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Michio Yamamoto's BLOODTHIRSTY TRILOGY (Arrow Video)


mpm74

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The Vampire Doll (1970) - Original title: Yûrei yashiki no kyôfu: Chi wo sû ningyô - Produced by Toho. A man, Hiroshi (Akira Nakao, who showed up in numerous Godzilla movies), and his female friend, Keiko (Kayo Matsuo, Sayaka Yagyu in Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx), go visit an isolated Western-style mansion in the middle of nowhere in search of her brother, who disappeared after going to the same mansion to visit his love, Yuko (Yukiko Kobayashi of Destroy All Monsters!), who turns out to have died several weeks before. But when Keiko is visited by a ghostly apparition of Yuko, she suspects that Yuko's mother is hiding something. This was the first in Toho's "Bloodthirsty" trilogy, which was them doing a series of vampire movies in the style of Britain's Hammer Studios. The story plays like a Hammer horror mystery, veering into Roger Corman/AIP Edgar Allan Poe territory at the climax. The film in its restored version looks great, although it may be too slowly-paced and low key for a lot of younger viewers.

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Lake of Dracula (1971) - Original title: Noroi no yakata: Chi o suu me - Produced by Toho. An artist (or art teacher) is terrorized by a vampire while staying at a lake with her sister. Part 2 in the "Bloodthirsty" trilogy by Toho is generally considered the weakest of the three. The film does have some pacing issues, especially when entering the third act. The set design is great and the finale is well mounted. It could have been shorn of some five minutes and it would've flowed better. I'm curious as to what sort of advances were being made in the fields of hypnotism during the early 1970s, because it pops up again here. However, this one was arguably sillier because the male lead, a doctor, arrives at the conclusion that a vampire is responsible for the strange murders at the lake house, but then accuses the vampire of not being one, but of using hypnotism to convince himself that he is one. And these Bloodythirsty movies love their spring-loaded animals.

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Evil of Dracula (1974) - Original title: Chi o suu bara - The third film in the "Bloodthirsty" trilogy is easily the best. It has the fastest pace, thankfully punctuating the first act with the exposition dump instead of starting out the third act with it. There's a lot of vampire action, both people running from and struggling with vampires, and people getting bitten by them. This is also the sexiest of the three films, with some nudity and low-cut nighties, too. I really liked the twist as to what the vampires are up to at the girl's school. My only complaint is that the film never explains what happens to the first girl who was bitten by the vampire couple. I mean, we know what happens to her--she's killed offscreen and thrown into the lake--but given their modus operandi, we don't quite know why. But still a fun vampire film on the whole.

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venomsreviews

I watched Lake of Dracula for the first time, which is Japanese! It was directed by Michio Yamamoto. I would highly recommend it! It was such an entertaining film. I really enjoy horror films and this one had such a good atmosphere. It was very immersive! Shin Kishida was probably my favorite part of the entire film because he played such a great vampire.

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