quridley I love Al Adamson's aesthetic of space age lounge swingers, Universal monsters, loose scripts and surprisingly effective moments of atmosphere and sadistic violence. "Blood" is way less campy and sloppy than most of his work. He makes use of lovely locations, gets some good photography, creates some disturbing moments and does it in a breezy matinée style. The acting, lighting and overall direction is fast and amateur because of the budget, but its still a nifty production. A good watch.

Aaron1375 This film is on a set of movies I bought for five dollars and the set is called Gorehouse Greats. Well I have watched nearly everyone of them so far and have to say the name of this package is a misnomer. None of the films have been particularly gory, though they have been entertaining to some degree. This one is not gory and is just a slow plodding movie that at times seems like it almost wants to be a comedy. The date on this movie says 1969 and the trivia says it is 1966, but the film looks like something out of the 50's. The cut they used is terrible, blue lines through almost the entire film. That could be forgiven if the film were not so boring. The highlight was the scenes at the sea park where you see a walrus and some dolphins and a really cool lift that elevates above the park and you can ride outside of it. Yeah, that was really cool and it out did the rest of this movie. The plot has a count and countess living in a castle that does not belong to them, but they lease. Well this dude has just inherited from his uncle and for reasons unknown he and his fiancé want to kick out the old couple who are more than willing to buy the place outright. Which if they had done so it would have most certainly saved them a lot of grief as the two in the castle have a secret. They also have the great John Carradine as a butler, a large hulking caretaker, and another dude who seems to go crazy when the moon is full though why this is even said is beyond me as they never really show it happening. Seriously, this film is only a bit better than "Manos the Hands of Fate". That movie was at least transferred better than this one as it had a good picture, heck if not for the sea world scenes and one female in a bikini I would say Manos was the better film. Just nothing here, not really a horror the count and his wife are so lame that it undercuts any terror and John Carridine adds nothing when his presence can usually help a movie at least a little. Here he only adds to the boredom.

Scarecrow-88 A photographer, Glen Cannon(Gene Otis Shayne) learns that his recently deceased uncle left him a California desert castle so he and fiancé model, Liz(Jennifer Bishop) take a trip there to check it out. A vampire couple, Count and Countess Townsend(Alexander D'Arcy & Paula Raymond) make their residence there and have a fresh supply of victims in the dungeon of the castle, chained to the walls by their massive dumb brute slave, Mango(Ray Young) and evil butler, George(John Carradine). Soon joining this wicked brood is a psychopath, Johnny(Robert Dix), having escaped from prison, who believes he kills at the urging of the full moon. Sufficed to say, Glen and Liz are in for a rude awakening when they visit, planning to break the news to the current residents that they will be occupying the castle once married..let's just say that the Townsends have other plans.Well, the story is coherent and the script(..penned by Rex Carlton, who not long after committed suicide)tongue-in-cheek(..and, to the cast's credit, well veterans Carradine, D'Arcy & Raymond, anyway, they quite understand what kind of hokey material they're dealing with). The castle sets(..particularly the walls)are crummy, but the exterior California location is rather attractive. While you will read about how this film was shot by well respected cinematographer László Kovács, there's really nothing much here, except a moody nighttime sequence where the Townsends and George sacrifice a female motorist, whose car broke down, to their moon god, Luna, by burning her alive while tied to a stake. I found most of this movie rather plodding and dull, accompanied by an overbearing score which attempts to ape the classic Universal pictures. B-movie director, John Bud Cardos(Mutant)was production manager and had a brief cameo of a prison guard pummeled to death by Johnny. Dix relishes his part as the nutjob with a devilish grin, with one memorable scene where he sends a stolen car(..containing the driver he knocked unconscious with a large stone)over a mountainous cliff while gleefully laughing as the man trapped inside screams in horror. There's this completely obligatory scene where Dix murders a girl in a bikini, by drowning her near a waterfall, while running from police and their hunting dogs. Hilarious effects mishap at the end where an ax is buried into the back of a villain and it's visible that the weapon is stuck into a plank-board just hidden on the inside of the person's shirt. I'm guessing Dracula's name was merely used to distribute the movie into more drive-ins. My favorite scene is early on as the Townsends and George celebrate "good blood" from a recently kidnapped victim.

