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Raymond is the young creator and owner of a new chamber of
horrors-type waxworks museum in Hollywood, who receives one
too many crates containing valuable Romanian antiques. In
the odd chest sleeps Vanessa, widow of the infamous Count
Dracula. On the first night she rises and attacks Raymond,
making him her servant. Then she wanders the town looking
for blood. A police superintendent is investigating a recent
series of brutal mutilation killings. A terrified man arrives
at the station and claims his accomplice was attacked and
murdered at the waxworks while they were attempting to rob
it. The superintendent has no idea he is looking for a real
life vampire until he is warned by a descendent of Helsing,
the man who laid Dracula to rest. Meanwhile Raymond is going
through a gradual change. He realises there is only one way
to save himself and his girlfriend but, under her thrall,
he cannot quite bring himself to kill Vanessa...
Imagine
a cross between House
of Wax and a vampire film and you have the
essence of Dracula's Widow. Right, next review. [A little
bit more would be nice - Ed].
Okay,
this film does deserve a plaudit, because it might very well
be the worst vampire film I've ever seen. And I've seen a
few, believe me! Sylvia Kristel was possibly cast as Vanessa
because of her supposed sex appeal (Emmanuelle, etc.),
but the truth is in this portrayal she emits about as much
sex appeal as a road accident.
The movie is classified certificate 18, not because of any
sensual or sexual references (because there aren't any), but
due to the monster make-up effects. There must have been an
excess of latex at the warehouse, because the object here
seems to have been to slap far too much on Kristel's face,
throw around some offal made to look like people's innards,
and splash buckets of theatre blood up the walls.
Gore doesn't necessarily make a good horror flick, and this
is one of the best examples of that opinion you'll see. Kristel
is not at all frightening as a vampire, and Raymond simply
doesn't look scared until the scene when he's in the ambulance
watching the carnage outside.
Not
so much a missed opportunity as a pointless exercise. Avoid
it like the plague. For great vampire films seek out Nosferatu,
the 1920s silent film; Bela Lugosi's Dracula from the
1930's; Christopher Lee's Horror
of Dracula; and for great-weighted black humour
there's Fright Night.
Ty
Power
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