''Fracchia contro Dracula'' (also known as ''Who Is Afraid Of Dracula?'' and ''Fracchia vs. Dracula'') is a

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

Italian

horror comedy Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spo ...

film directed by

Neri Parenti Neri Parenti (born 26 April 1950, in Florence) is an Italian film director and writer. He is known for comedy films, including the series starring Paolo Villaggio playing the character Ugo Fantozzi, and a later series of '' cinepanettoni'' - zany ...

Plot summary

Giandomenico Fracchia, Villaggio's "monstrously shy" character, is tasked to sell a piece of real estate in

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

. Otherwise, he will lose his job. The customer is the obtusely nagging and prickly accountant Arturo Filini, who suffers from heavy nearsightedness and does not realize that the manor he is interested in is actually

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by som ...

's castle. Once on the spot, Fracchia is terrified at the going-ons while Filini, in true

Mister Magoo ''Mister Magoo'' is an American animated television series which was produced from November 7, 1960 to February 2, 1962. A single episode included five four-minute shorts and could either be aired together with bumpers as a single half-hour show, ...

-style, dismisses them as 'tricks' to dissuade him from the estate deal. Meanwhile, a young and attractive

vampire hunter Vampire hunter or vampire slayer is a fictional occupation in history and fiction which specializes in finding vampires, and sometimes other supernatural creatures. A vampire hunter is usually described as having extensive knowledge of vampires a ...

(

Isabella Ferrari Isabella Ferrari (born 31 March 1964), better known by her stage name of Isabella Fogliazza, is an Italian actress of television, theatre and the cinema. She is best known as the protagonist, ''Commissioner Giovanna Scalise'' in the police dram ...

) arrives. She is determined to avenge her brother's death, who perished trying to rid the world of Dracula and his cohorts. The events turn even more farcical when Dracula's sister confesses her love for Fracchia to try to avoid being engaged to the

Frankenstein Monster Frankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, often referred to as simply "Frankenstein", is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. Shelley's title thus compares ...

. In the end an ash-tipped umbrella seems to solve the situation, but...was it all for real or just a horror-film fueled nightmare?

Cast

Release

''Fraccia contro Dracula'' was distributed theatrically in Italy by

Titanus Titanus is an Italian film production company, founded in 1904 by Gustavo Lombardo (1885–1951). The company's headquarters are located at 28 Via Sommacampagna, Rome and its studios on the Via Tiburtina, 13 km from the centre of Rome. Lomb ...

on December 19, 1986. The film grossed a total of 818,235,000

Italian lire The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

. Film historian and critic Roberto Curti stated that the film was a commercial disappointment being released at a fruitful time of the year and only becoming the 60th highest grossing film in Italy of that year.

References

Sources

External links

* 1985 films Italian comedy films 1980s comedy horror films Dracula films Italian vampire films Films directed by Neri Parenti Films scored by Bruno Zambrini Films set in castles Films shot in Aosta Valley Films set in Rome Films set in Transylvania Vampire comedy films 1985 comedy films 1980s Italian films {{comedy-horror-film-stub