Il cav. Costante Nicosia demoniaco, ovvero: Dracula in Brianza

Like most Italian directors active in the seventies, Lucio Fulci tried his hand in most the popular film genres at the time, and this film is one of his attempts at making a sex comedy; not a horror film that most fans will be used to (and probably expect, considering the title). It's actually his second attempt after The Eroticist in 1972 which I am yet to see. Fulci is obviously best known as a horror director, and he's actually brought that into the sex comedy genre as this film is sort of a 'horror sex comedy', although the focus is more on the sex and the comedy than the horror. I've seen a number of Fulci's non-horror films and while some of them are decent, most remind me why the great director usually stuck to horror; but this film is actually quite good. The plot focuses on a man named Constantino Nicosia; the snobby owner of a toothpaste factory. He seems to enjoy treating his employees badly, and his wife doesn't get treat much better either. This changes when Constantino has a run-in with an elderly aunt who curses him. He then goes on a business trip to Romania and has an encounter with a vampire...

I'm quite a big fan of this type of film. Unfortunately, we don't get treated to sex comedy favourite Edwige Fenech here - but even so, Dracula in the Provinces is a thoroughly enjoyable and actually quite imaginative sex comedy. In some ways, it's a shame that this film is a sex comedy rather than a serious horror film as Fulci's film does include a number of good ideas and twists on the classic vampire tale. The way that the central character is confused at first and initially thinks he might be gay is amusing and well played out, and while the comedy is always rampant; his change into vampirism is well done. This type of film largely relies on set pieces and this one features a number of those too; a scene towards the end with a dominatrix being one of the most memorable. The strangest twist in the film is the fact that there is a social commentary included too. Considering the type of film, it is naturally out of place; but it adds another element to an already bizarre cult film. I would not particularly recommend this to gorehounds that love Fulci for the likes of The Beyond and Zombie Flesh-Eaters; but any fan of Italian movies or Fulci completist will no doubt find lots to like here.

Lucio Fulci is best known for his gory horror films of the seventies and eighties, but like most Italian directors of that era, he went where the money was, tackling whatever genre was currently in vogue. Dracula in the Provinces is a very silly sex comedy with just a smidge of horror, Lando Buzzanca starring as wealthy toothpaste factory owner Costante Nicosia, whose boorish behaviour sees him cursed by an elderly aunt. When Costante travels to Romania on business, he finds himself invited to the castle of Count Dragulescu (John Steiner) where he spends a night of drunken debauchery. The next morning he wakes up in bed with with the count and consequently believes that he is turning into a homosexual; however, on finding bite marks on his neck, he becomes worried that he is becoming a vampire.

According to IMDb's trivia, Lucio Fulci said Dracula in the Provinces was among his favourite films he directed. Of the thirty-two Fulci films I've seen, this is my LEAST favourite - I don't know whether much of the humour was lost in translation, but I found the film about as funny as a case of botulism. Buzzanca mugs his way through a series of desperately unfunny scenes, including Costante explaining his fears about turning gay to his doctor (Rossano Brazzi), visiting a con-artist wizard (Ciccio Ingrassia) to have the 'evil eye' curse removed, and going to a dominatrix (Moira Orfei). I spent the entire film clock-watching, longing for the whole thing to finish, but like watching a kettle waiting for it to boil, this just prolonged the agony. As bad as some of Fulci's horrors are (Manhattan Baby, Sodoma's Ghost, The Sweet House of Horrors), none of them are as utterly atrocious as this miserable movie. 1/10.

Funny movie that manages to make you laugh even if you don't expect it to be a masterpiece. It is a decent work that does a good job playing on stereotypes and exaggeration.

Hard to see, and oft disregarded film from horror master Lucio Fulci. This is a comedy vehicle for Italian funny man Lando Buzzanca, but of most interest for its offbeat humour, and a nice and very substantial cameo from John Steiner as the gay Romanian vampire called Count Dragulescu, it is he who puts the bite on the hapless Buzzanca. Koscina looks good, Brazzi is wasted, but he was never really that good to begin with, for the real specialists, Ciccio Ingassia is involved, and the old master Fulci keeps the whole thing going nicely. The print i saw came from Greece, it really is worth the time and trouble it takes to track down. Very Italian, very, very good.

This may disappoint some people expecting, from the English title, some lost horror film from the late Italian horrormeister Lucio Fulci. This is actually a sex comedy, a genre that Fulci was even more active in than horror early in his career. Ironically, Fulci and his fellow horror legend Mario Bava actually directed two of the best Italian sex comedies I've personally ever seen (and, god knows, I've seen far too many)--Bava's "Four Times that Night" and Fulci's "The Eroticist". This movie re-teams Fulci with comic actor Lado Buzzanca from "The Eroticist". It is not as good as the latter film, but it's definitely much more clever and sophisticated than your average Italian sex comedy (not exactly a high compliment I know). Buzzanca plays a successful but very superstitious and not particularly bright Italian industrialist who goes to Transylvania on business and has an "encounter" with Count Dracula. In a plot that is eerily similar to the later Hollywood film "Kiss of the Vampire" with Nicholas Cage, he comes to believe he is a vampire, and starts, very literally, feeding on the blood of his workers.

The Marxist satire will probably escape most Americans anyway, but it's not nearly as well-aimed as the political satire in "The Eroticist". The industrialist suffers not only blood-lust but "gay panic" after he drunkenly cavorts with Dracula's naked female minions but finds himself in bed with his host the next morning. This leads him to stare uncomfortably at a men's basketball team he owns as they shower, and for some reason it causes him, in the most famous scene, to assault his acquisitive society wife (played by Silva Koscina)in the bath and bite her on the rump! What gay panic has to do with vampirism or the exploitation of the workers I don't know, nor do I know what is so gay about biting a gorgeous woman like Koscina where the sun doesn't shine. That's the main problem with this movie. As a satirical comedy it is kind of random and scattershot.

Still there is more intelligence and sophistication than is usual in these kind of films, and it has all the usual assets of this genre (the nicest one belonging to Ms. Koscina). I think anyone that knows enough about Fulci and Italian sex comedy genre to even be reading this, will no doubt find it at least mildly entertaining.