ZOLTAN: HOUND OF DRACULA (1977)
I'm a dog person. I don't know if that made it easier for me to appreciate this film. Of course, I wanted to play fetch with Zoltan and give him plenty of cuddles. The viewer isn't supposed to warm up to the damned Doberman, but it's not my fault that the dog looks cute with vampire fangs. If you're a dog person, I'm sure you can relate. This is a pure-bred b-movie of the highest caliber. A matter-of-fact prologue sets the tone as Communist soldiers inadvertently exhume the remains of one Count Dracula. They subsequently disturb the caskets of his two servants, the skeletal Veidt and his emotional support animal of sorts. We follow them as they track down Dracula's last living relative. Our protagonists - a very vanilla family - have pets of their own. I'll go ahead and praise the non-human cast members. I suppose I should praise their trainers, but I have a weakness for German Shepherds.
Obviously, this is a silly flick. It's worth mentioning, however, that it takes itself rather seriously. There are copious shots of Zoltan piercing the necks of other canines, and director Albert Band frames them in such a way that they could have been death sequences involving regular people. You're only going to get that kind of pokerfaced absurdity from the 70's. On the acting front, Michael Pataki is grounded as Mr. Drake. Get it? Don't roll your eyes. José Ferrer plays Zoltan's equivalent of Dr. Van Helsing with authority. Try as they might, the flesh-colored thespians are not as compelling as their furry counterparts. Screenwriter Frank Ray Perilli also wrote Laserblast. Make of that what you will. For the record, Zoltan: Hound of Dracula (a.k.a. Dracula's Dog) is leagues above Laserblast. Recommended to fans of The Pack, Man's Best Friend, and parvo.
NOTE: I was set on 3.5 Z'Dars until the closing frames. I won't spoil anything, but suffice to say, we were cheated out of a sequel.
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