''Dracula's Dog'' (U.K. title: ''Zoltan... Hound of Dracula''; original

working title A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...

: ''Hounds of Dracula'') is a 1977 American horror film starring

Michael Pataki Michael Pataki (January 16, 1938 – April 15, 2010) was an American actor. Early life Pataki was born in Youngstown, Ohio. His parents were Hungarians. He was the youngest of three children - one older brother and one older sister. He atten ...

and José Ferrer. It revolves around a dog who is turned into a vampire by a member of the Dracula family, who is also a vampire. The film's screenplay by Frank Ray Perilli was the basis for the mass market paperback novel ''Hounds of Dracula'' (1977) by Ken Johnson, which was re-titled ''Dracula's Dog'' upon the film's release in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, the novel was titled ''Zoltan...Hound of Dracula''.

Plot

The Romanian army accidentally blasts open a subterranean

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

, and the army captain, fearing looters and criminals, stations a guard near the site. Late in the night, an earthquake shakes loose one of the coffins, which slides down and lands at the feet of the confused guard. Curious as to what has fallen before him, the guard opens the coffin and discovers a dog's body, impaled by a wooden stake. He removes the stake, which revives the vampiric Doberman Pinscher Zoltan. After slaying the guard and drinking his blood, Zoltan opens another coffin shaken loose from the crypt, this one holding the body of his master, an innkeeper named Veidt Smit. The crypt belongs to the Dracula family, all of whom are

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

s. Zoltan removes the stake from the innkeeper's chest, re-animating him. The narrative then cuts to a flashback of a village in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

in 1670, over 300 years ago. The dog of an innkeeper saves a sleeping woman from being bitten by Count Igor

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...

. Furious over losing his victim to a dog, Dracula, in bat form, bites the dog, turning it into a vampire. Then Dracula, with the dog by his side, turns on the innkeeper, turning him into a "fractional lamia" (an undead creature that is only part vampire, able to function in the daytime and having no need to drink blood) who can be used as a slave. Back in the present day, it appears that the Dracula family have only one surviving (mortal) descendant, Michael Drake, a

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

, and (unknown to him) the image of Count Igor Dracula. He decides to take his wife (Marla) and their two children (Linda and Steve), as well as their two

German Shepherd Dog The German Shepherd or Alsatian is a German breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various traditional German herding dogs from 1899. It was originally bred as a herding dog, for he ...

s (Samson and Annie) and their two puppies, on vacation in the family's

Winnebago Winnebago can refer to: * The exonym of the Ho-Chunk tribe of Native North Americans with reservations in Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin ** Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, a federally recognized tribe group in the state ** The Winnebago language of the ...

camper. The vampire dog and his master travel to the

, shipping themselves via boat to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

to make Michael their new master. Eventually, Zoltan and Smit find themselves in the same forest as Michael and his family. Two fishermen, vacationing nearby with a Pointer called Buster, discover that Zoltan has bitten their dog. The Drakes' two dogs are also bitten and all the deceased dogs reanimate into vampire dogs, the minions of Zoltan. Veidt Smit and the four vampire dogs are all destroyed at the end of the film but, unknown to everyone involved, a vampire German Shepherd puppy (one of the two puppies belonging to the Drakes) that Zoltan had bitten previously, escapes destruction.

Cast

as Michael Drake/Count Igor Dracula * José Ferrer as Inspector Vaclav Branco *

Reggie Nalder Reggie Nalder (born Alfred Reginald Natzler; 4 September 1907 – 19 November 1991) was a prolific Austrian film and television character actor from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. His distinctive features—partially the result of disfigurin ...

as Veidt Smit *

Jan Shutan Jan Shutan Levinson (born Janice Dottenheim; November 5, 1932 – October 7, 2021) was an American actress, best known for her appearance in ''Star Trek: The Original Series'', ''Sons and Daughters'' and ''The Andy Griffith Show''. Life Shuta ...

as Marla Drake * Libby Chase as Linda Drake * John Levin as Steve Drake * Cleo Harington as Pat Parks * Arlene Martel as Major Hessel * Tom Gerrard as Maslow, the guard *

Dimitri Logothetis Dimitri Logothetis is a Greek-American actor, director, comedian, and producer. Early life Logothetis was born in Athens, Greece, and immigrated to the United States of America at the age of six with his mother, Anna, and his father, Euthymios. ...

as an army corporal * Al Ferrara as Al, the deputy * Roger Pancake as the sheriff

Release

Thorn EMI Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Comic ...

/HBO and United Home Video released it on VHS as ''Zoltan... Hound of Dracula'' and ''Dracula's Dog'', respectively. Anchor Bay Entertainment released it on DVD as ''Zoltan... Hound of Dracula'' on August 20, 2002.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports 17% of six surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 3.6/10. Michael Wilmington of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' called it the nadir of vampire films.''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' rated it 1/5 stars and called the film's premise "ludicrous". Adam Tyner of DVD Talk rated it 2/5 stars and wrote that the film is too inept to be scary, though it is fun to mock. Writing in ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'', John Clute and John Grant call it "surprisingly dull", but complimented the dogs. Welch Everman wrote in ''Cult Horror Movies'' that the film "could have been a pretty effective and frightening movie", but failed to live up to its potential.

References

External links