin Kishida), his undead wife (Mika Katsuragi) and their loyal assistant Yoshie (Katsuhiko Sasaki).

The vampires themselves are suitably menacing, the gloomy and atmospheric girls school makes for a creepy location, and the film does feature one or two original touches (the principal's vampire wife assuming the identity of one of the students by wearing her face as a mask is fun), but the weak script and slow pace means that this Japanese Hammer wannabe still lacks bite.

So after subscribing to Arrow Video service on Prime (initially started to watch the move Spanish movie REC) I was looking through their Asian movie catalogue. This is where I was introduced to Michio Yamamoto. The concept is great and the acting and pacing is good too. It reminded me of Hammer horror films. There is a lot conveyed in the short runtime of the movie.

While I did enjoy the film, there was a lot of back and forth in the scenes which I personally thought wasn't necessary. I think I would've enjoyed more focus on the back story of the occult, rather than a quick glance over it.

But this has started my exploration into the Yamamoto universe.

Third of the trilogy of Hammer inspired Japanese 70s movies. Not quite as good as the first, this is an improvement on Lake of Dracula, with much better photography helping this become a very good looking film and adding interest to some of those middle sequences. Starts very well indeed and the finale certainly has some vigour, even if you are urging someone to construct a crucifix to bring things to a more urgent ending. Actually, total absence of use of the crucifix to save the day is presumably something to do with the Japanese not wanting to elevate the importance of such alien paraphernalia, but thats just a guess. So, bit more action here, bit more colour and a bit more sexed up too with small amount of nudity here and there.