Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Die Vampires Des Dr. Dracula (Frankenstein's Bloody Terror)
Collapse
X
Collapse
-
Die Vampires Des Dr. Dracula (Frankenstein's Bloody Terror)
Released by: Subkultur Entertainment
Released on: February 11th, 2015.
Director: Enrique L. Equiluz
Cast: Paul Naschy, Dianik Zurakowska, Rosanna Yanni, Manuel Manzaneque, Julian Ugarte
Year: 1968
Purchase From Diabolik DVD
The Movie:
Released in North America by Sam Sherman as Frankenstein's Bloody Terror (which is a great title that really doesn't have much to do with the movie at all!), 1968's La marca del Hombre Lobo/Mark Of The Wolfman (or Die Vampires Des Dr. Dracula in German) is an enjoyable monster mash featuring Paul Naschy as his iconic wolfman, Waldemar Daninsky.
Written by Naschy (a.k.a. Jacinto Molina), the story begins with some nicely shot footage of a fancy costume ball. While that's going on, a gypsy couple, Nascha (Rossana Yanni) and Gyogyo (Gualberto Galban), is travelling by wagon only to be run off the road! Daninsky happens upon them and decides to help them get their wagon out of the mud and to let them spend the night at a huge old estate nearby. That night, the gypsies decide to do a little grave robbing and after unsealing the tomb of Imre Wolfstein. Bad move - this resurrects the ancient Wolfstein family curse and the gypsies are killed by a werewolf.
Daninsky figures out what happened here and he sets out to make things right. He's able to hunt and then kill the werewolf but not before he himself is bitten, which of course passes the curse on to him. Before long, the scar on Daninsky's body from the attack takes on the mark of the beast and not wanting to spend the rest of his life as a werewolf, he decides to look for help, starting with his friend Rudolph (Manuel Manzaneque) and the beautiful Countess Janice von Aarenberg (Dyanik Zurakowska), who can't seem to fight her feelings for Daninsky. When our hero stumbles upon some correspondence from decades past, he learns that the one who bit him was in contact with a doctor, Janos Mikhelov (Julian Ugarte) that he felt could help him. Daninsky writes the doctor for help, unaware that he and his female assistant, Wandessa Mikhelov (Aurora de Alba), are actually vampires.
This one takes a little while to get going (we don't see a werewolf until well over twenty minutes into the movie) but once it hits its stride, this landmark in Spanish horror cinema proves more than worthwhile. There's some good atmosphere here, even in the slower opening half, with the shadowy interiors of the old estate and its underground burial chamber adding some creepy vibes to the picture. The film also makes great use of color, with pretty much every one of the characters in the film sporting some interesting and bright, late sixties style clothing.
As to the performances, things shape up quite well. Rossana Yanni, Dyanik Zurakowska and Aurora de Alba are all quite fetching, with the latter vamping it up quite nicely in her villainous role. Julian Ugarte is fun to watch as the vampiric 'doctor' supposedly out to help Daninsky, it's a kick to see him strutting about in the last half hour of the film, flashing his cape and baring his fangs. The real star of the show, however, is Naschy. He's quite obviously very committed to this role and he gives it his all. His delivery is fine but it's really the physical side of his work here that impresses. When he first turns into the werewolf, he really does seem pained and tortured by the experience and once transformed, brings a very feral approach to the character that works perfectly. On top of that, the makeup used to turn him from Daninsky into the werewolf is also very strong.
Note that this is the Spanish version of the feature, so the animated intro that was added to Sam Sherman's release is not included.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Die Vampires Des Dr. Dracula arrives on a 50GB Blu-ray disc in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 2.35.1 widescreen with a solid bit rate. Colors look great here - the reds look quite splashy and bold without coming across as artificially while skin tones look nice and natural. The image appears free of any artificial sharpening, edge enhancement or noise reduction so a fair bit of film grain is present, just as it should be. Minor white specs and the odd scratch will show up from time to time but for the most part the picture remains quite clean and clear throughout and it's quite a serious upgrade from the domestic DVD release that came out through Media Blasters a few years ago. Black levels are quite nice and there aren't any problems with crush or compression artifacts. This is a nicely detailed and very film-like transfer, the movie looks very good here.
