Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Blood of Dracula's Castle Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 20, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection.

Disc Four of The Masterpiece Collection aggregates three titles that have at least a tangential connection to each other. Blood of Dracula's Castle and Dracula's Castle are basically two versions of the same film, while Horror of the Blood Monsters offers vampires again, albeit this time interpolated from a Filipino film that Adamson decided to appropriate.

This is yet another Adamson production that seemed to have been sparked at least in part by the availability of a location, in this case a kinda sorta castle that was found in a not very Transylvanian Arizona. Photographer Glen Cannon (Gene O’Shane) and his buxom fiancée Liz (Barbara Bishop, AKA Adamson regular Jennifer Bishop) travel to the castle when Glen is alerted that he’s inherited it. In the meantime it’s been disclosed that the current occupants of the castle are none other than a slightly disguised Count Dracula (Alexander D’Arcy) and his lovely wife, Mrs. Dracula (Paula Raymond). They, along with their nefarious butler George (John Carradine) and hulking brute Mango (Ray Young), have a “collection” of attractive young women they keep chained up in the basement (dungeon?), occasionally draining their blood or, in extreme instances, sacrificing them to their vampire god. Just to make things really “Adamsonian”, a serial killer named Johnny (Robert Dix) also enters the fray. Without really meaning to be ironic in any way, hilarity indeed ensues.

Blood of Dracula's Castle Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Blood of Dracula's Castle is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p trnasfer in 1.84:1. The palette is probably the best overall thing about this presentation, with some of the outdoor material popping rather well. That said, this is another pretty widely variable presentation, with some of the indoor material suffering from persistent crush, and the entire transfer hobbled by recurrent damage in the form of scratches, nicks and other annoyances. There are quite a few unstable frames and a lot of the transfer is pretty soft looking. The title sequence looks like it may have been spliced in, and exhibits some really bad (green) scratching. There are also some very badly damaged sequences, as in one starting at around 19:54, where the entire frame is just covered with long vertical, multicolored scratches.

Blood of Dracula's Castle Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Blood of Dracula's Castle features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that is decent sounding, though occasionally some of the music sounds a bit tinny, as in the then trendy "Ameriachi" music that underplays the photo shoot by the pool. The opening theme song actually sounds nicely full bodied, and dialogue, while boxy at times, is presented cleanly and clearly for the most part, though occasional pops intrude, and there are what sound like a couple of choppy edits. English subtitles are available via the button on your remote.

Blood of Dracula's Castle Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Partial Audio Commentary with Expert Brian Albright


• Audio Interview Excerpt with Alex D'Arcy (2:42) is conducted by David Del Valle.


• Blood of Dracula's Castle Trailer (1080p; 1:50)

Blood of Dracula's Castle Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is another low rent Adamson affair that seeks to cash in on a few recognizable names while supposedly exploiting a "vampire" genre which the film really only kind of alludes to. It's silly, but it's often surprisingly fun to watch. Technical merits on this theatrical version are definitely problematic, but both the commentary and interview are very interesting.