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Lake Of Dracula
 cast: Mori Kishida, Midori Fujita, Osahide Takahashi, Choei Takahashi, and Sanae Emi

director: Michio Yamamoto

82 minutes (15) 1971
widescreen ratio 2.35:1
Shadow Warrior DVD Region 2 retail

RATING: 7/10
 reviewed by Steven Hampton
A teacher, Akiko (Midori Fujita), paints the golden-eyed figure of her childhood nightmares, which her boyfriend, Dr Saeki (Osahide Takahashi), dismisses as an "obsession of threat." However, Akiko's lingering fears prove well founded when a coffin is delivered to the boathouse keeper at Lake Fujimi, and a female patient arrives at Saeki's hospital drained of blood. Akiko's younger sister, flirty Natsuko (Sanae Emi) is easy prey for the vampire (Mori Kishida), and the future starts to look a bit grim for all concerned.
    "The truth is out there." As with much modern horror, only a return to the past - which, here, means that a visit to the place in the heroine's recurring dream (the shadowy house of Dracula) - is necessary to confront and solve the dark mystery. This Toho production makes excellent use of its scope aspect and has first class corpse effects. In particular, the way that director Yamamoto shoots the vampires standing quietly, with an unnatural stillness, is deliciously creepy. This appealing Japanese chiller was successful enough to warrant a sequel, and Evil Of Dracula appeared in 1974, again starring Kishida as the vampire.
   This DVD has the original Japanese soundtrack, re-mastered in Dolby digital with English subtitles. Disc extras include stills galleries, biographies, promo material, and Warrior label previews.
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