Dracula vs. Frankenstein aka Blood Of Frankenstein

Things are not well at the carnival. Here, in his top-secret lab underneath a funhouse operated by a midget, a deranged Dr. Frankenstein (J. Carrol Naish) and his emotionally stunted lab assistant Groton have embarked on a brutal experiment, which requires killing lots of attractive young people. One of these lookers is the sister of Judith Fontaine (Regina Carrol); Judith's search for her sibling's whereabouts brings her to überstud Mike Howard (Anthony Eisley). Together, Mike and Judith find themselves hip-deep in Dr. Frankenstein's ghastly plans, an axe-wielding savant, and an ill-tempered circus dwarf.

Yet there are more sinister happenings afoot, as Count Dracula himself jumps into the mix, searching for a serum to make him invincible. This, too, leads him to the good doctor, and, ultimately, his long-time pet project: Frankenstein's monster.


Uh-oh, this can't be good……and it certainly isn't. Dracula vs. Frankenstein is absolute—and self-confessed—schlock, the pacing is ultra-lethargic, and the actors' talents are mostly laughable.  Don't let the title fool you. The two headliners don't really take center stage until the very end; they have a few scenes interspersed, particularly Dracula, but it's hard to ignore the fact that their inclusion feels tacked on.  Without the two monsters, this is basically an uninteresting film about a horny scientist and his simple little friend operating a lab that looks less like a lab and more like the annual Radio Shack holiday blowout sale.


The two leads, Mike and Judith, are pretty goofy as well. Despite a powerful episode where Judith wigs out at a dance club due to some bad drugs, her cleavage out-acts her throughout the movie. Mike is a tool, spouting lines like: "My name is Mike Howard, and this is my pad." Dr. Frankenstein has a penchant to go on and on and on, but when you're out of your mind, I guess that's something you do.

So then how about those crazy heavyweights? Count Dracula (Zandor Vorkov) roars on the scene, sporting an afro, huge sideburns, and beard (which of course raises questions of follicle growth biology and the undead). All of his speech is delivered with a reverberating echo as if his voice-box is forever trapped in a large bathroom.   Frankenstein's monster is near-unrecognizable, save for his faux-mullet. His face resembles an exploded cauliflower, making me wonder if the effects guys accidentally dumped a bucket of caulk on the actor's face and just were too lazy to clean it up.


When the two creatures finally have their big showdown, it is, with relatively little surprise, fairly uneventful. For the most part they just grab each other's arms and rock back and forth. Toward the end of the film however, things get more interesting when they fight it out at Dracula's hiding place, a church (!). The two eventually pursue each other into the woods, in a staggeringly poorly-shot sequence.


Here's the skinny: Dracula vs. Frankenstein is ridiculously awful, but possibly inane enough to have a decent time haranguing. It barely qualifies as an entertaining so-good-it's-bad-laugh-at-it-at-its-own-expense flick…but it does.  (Judge David Johnson, DVDVerdict)