Savanna Watches: Blood For Dracula

[rosalinecapulet]

I rewatched this movie for the first time in a couple years instead of doing homework, and decided to share the results with yall. It’s a pretty even mix of unironic enjoyment (Dracula, Anton, Esmeralda), ironic enjoyment (ex. Rubina and Sapphira’s dialogue), and hate (Mario in general). If you're ever interested in watching this movie, here's a youtube upload that's somehow managed to survive despite the amount of nudity.

However, before we start I must ask you to heed my trigger warning because this movie contains scenes of rape and incest (and in general the number of sex scenes might put some people off).

• I really love the opening scene with Dracula painting his face and hair to look less corpselike. The music and Udo Kier are both very pretty
• I also love the reveal of the mirror with no reflection (despite the logical problems with the setup)
• So many shots of Dracula looking sad. And pretty.
• The design of Dracula's unnamed sister reminds me a lot of Olivia Hussey's Juliet
• These German accents are so thick it makes me wonder why they didn't change the setting to let the actors stick out less. Preferably Styria, but that's my love for mythology gags talking
• "They need virgins for their marriages" He makes it sound like virgins are made in a factory or something
• Apparently Dracula is dying? And Anton only just decided to propose this plan to him? Also they don't even bother to bring Dracula's family to Italy so I guess they're just gonna be left to die in the castle basement or something
• "They are not meant to leave the house" "Neither am I" hey tumblr I found a new quote for yall to abuse
• "No good family will give their daughter to me" but why?? Anton what did you do??
• "It will ride on the top" because SURELY no one will question the fact that you have a coffin strapped to the roof of your car
• I'm barely five minutes in but the way Anton keeps looking Dracula up and down is already making me ship them
• "I'm the first one in our family who leaves" so are we to assume that the Stoker novel didn't happen in this universe?
• There's an impressive amount of detail in the castle/crypt sets considering that they only use them for one scene apiece
• It's so nice to see a movie version where Dracula doesn't die in the sunlight
• The introduction to the di Fiore girls is filmed in a weird "stalker cam" style at first which kinda jumps the gun a bit considering that Dracula probably hasn't even entered the country yet
• The family has a weird mix of Italian, French, and English accents (with an American stableboy) and no one ever attempts an accent besides their own. Joe Dallesandro's Brooklyn-ness is the most distracting of all, but I'm pretty sure his acting was the last thing they thought about when hiring him
• My suspicions about Stoker's novel being disregarded are probably confirmed bc the tavern manager (and Cowboy Dude, whose accent keeps switching between Italian and American) don't recognize Dracula's name
• I love how Anton creates this whole elaborate backstory for Dracula seemingly on the spot
• Cowboy Dude seems to think that the di Fiores are called the Belfiores? Did they rewrite the script and not tell Cowboy Dude?
• I know it's just a cover story but I love the idea of Anton actually trying to play matchmaker for Dracula
• Apparently Dracula can only eat produce from Romania?
• I only learned this because Dracula finally took five minutes out of his busy schedule of complaining about how much he hates Italy
• I forgot that Vittorio de Sica was in this movie
• "Flowers that are too cultivated lose some of their perfume. They wither too quickly. In this house, one can say the most intelligent, most poetic things, and no one takes any notice." These lines definitely do not belong in a movie like this
• And now Roman Polanski is here?? I mean granted it was 1974 so he hadn't been revealed as a terrible person yet but still
• Anton gives Dracula bread soaked in a young girl's blood and tbh as much as I love this movie's creativity with its vampires my favorite thing about this scene is the way Arno Juerging says "blood" with way too much emphasis
• Random out of place racist comments about Romani people (which I think might be a bit of deliberate values dissonance but it's the 70s so it's hard to tell)
• I'm really amazed it took the movie 39 minutes to have its first sex scene (and 42 minutes to make the Sapphira/Rubina incest explicit)
• I guess this movie is set within a year of the Russian Revolution??
• Mario is casually verbally (and later physically) abusive and threatens to rape Perla (who is 14) but every review I see appears to believe that we're supposed to be on his side? I would love to know how that's possible
• Anton: casually drives his car into the middle of the foyer like it's no big deal
• Dracula is making absolutely no attempt to not act weird and I love him for it
• Someone needs to make Sapphira realize that she can do so much better than Mario
• Anton is clearly not in the mood for Mario's nonsense and honestly? Same
• This movie is trying so hard to convince me that Udo is ugly and it's never gonna work
• Attempted rape? But then he immediately rejects her? Whatever, I've given up on Mario at this point
• Sapphira lies about being a virgin so we learn that the blood of non-virgins makes vampires turn green
• And now we get the first of the two infamous blood vomiting scenes. They go on for waaaay too long but I mean someone was obviously proud of their special effects here
• Against all odds, Morrissey apparently thought we wanted another Mario sex scene. Though at least they tried to integrate it into the plot by including copious amounts of sexposition
• Apparently Sapphira has decided not to say anything about Dracula being a vampire? Ok fine, I guess the plot has to happen one way or another
• My aesthetic is Dracula trying and failing to have normal conversations with humans
• Dracula is just as fed up with Mario as I am
• When explaining this movie to one of my friends I said it was implied that Mario wanted to establish communism in Italy but I somehow managed to forget not only the extremely unsubtle dialogue about his desire to abolish the class system and take all the rich people's money away from them but also the giant hammer and sickle painted on the wall next to his bed
• More sexual assault bc I guess they just really want us to hate Mario
• Rubina actually notices that Dracula has no reflection, which I honestly didn’t expect them to remember
• More blood vomiting! (Well ok, this time it's more like blood gargling) tbh I can't even hate it bc it's clear that Udo is putting a lot of effort into these scenes
• "The blood of these whores is killing me" Hey look, the most iconic line in the movie!
• I love how the Marchesa heard the vomiting but not Rubina screaming
• Anton, please stop creeping on the 14 year old
• And now we enter the "please take Mario seriously as a hero" phase of the movie. Thanks, I hate it!
• For all this movie's flaws, one thing I unironically love is the relationship between Dracula and Esmeralda, and I wish they'd given it more screentime
• I also love Rubina and Sapphira as this movie's Brides equivalents (for the minute they're onscreen as vampires)
• Somehow, Mario knows everything? I don't know and I don't care because we now get yet another rape scene
• Dracula licking Perla's blood off the floor is...well, I don't have a comment, I just thought yall should know about it
• I can't tell if Anton's last-minute attempt to betray Dracula is supposed to be fake but I'm gonna assume it is bc I have no idea why he would do it genuinely
• The violence in this movie is so Python-esque that I wonder how intentional the similarity was
• Esmeralda's screaming would get on my nerves if this movie had even a slightly different tone, but as it stands I'm just numb
• I honestly can't imagine how anyone could take this ending as anything but "the bad guy wins"

Comments

[foreverdawning]

Oh geez. That movie sounds like a lot.

I'm a sucker for vampire movies, so I'll definitely put it on my watch list.

Have you ever seen The Vampire Lovers? So far it's my second favorite 70s vampire flick. (The best will always be Love at First Bite for me)

[rosalinecapulet]

Yeah, it's a wild ride xD

I have! It's probably the best movie version of Carmilla imo (aside from the obvious one that everyone loves). Haven't seen Love at First Bite though, I'll have to check it out^^