Evil of Dracula (1974)

A teacher assumes a position at a school that's run by a vampire.

Director:

Michio Yamamoto

Writers:

Ei Ogawa, Bram Stoker (character)

Stars:

Toshio Kurosawa, Mariko Mochizuki, Kunie Tanaka

Cast

Credited cast:
Toshio Kurosawa	...	Professor Shiraki
Mariko Mochizuki	...	Kumi Saijô
Kunie Tanaka	...	Dr. Shimomura
Shin Kishida	...	The Principal
Katsuhiko Sasaki	...	Professor Yoshi
Mio Ôta	...	Yukiko Mitamura
Mika Katsuragi	...	Principal's Wife
Keiko Aramaki	...	Kyôko Hayashi
Yûnosuke Itô	...	Takakura / Detective
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yasuko Agawa	...	Keiko Nonomiya,Student in Blue Negligee (as Tomoe Mari)
Tadao Futami	...	Station Employee
Susugu Katayama	...	Shimazaki- Man in Hospital
Kazuya Oguri	...	Hosoya - Acting Principal
Haruo Suzuki	...	Guard in the school
Midori Takei	...	The Girl in Flashback

Storyline

Dracula, played by an uncredited caucasian, was shipwrecked in the 1600s in Japan, when Christianity was illegal. He was forced to spit on the cross and wander alone in the desert. Upon finding himself bleeding, he was so thirsty he drank the blood and acquired a taste for it, attacking local teenager Keiko. In present day, Professor Shiraki arrives at a girl's school where he was to be teaching, but now the principal, whose wife died in a car accident, wants Shiraki to take over for him. The principal is keeping his wife in the cellar for a week, supposedly according to local custom, to see if she might return to life. Immediately suspicious, Shiraki investigates and becomes entrenched in horror of the vampires. Three girls are caught up too, as one has already been bitten, and her roomates stay to care for her.

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Plot Keywords:

vampire | dracula | cellar | girls' school | third part | 

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Genres:

Drama | Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

2 April 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

Evil of Dracula

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company, Toho Eizo Co.

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Follows The Vampire Doll (1970)

User Reviews

Really entertaining conclusion to the series

Taking a job in a remote village, a man is promoted instantly to be principal of the all-girls school he teaches and comes to learn that the previous boss was a vampire still lurking around the school grounds and must find a way to stop him before he claims more of the student body.

This was a highly enjoyable and engaging effort in the series. What tends to give this one a lot of it's best qualities is the fact that there's quite a creepy atmosphere developed from the very start. The ride to the school where they witness the damaged car on the side of the road gets this off to a nice bit of foreshadowing, especially once the real motivation for his arrival is given which is what really starts this one off. Moving into the school's bunkers is where this one starts in on the Gothic atmosphere that's present throughout here in his first encounter with the three brides in his room which is full of tense Gothic images as they chase him around as well as the later scene in the basement where he discovers the coffin of the dead wife unknowingly turned into a vampire. That they appear so early into the film help make the film's tangent into the mysticism and lore of the backstory for the main villain all the more interesting as there's quite a large influence of Western mythology which readily enhances this as a whole. As that itself leads into their behavior later on when they start attacking the schoolgirls in much more frantic encounters out in the woods attacking the transfixed girls or brawling with the faculty chasing after them which feel far more commonplace in Western efforts rather than these Eastern tales which adds immensely to their appeal. Once we get into the finale where the bodies of the students under his control come out and are shown to attack the others in his basement, this one becomes quite fun with the added fun of some cheap-looking gore to enhance the experience while giving this one some nice action to close it out. Along with the chilling look to the vampires and the way it moves rather nicely along, there's enough to like here to hold this one up over it's few minor flaws. The film's biggest issue is the way it resorts to lengthy, somewhat drab dialogue-heavy scenes to tell a vast majority of its plot points, as rather than feature them battling each other or investigate anything it's all driven by speaking to everyone and then drawing conclusions based on that so it tends to run into sections where it's not nearly as exciting as the events that are supposedly being put forth end up being. Likewise, there's also the fact that this one does look rather cheap at times, especially in the bloody kills which are like colored water in their consistency and the day-for-night scenes in the woods are somewhat obvious and embarrassing. These are the film's only real problems, though.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language and Brief Nudity.