El lago de Drácula

A young painter has recurring dreams about an experience she suffered as a child.

Though, she seems to have repressed the memory of it having actually occurred.

Fast forward a number of years later, and this dream is starting to manifest itself in her waking life.

All after of one of her friends receives a mysterious delivery, which just so happens to be a coffin.

Now her dog is dead, her friend tries to attack her, and a farm girl has been found near her house drained of blood.

It's all the work of the Japanese Dracula, who has returned to finish what what he had failed to complete when she was a child...to turn her into a vampire...and make her his bride.

Her best friend, however, doesn't believe her, and convinces her doctor boyfriend that it's all in her head.

But that's probably because Dracula has already turned her.

Interestingly, though, the people he bites don't actually die...or fully turn, it seems...as they can still walk in the daylight.

Rather, they just sort of take on an odd demeanour.

As to their master's bidding, they keep trying to get the young woman alone, so that he can sink his fangs into her.

For he has become obsessed with her, ever since she escaped him as a child.

It's not until one of them tries to kill her boyfriend, that he finally realizes that something is actually up.

Which only acts to confirm that it's not all in her head.

He uses hypnosis to help her bring forth the repressed memory, in order to figure out if her childhood trauma was, in fact, real.

And deduces that because no one believed her as a child, she convinced herself it was all a dream.

Now, they must re-enact the experiences from this dream, in order to find Dracula, so that they can kill him once and for all.

Only then, will her friends (that are still alive) be freed from his curse.

As far as Asian vampire films go, it's no Mr. Vampire, but it's still a pretty decent flick.

It's more of a mystery, than an action film.

But there are a couple instances of cool special effects.

Dracula, here, is more of a pale blue, than the normal off white.

So, he's more intimidating through his strength, than he is his from his slightly comic appearance.

I wasn't totally satisfied with the ending...which seems to have been a bit of a cop out.

But overall, it's an interesting little vampire film, that differs from the norm.

6.5 out of 10.

Okay, color me intrigued when I happened to come across this 1971 Japanese movie titled "Lake of Dracula" (aka "Noroi no yakata: Chi o suu me"). At first I thought it was a spoof, because Dracula in Japanese cinema, come on... But my curiousity won the better of me, and I ended up sitting down to watch this movie from director Michio Yamamoto.

It actually turned out to be an entertaining movie, and the fact that it was from 1971 almost didn't show on the screen. Writers Ei Ogawa and Masaru Takesue definitely had to have been heavily inspired by the old classic Hammer Horror movies, because "Lake of Dracula" definitely had that particular style and quality to it.

I must say that I was adequate quite entertained by "Lake of Dracula", despite it being a bit odd to have Dracula pop up in a Japanese setting. It worked out well enough, actually, maybe because I didn't really see the vampire character as the mythical Dracula himself, despite his name being mentioned a single time in the movie. I suppose I just saw him as a generic, nameless vampire, which worked out quite well actually.

The storyline was good and entertaining, just as it was interesting and enjoyable. It was, however, a stereotypical approach to the vampire genre that writers Ei Ogawa and Masaru Takesue had taken on for the storyline, but it worked out well enough, because the movie had a good flow to it, and you got submerged into the storyline right away.

The acting in the movie was good, although I can't honestly say that I was familiar with any of the actors or actresses that performed in the movie. But they were well-cast for their individual roles and characters.

For a vampire movie from 1971 and from Japan nonetheless, then "Lake of Dracula" is actually well-worth watching for any fans of the older vampire movies. I am rating "Lake of Dracula" a six out of ten stars.

On the age of five, Akiko Kashiwagi had a weird dream that has traumatized her life. Eighteen years later, Akiko Kashiwagi (Midori Fujita) is a school teacher that lives with her younger sister Natsuko Kashiwagi (Sanae Emi) and their dog Leo in an isolated house by a lake. Her fiancé Dr. Takashi Saeki (Chôei Takahashi) visits her every now and then when possible. When a coffin is delivered in the boat house of her acquaintance nearby her house, he is subdue by a weird man (Shin Kishida). Soon victims without blood and two holes on the neck arrive in the hospital and Dr. Takashi Saeki is attacking them at the lakeshore where Akiko lives and he decides to investigate.

"Noroi no yakata: Chi o suu me", a.k.a. "Lake of Dracula", is another vampire movie produced by Toho studios. The flawed plot is entertaining and is funny to see Akiko and Takashi going to the vampire house during the night without any weapon. The age of the dog Leo is also intriguing. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Lago de Drácula" ("The Lake of Dracula")

Somehow, while being a fan of Japanese horror and ghost story movies, I managed to never have heard of the so-called Bloodthirsty trilogy. They are loads of fun.

Lake of Dracula is the middle film in the trilogy. It has an atmospheric opening, an entertaining if periodically slow moving middle portion, and a fantastic climax, including quite an ending. Wow, did they ever go for it with the ending!

There are a couple of annoying inconsistencies in the script, but really, perfect logic is never really the point in most modern Japanese horror. It's more about atmosphere, mood, and, in the case of these wonderful and unusual Japanese Gothic horror movies, a garish luredness lifted straight from the Hammer movies. The actors are also appealing and competent, and when consistently applied (it doesn't always cover the necks) the blue-gray vampire makeup is pretty cool.

Interesting context: the Bloodthirsty trilogy was produced by Toho, and Lake of Dracula was released the same year as Toho's Godzilla vs. Hedorah.

Highly recommended for fans of Hammer horror, Gothic horror, and Japanese horror cinema.

As I write, it's 69 years since Godzilla first stomped across our planet, causing the kind of destruction that is, even now, wowing audiences across the world. Toho films were originally (and subsequently) responsible for most of The Big G's attempts to save/destroy humanity. Perhaps less well known, particularly to Western audiences, is that Toho also enjoys a run of horror films. They were behind 1998's seminal Ringu, for example, which spawned a whole host of ghostly dark-haired children in horror films.

They flirted with the Prince of Darkness himself with this trilogy of films. Beginning with 1970's 'The Vampire Doll' and ending with ending with 'Evil of Dracula (1974)', 'Lake of Dracula' stars Shin Kishida as a thin glowing-eyed vampire and is more frightening than you might imagine. Nicely directed by Michio Yamamoto and bathed in abrasive colours, he is a force well up to the standing and style of other Draculas.

Any middle section of a trilogy has the most difficult job. No beginning and no end to speak of, it might ungraciously be regarded as 'filler' to any ongoing story. Happily, the stories are so loosely connected, 'Lake' is free to do as it pleases to a large degree.

There's a note of restrain with the horrors here, which isn't always the way with Toho films, and yet the finale is as horrifying as you could hope for. A triumph of lighting, tension and a generally eerie ambience, my score is 8 out of 10.