Lake Of Dracula

Director Michiro Yamaoto's second entry in the "bloodthirsty trilogy", a name derived from the Japanese title, is a poor successor to Vampire Doll (1970), although it's not entirely uninteresting on its own merits. 

The movie starts out on the coast, as a young girl chases her dog. The small animal finds shelter in an isolated mansion, as the girl follows the dog inside. Once there, she spies a dead woman at the piano, and a tall, yellow eyed, man with blood dripping from his mouth.


Years later, Akiko is an artist, her latest work: a large yellow eye as a sunset, which she says was inspired by a childhood nightmare.  A mystery begins when a large white coffin is delivered to the rest house she lives next to, and a mysterious figure is seen lurking in the shadows.  The tall stranger begins to prey on the locals, leaving the tell-tale trail of a vampire.


On the whole, there aren’t a whole lot of surprises to be had in the story. It generally lacks the atmosphere which made the previous entry, Vampire Doll (1970), work so well. To the film’s credit, Lake of Dracula is actually frightening during the first half hour of its run time, but the scare factor all but dry up past that point, as the movie as a whole begins its downward spiral.  Still the film’s climax, Saeki vs. the vampire, is riveting, at least at the start, as the stranger bursts through a stain glass window to cut off their escape and easily tosses around the doctor. 


As for the character development, it’s pretty weak. Akiko, the film’s lead, is the stereotypical female character in the horror genre. What this means is that one can expect Akiko to never save herself, and stand idly by, without lifting a muscle, while her boyfriend is beaten nearly to death. Still, to the writers' credit, it appears that they at least tried to flesh out Akiko just a little bit here, adding in the sibling rivalry angle with Natsuko.  As for the rest of the characters: flat, with not a notable candidate among them to discuss. The only one of them that can get away with being mysterious is the film’s vampire, too.

Shin Kishida plays the movie’s nameless vampire, and his performance is good when he is being silent or delivering lines of dialogue, but he gets a little silly when he roars, particularly during the climax where he seems to slip in and out of character while fighting.


Riichiro Manabe returns to score Lake of Dracula, and ends up churning out a career high, although the score is still plagued with some standout bad themes. A couple of the cues here sound remarkably similar to his work that same year for Godzilla vs. Hedorah too. Even the composer’s odd “frog croaking” style of music is used here, which fit when related to the smog born monster but feel entirely out of place in this vampire film. Still Manabe’s score here is actually the best of the trilogy, as the main theme is nice along with several other cues. In general, it just seems to grow on the viewer with repeated listening.


When everything else about the production seems to go astray, though, cinematographer Rokuro Nishigaki manages to save the production from being an unmemorable affair. In fact, the movie's camera work is really commendable, particularly the movie's breath taking use of color and the great camera set ups, including the wide shot of the beach at the start and the exterior shot of the mansion, which is "on set" but is photographed so well one can't help but be impressed. The introduction scene of the vampire, blood dripping from his mouth, is a very iconic shot as well, especially as it moves into a eye level view for the next edit.

Lake of Dracula runs a gambit of complaints, without much praise to dish to the picture. Nearly every aspect of the film seems to be lacking in one way or another, save Nishigaki's camera work. However, there is something oddly alluring about the movie. My initial reaction was extreme disappointment, but the film grew on me, as Lake of Dracula is one of those movies that actually benefits from repeated viewings. Not a good film, but one that will likely earn an audience all the same.  




(Anthony Romero - Tohokingdom.com)