capkronos Considered the worst vampire movie ever made by many (nah!), this Al Adamson bomb is nonetheless chock full of laughs and tacky entertainment value. Mr. and Mrs. Dracula (Egyptian born schlock star Alexander D'Arcy and Paula Raymond) disguise themselves as the Count and Countess Townsend and are living it up in Falcon Rock; RENTING a secluded castle located in the middle of what appears to be a desert (a great place to avoid the sunlight, eh?). The castle comes complete with the usuals... lavish rooms, coffin-filled bedroom chamber, candles, a large dungeon, a pool table (?!) and two faithful employees who have to do ALL the dirty work as the bloodsucking duo lounge around spouting their insipid dialog. The two servants are a hulking, facially-scarred, hunchback retard named Mango (Ray Young) and a slack-eyed butler named George (John Carradine), who worships the "great God Luna." Mango kidnaps beautiful girls (because, of course, the blood of 'beautiful young women' always tastes the best), takes them to the dungeon and chains them to the wall as a sort-of personal live-in blood bank. George uses a huge syringe to extract blood from victims and serves it up as cocktails to Dracula and wife.The most recent addition to the harem is Ann (Vicki Volante, a star of many other Adamson movies), who has a bad habit of passing out whenever the going gets tough... a problem that got her dumb ass abducted in the first damn place. She screams her head off when a rat gets within ten feet of her, has a tarantula crawl on her dress and may end up being the chief sacrifice to Carradine's Moon Cult (yes, there is also some kind of black magic mumbo jumbo going on here). There are a few other prisoners as well; two or three other ladies in ripped-up dresses whose expressions never change despite what is going on around them. When one of those ladies is all used up, Mango is given permission to drag her off into a dark corner of the dungeon (hmm... For what, I wonder?) This comfy living situation is threatened when the owner of the castle dies, leaving the place to a favorite nephew (Gene O'Shane), who wants to boot them out and move in there with his fast-track fiancé Liz Arden (Barbara Bishop). Liz is a model and aspiring "Universal Magazine" cover girl, who will end up having more problems to deal with than being upstaged in her saggy bikini bottoms by dolphins, seals and a flipper-chewing walrus while at Sea World.And as if that isn't enough... There's this family friend named Johnny Davenport (Robert Dix), who has just bought his way out of prison. Get this... A guard accepts five thousand dollars to let Johnny out. But to make it look more convincing, the guard actually turns around and allows this convicted mass murderer to knock him unconscious! So, not surprisingly, instead of just laying him out, Johnny just beats the guy to death before taking off! BEFORE even making it to the castle, Johnny has a fun-filled day of murder and mayhem. He's chased by a posse with dogs, drowns a woman in a polka-dot bikini under a waterfall, bashes an old man over the head with a rock, shoots a hitchhiker in the face with a rifle and wrecks a stolen car over a cliff. And all this before he even arrives in the castle. There is mention of Johnny being a werewolf, but there are no make-up effects to convey it.When Liz and Glen arrive at the castle, they sleep in separate bedrooms. And when she hears one of the women downstairs screaming, he comforts her by saying "I think it's probably someone using an electric tooth brush that just got short circuited." (??) After an encounter with Mango, the two find themselves prisoners in the dungeon as well, but they manage to escape after being forced to perform in a black magic ceremony. During a struggle with Johnny over the gun, Glen aims the gun way off target, but ends up pulling the trigger and shooting Johnny in the stomach. Carradine falls down a flight of stairs and attacks with a whip. Will Liz, Glen and the imprisoned lovelies escape with their lives? Does this entire film seem like an odd extended dirty metaphor for the joys of S&M? Also in the cast are future director John "Bud" Cardos (who was also the production manager) and Ken/Kenny/Kent Osborne (who also did the make-up). It was shot by "Leslie" (Lazslo) Kovacs, who also worked with Ray Dennis Steckler before becoming a respected Hollywood cinematographer, so you know this movie looks pretty good. Gil Bernal performs the non-hit single "The Next Train Out." I've seen the production year on this film frequently listed as 1967, but according to the original credits it is 1969.Not the "worst vampire movie ever made..." It's Grade A schlock! But going by the rules of normal film review, I am unable to award this one any better than 3/10. General entertainment value is around 7/10.