Dracula's Widow (So Much Potential...)

Score: 5 Out Of 10

          I cannot at all make up my mind over whether or not I liked this movie. There was a lot to love but at the same time there was a lot to hate. It really seems like for every one thing I like about this movie there was at least one thing that left me groaning. "Dracula's Widow" was directed by Christopher Coppola and stars Sylvia Kristel, Josef Sommer and Lenny Von Dohlen. The story is that Dracula's Widow, Venessa, who is not convinced her husband is dead, is shipped to Hollywood as a wax figure. She then uses her vampy magic to seduce the wax museums owner and begins hatching a scheme to get back to Transylvania to find her husband. Now, before you make fun of the plot, let me say that the plot is one of the elements of this film that I really liked. Any thing involving Count Dracula should be a love story. As evil as the original vampire might be, his motivations in all the best Dracula stories and movies is that of a hopeless romantic. We may despise (or love, if your that kind of person) his methods, but love is what is at his core.

         So in all honesty, it is easy for me to buy in to the idea that Dracula would have married, then died and left behind a love sick widow. That being said, the writing is pretty good, but the delivery  is terrible. Specifically on the part of Sylvia Kristel. She is just so flat and almost monotone. Even in monster mode she comes across like she is just bored. In the same vein, the creature effects and other special effects (gore) are pretty well done, but you see too much of the effects and in way too much light, which is really a metaphor for the rest of the film. Good idea, just poor execution.

Love,

   The B-Movie Guy

Twitter: @BMovieGuy