It begins with Mr Shiraki (Toshio Kurosawa) arriving to take up a post at a small girls’ school in a remote rural locale. Some odd things seem to be happening. A couple of days earlier the principal’s wife was killed in a car crash. She was with another man, not her husband. The principal is keeping her body in the cellar. He assures Mr Shiraki that that is the local custom.
One of the girl has disappeared. Apparently that’s a common occurrence. At least two girls vanish every year. It’s just one of those things. Nobody worries about it.
Mr Shiraki has an encounter with a half-naked woman who tries to attack him. She has fangs. But he thinks it was just a dream. It had to have been a dream.
He knows he shouldn’t but Mr Shiraki sneaks a look at the corpse of the principal’s wife. She bears a striking resemblance to the woman in his dream.
The local doctor, Dr Shimomura (Kunie Tanaka), tells Mr Shiraki about the local legends concerning vampires, dating back to the shipwreck of a European sailor two centuries earlier.
The doctor has his suspicions that the vampire legends might contain some truth. Perhaps the schoolteacher who ended up in the lunatic asylum might know something. Dr Shimomura thinks the teacher had a mental breakdown after finding out something shocking.
One of the girls at the school, Kumi (Mariko Mochizuki), has developed a major crush on Mr Shiraki. And one of her friends was found passed out, with strange puncture marks on her breast. Mr Shiraki is certainly convinced that he is dealing with vampires.
And Kumi and her friends are in danger. This vampire targets schoolgirls. We will eventually find out why.
Mr Shiraki’s only reliable allies are Dr Shimomura and Kumi. They’re not sure how many vampires they are up against. There’s a male vampire and there seem to be several lady vampires. The odds don’t look too good. And nobody is quite sure how to deal with vampires anyway.
The plot is a fairly stock-standard vampire movie plot. Michio Yamamoto is not trying to do anything ground-breaking. He does manage a reasonable amount of spookiness.
Putting vampires into a Japanese setting does provide some interest. There are plenty of suitably gothic visuals, with a Japanese flavour.
The male vampire looks a bit silly but the lady vampires look great - subtle creepy makeup that still makes them look sexy and seductive.
This movie adheres pretty closely to established western vampire lore. Which is a bit disappointing - a few more distinctively Japanese touches would have made things more interesting.
There’s no shortage of attractive women. There’s virtually no nudity (a couple of glimpses of nipples). There’s no gore. This is a rather old-fashioned horror movie for 1974.
The acting is adequate. Michio Yamamoto does not exactly do an inspired job as director but he’s competent.
Evil of Dracula is the weakest film in the trilogy. Vampires were an unusual feature in Japanese gothic horror in the 60s and 70s although they became slightly more common in anime movies and TV in the 80s and 90s.
Arrow have released all three movies in the Bloodthirsty Trilogy in a nice Blu-Ray boxed set with lovely transfers.
Evil of Dracula would not be worth purchasing on its own but it’s maybe worth a look if you’re buying the boxed set anyway.
I’ve reviewed the two earlier movies in the trilogy, The Vampire Doll and Lake of Dracula.
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