Blood for Dracula (1973)
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67% of critics liked it
(15 reviews) -
58% of users liked it
(4,947 ratings)
The second of two horror films shot in a single production term and bearing the name of pop-art icon Andy Warhol (whose participation pretty much ended with the use of his name), this film is slightly superior to its higher-profile predecessor, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein. Direction is credited… More The second of two horror films shot in a single production term and bearing the name of pop-art icon Andy Warhol (whose participation pretty much ended with the use of his name), this film is slightly superior to its higher-profile predecessor, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein. Direction is credited to Warhol factory filmmaker Paul Morrissey, though there still exists a very vocal camp who insist that the real credit should go to Italian director Antonio Margheriti. Euro-horror leading man Udo Kier assays the title role, playing the count as a pale, anemic-looking blood junkie with an overwrought accent. Finding the supply of "weer-gin" blood diminishing rapidly in Romania, Dracula is forced to seek a fix in a predominantly Catholic Italian province, where he is certain a few virgins still exist. He travels with his assistant (Arno Juerging) and his coffin-sealed sister to the decrepit, crumbling mansion of the financially-strapped Marquis DiFore (a tour-de-force performance from Bicycle Thief director Vittorio de Sica) who welcomes the affluent Count with open arms, hoping to marry off any one of his four daughters. Dracula clearly has other intentions for the girls... but his plans are rudely thwarted by beefy, socialist handyman Mario (Joe Dallesandro), who has been dutifully divesting the young maidens of their -- ahem -- virtue, thus tainting their blood and making it unsafe for vampiric consumption. Very unsafe, it turns out -- as we are treated to protracted scenes of the death-pale Count vomiting up gallons of blood. Rated "X" at the time of its release (and subsequently re-rated "R" ten years later), this outrageous catalogue of depravity features wildly campy performances, inane dialogue and an outrageous climax. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Directed By
- Paul Morrissey, Antonio Margheriti
- Written By
- Paul Morrissey
- Genres
- Drama, Horror, Classics, Comedy
- In Theaters
- Mar 17, 1974 Wide
- Studio
- Bryanston Pictures
Critic Reviews
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Variety Staff, Variety
Morrisey long showed that his films, although more implicit in sex, drugs and characterizations, were really Hollywood films at the core.
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Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
One of the two schlocky horror comedies Paul Morrissey made in Italy in 1974... Blood for Dracula is the sexier and funnier.
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, Time Out
Often startlingly beautiful to look at.
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, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Stylishly directed, atmospheric, funny, and intense enough to please gorehounds--especially at the climax.
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Ben Cobb, Film4
Outrageous, hilarious and shocking, this is trash art at its very best.
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Cast
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Joe Dallesandro
as Mario
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Udo Kier
as Dracula
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Vittorio De Sica
as Lord Difiore
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Maxime McKendry
as Lady Difiore
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Arno Juerging
as Anton Count's assistant
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Milena Vukotic
as Esmeralda
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Gil Cagne
as Townsman
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Stefania Casini
as Rubinia
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Dominique Darel
as Saphiria
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Silvia Dionisio
as Perla
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Roman Polanski
as Man in Inn
- Stefano Oppedisano
- Maxime de la Falaise