‘Horror beyond belief… lies waiting for all who dare enter the vampire’s dungeon!’
Blood of Dracula’s Castle is a 1969 American horror film co-produced and directed by Al Adamson (Nurse Sherri; Brain of Blood; Dracula vs. Frankenstein) from a screenplay by co-producer Rex Carlton (Nightmare in Wax; Unearthly Stranger).
The Paragon International Picture stars John Carradine, Paula Raymond, Alex D’Arcy and Robert Dix.
Cinematographer László Kovács later worked on many mainstream big-budget movies including genre-related entries Ghostbusters (1984) and Copycat (1995).
Production manager John ‘Bud’ Cardos went on to direct Mutant; The Day Time Ended; The Dark and Kingdom of the Spiders.
Plot:
Count Dracula (Alexander D’Arcy) and his vampire wife (Paula Raymond), hiding behind the pseudonyms of Count and Countess Townsend, lure girls to Falcon Rock Castle in the Mojave desert to be drained of blood by their butler George (John Carradine), who then mixes real Bloody Mary cocktails for the couple.
Then the real owners of the castle show up, along with escaped convict Johnny. Dracula wants to force the young couple to sell…
Reviews:
“As an attempt to update the Dracula myth to present-day America, Blood of Dracula’s Castle is simply too forced and badly done to be successful, though is fairly gruesome for its time.” Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror
“Unforgivably cheap, dreadfully produced vampire flop which tries to drain a few laughs from the vampire formula but the results are anaemic.” John Stanley, Creature Features
“The scenes with the Townsends and George the butler are more entertaining yet very statically shot, but the dungeon scenes are at least more visually interesting although not particularly exploitative enough […] The sacrifice to Luna sequence is a nice bit of action that opens up the setting a bit more, but the finale is ridiculously slapdash.” DVD Drive-In
“Goofy even by the ridiculous standards of Adamson’s filmography, this is a fun time-waster of a film. You can’t take any of it too seriously as the entire cast overacts from start to finish and the dime store effects are about as convincing as your next-door neighbor’s Halloween decorations, but the picture moves at a good pace and features some pretty neat horror clichés in action.” DVD Talk
“This is a rather strange entry in the Al Adamson oeuvre. Though it shares a certain similarity to Dracula vs. Frankenstein in that it gives us a wide array of monsters/villains (two vampires, a homicidal maniac who may be a werewolf, a moon-worshipping butler, and a big hulking deformed man), it doesn’t really use them in the same way.” Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
” …the thing I dug about the movie was that it was just so loose with both the Dracula mythology and its own over-stuffed storyline. Johnny has no concern about the fact that his friends are vampires, and there’s a wonderfully nonchalant conversation about how they hated having to bite into necks and that the new way is so much better.” Horror Movie a Day
“If you’ve seen any Al Adamson films, you already know that this one isn’t “good” in anything resembling the traditional sense of the word. Al can’t seem to pace a story to save his life, so he resorts to padding. Lots and lots and lots and lots of padding.” Mondo Digital
“The acting makes the film feel more like a community theater project, which of course only enhances the total cheese that this is. So awful, it’s awesome is the category this belongs to. It gets slow at times, as bad movies tend to, but there are so many great moments it’s worth sitting through.” Rock! Shock! Pop!
Cast and characters:
John Carradine … George – the Butler
Paula Raymond … Countess Townsend – Hand of Death; Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
Alexander D’Arcy … Count Dracula – alias Count Charles Townsend (as Alex D’Arcy) – Horrors of Spider Island
Robert Dix … Johnny – Forbidden Planet
Gene Otis Shane … Glen Cannon (as Gene O’Shane)
Jennifer Bishop … Liz Arden (as Barbara Bishop)
Vicki Volante … Ann – Motorist Victim – Brain of Blood; Horror of the Blood Monsters
Ray Young … Mango
John ‘Bud’ Cardos … Prison Guard (as John Cardos)
Ken Osborne … Telegram Delivery Man
Ewing Miles Brown … Man (uncredited)
Joyce King … Body in Water (uncredited)
Filming locations:
- Castle Ranch (aka Shea Castle and Sky Castle) – 44901 Fairmont Road, Lancaster, California – also location for Machete Joe; Sutures; Dracula Sucks
- Hollywood Stage – 2815 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California (interiors)
- Marineland of the Pacific, 6610 Palos Verdes Drive South, Rancho Palos Verdes, California
- Palos Verdes Peninsula, California (opening sequence)
Release:
Premiered in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 14, 1969. It was released by exploitation film specialists Crown International Pictures.
Film Facts:
For TV, one version of the film was retitled Dracula’s Castle, and extra footage of an actor in a werewolf mask killing a prison guard and chasing a woman through the woods was inserted.
Trailer:
Full film free to watch online:
Suggested double-bill:
Dracula vs. Frankenstein (Al Adamson, 1971)
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