Audio options are provided in German and in Spanish PCM Mono with optional subtitles provided in German and English. The Spanish track is clean and clear and properly balanced, the film's unusual score sounds quite good here and there are no problems with any hiss or distortion. The English subs are easy to read and free of any obvious typos. Sadly the English audio, which differs from the Spanish track in places, hasn't been included here.
Extras include two German language trailers, a U.S. trailer and a US TV spot, just over four minutes of international title sequences, a hefty still gallery, menus and chapter selection. Additionally, the Blu-ray disc comes housed inside a DVD sized keepcase that also contains a DVD version of the movie and a full color insert booklet (unfortunately all in German). This in turn fits inside a slick looking cardboard slipcover. Nice packaging on this release!
The Final Word:
Die Vampires Des Dr. Dracula holds up quite well more than forty years since it was first made. Completists will want to hold onto the US Frankenstein's Blood Terror DVD (for the extras) but the presentation here blows that one out of the water. The feature really benefits from the quality of the transfer and Naschy himself is really strong here.
Tags: blu-ray, blu-ray review, paul naschy, rosanna yanni, jacinto molina, subkultur entertainment, dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f, die vampires des dr. dracula, frankenstein’s bloody terror, dianik zurakowska, manuel manzaneque, julian ugarte, enrique l. equiluz, la marca del hombre lobo, mark of the wolfman
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (272)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4162)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2513)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (391)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (300)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (497)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: February 22nd, 2022.
Director: Gianfranco Parolini
Cast: Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance
Year: 1976
Purchase From Amazon
God’s Gun – Movie Review:
Directed by Gianfranco Parolini in 1976, quite late in the spaghetti western boom years, God's Gun (Diamante Lobo in Italy) introduces us to a bad, bad man named Sam Clayton (Jack Palance) who, along with his gang of equally bad, bad men, start wreaking...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:10 PM -
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: October 8th, 2019.
Director: Mario Bava
Cast: Christopher Lee, Reg Park, Leonora Ruffo, Gaia Germani
Year: 1968
Purchase From Amazon
Hercules In The Haunted World – Movie Review:
Directed by Mario Bava in 1961 and featuring a screenplay by Bava (and Sandro Continenza, Francesco Prosperi and Duccio Tessari), Hercules In The Haunted World (also known as Hercules At The Center Of The Earth and...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:08 PM -
-
Released by: Cinématographe
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jack Nicholson
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi
Year: 1978
Purchase From Amazon
Goin’ South – Movie Review:
Made at the height of his career as an actor, 1978’s ‘Goin’ South’ sees Jack Nicholson once again in the director’s chair, seven years after his directorial debut, ‘Drive, He Said,’ failed to set the...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:29 AM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: April 20th, 2024.
Director: Noburo Nakamura
Cast: Miyuki Kuwano, Mikijiro Hira
Year: 1964
Purchase From Amazon
The Shape Of Night – Movie Review:
Directed by Noburo Nakamura for Shochiko in 1964, ‘The Shape Of Night’ follows a young woman named Yoshie Nomoto (Miyuki Kuwano). In the opening scene, she’s working as a streetwalker on the outskirts of town and soon enough, she’s picked...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:26 AM -
-
Released by: Film Masters
Released on: April 23rd, 2024.
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Cast: Richard Carlson, Juli Reding, Lugene Sanders, Susan Gordon
Year: 1963
Purchase From Amazon
Tormented – Movie Review:
The late Bert I. Gordon’s 1963 horror film, ‘Tormented,’ is an effectively spooky ghost story made with an obviously low budget but no less effective for it.
The story revolves around a professional piano player...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:19 AM -
-
Released by: Grindhouse Releasing
Released on: March 12th, 2024.
Director: William Grefé
Cast: William Shatner, Jennifer Bishop, Ruth Roman, Harold Sakata
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Impulse – Movie Review:
Directed by the one and only William Grefé, 1974’s Impulse is one of those rare films that allows you to witness what it would be like if a really sweaty William Shatner got mad at a lady carrying balloons. Before that...-
Channel: Movies
04-15-2024, 01:20 PM -