After a long drag-out fight, Baron Draculstein (Eric del Castillo) is finally staked and crumbles to dust. His familiar eventually revives the bloodthirsty Baron and he soon sets out putting the bite on more comely females. It’s then up to our stock hero type to come along and put an end to Draculstein’s reign of terror.
One of the things I love about these Mexican horror movies is that they have great names for their monsters. In The Invasion of the Vampires, it was Count Frankenhausen. Here, we get Baron Draculstein.
The Empire of Dracula was directed by one of the greats of Mexican horror cinema, Federico Curiel, and it is a solid vampire potboiler. The lap-dissolve transformation, decaying, and resurrection scenes look like something out of an old Universal movie, and Curiel takes a few visual cues from Tod Browning’s original Dracula as well. The scenes involving a rogue carriage will remind you of Nosferatu too.
The scene where Draculstein is resurrected is a bit kinkier than your typical vampire movie of the day. The familiar suspends a busty woman above Drac’s coffin, jabs her in between the boobs, and lets the blood cascade down onto the Baron’s corpse. It definitely feels like something that would be in a risqué Hammer film.
Like the other Mexican vampire movies I’ve been watching, The Empire of Dracula follows its own set of rules. You know how most vampires can’t see their reflections in a mirror? Well, the vampire babes in this one can actually walk through mirrors. It’s a neat touch that is at the very least memorable.
As with many of these things, the plot gets extremely bogged down whenever it’s just a bunch of people sitting around and talking. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the version I saw didn’t have subtitles. Although Curiel can’t always keep the film moving, he sure keeps the camera moving around a lot, which at least helps amp up the atmosphere a little.
He also piles on the action to compensate for the talky passages. In addition to the lengthy fistfights and brawls that occur throughout the film, Curiel delivers one heck of a crackling sequence when Drac hops aboard a speeding coach and attacks the driver while the horses are plowing full steam ahead. This sequence feels almost like something out of a western and is brimming with action, suspense, and great camerawork. The hero also gets into a great swordfight with the Count, which culminates in the crossed swords creating a cross-shaped shadow, causing the bloodsucker to retreat. Hey, when your Mexican vampire flick is packed with this much action, who needs subtitles?
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