Lake of Dracula (1971)
Directed by Michio Yamamoto
Starring Midori Fujita, Chôei Takahashi, Sanae Emi, Shin Kishida

Director Yamamoto returns a year after The Vampire Doll  with another vampire tale, this one a little more traditional when it comes to the Western influence. As a small child, little Akiko is chasing after her dog that wanders into an old house. Once she goes in, she comes face to face with a vampire, with yellow glowing eyes and wide mouth with fangs. Years later, Akiko is still feeling the trauma from that point in her childhood, and was convinced it was all a dream, even though she’s not too sure about it. Living by the lake with her sister, trouble starts again when a large white coffin is delivered to her neighbor who runs the boat house.

Once again Yamamoto creates some pretty damn good atmosphere, with some amazing widescreen shots with images filling the entire frame. Just beautiful. While we have Dracula in the title, we’re pretty sure it’s not the famous bloodsucker, but just one of the descendents. Shin Kishida is billed as the “vampire” but doesn’t do much other than snarling and showing his teeth, and putting the bite on a few of the locals. He does give the audience a nice evil performance but really isn’t given much to do. Midori Fujita plays Akiko and does a good job as our hero, even though everyone she cares about falls under the counts spell.

It is amazing that Yamamoto and his crew were able to create another vampire tale, infused with the Western look and feel, but still keep it very much in Japan. The look and feel of the film is right out of a modern day Hammer Film which I have to give them major kudos for. They don’t even hold out when it comes to the vampire’s deaths. As with The Vampire Doll, if you are a fan of ’70s vampire horror and want to see something very unique compared to the stuff coming out of England and the US, this is yet another solid film in that entry.

Recently released by Arrow Video on Blu-ray in the Blood Thirsty Trilogy Box set, each of the films have a high definition (1080p) presentation which have been transferred from the original film elements, and just look fantastic. The films come with newly translated English subtitles, as well as a new video of film scholar Kim Newman discussing the trilogy. If you’re not familiar with these titles, but like classic gothic films, then I think you’ll find these highly entertaining.