Andy Warhol's Dracula
(aka Blood for Dracula)

Antonio Margheriti (1974, Italy)

Cast : Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Arno Juerging, Maxime McKendry, Milena Vukotic, Dominique Darel, Stephania Casini, Silvia Dionisio

Plot:
Count Dracula is in bad need of fresh blood from a virgin. Seeing that Transylvania has grown a poor place to find virgins, Anton, his servant, arranges a voyage to Italy where he expects to find plenty of virgins amongst the traditional catholic families. There he hopes to find a bride for Dracula to fill his constant need for blood. They stumble upon a family with 4 daugthers ready for marriage, but who are not all as innocent as they look like *cough cough*. The count discovers the truth about their non-virginity in a painful way. But when he decides to leave the place, he must face a peasant who has as much grief for the vampire as he does for the old social hierarchy.

Appreciation: 7/10
Take out your cape, your coffin and your make-up, Dracula gets political..
This is a rather funny and silly (though uneven) adaptation of the famous vampire story. The whole premise itself, going to Italy to find young virgins "cause they are known to be good catholics", is ridiculous enough. The performances are over-the-top, Udo Kier is perfect as a sad and disillusioned count Dracula, who is socially retarded but still deeply human. Arno Juerging looks totally insane (à la Jeffrey Combs in Re-animator, who might have been inspired by this performance), with his looks out of a psychiatric hospital and his accent as thick as Cheeze Whiz. And the movie contains enough funny lines to write a whole book.
It's odd to see Dracula being so helpless, so naive, and it seems that Dracula has never been as sympathetic. By the end i felt sorry for the poor lad (take out the kleenex box someone..)
The social-political elements of the movie, interesting as they are, seemed to tone down the movie a bit too much. I found that the first half lacked something, perhaps some horror, gore or something like that. Fortunately, the ending remedies to the downsides with flying colors. I was so surprised that i almost pissed in my pants, and had to rewind to see the attack on cound Dracula a second time. Perhaps there should have been more of that throughout the film.
The movies is still worth watching despite his flaws, if only for being so different from the usual story adaptations.

Other suggestions: Dracula 79, Flesh for Frankenstein