Zoltan… Hound of Dracula (Special Edition) aka Dracula's Dog [Blu-ray]

For anyone who likes horror

My husband had fond memories of seeing this campy movie with his best friend so had to get him a copy when I found it.

My wife loves these cheezy old 60s/70s horror flicks She looked for this one a long time (amongst others) and I got it to her for Christmas. She's watched in several times since then, and LOVES it. Me, well, if she's happy then I'm happy but I"m usually playing guitar (silently) when it's on.

This is a good old classical horror film.

The movie opens with a beautifully detailed shot of some trees standing up against a blue sky, and when I zoomed in, the details were not lost so I guess the movie must have been shot on 35 mm. It's really not a bad movie but some of the scenes that serve to tie the movie together must have been lost when the movie was mastered onto DVD. When the camera pans down from the trees in full foliage - it is summertime - some guys dressed in Soviet uniforms flip a switch on a box and we see an explosion in the distance, and a cloud of dust rises up from the excavation site. Perhaps they were building a road in the area, perhaps they were trying to seek out the underground crypt where a vampire was reputed to be buried, we don't know for sure because some exposition seems to be lacking. In any case, discovering a way into the crypt, the soldiers descend into an elaborately detailed crypt with coffins sealed up in the walls around the tomb, and the camera hovers on the dimly lit inscriptions of characters like Mikhail Dracula, Igor Dracula, and a few others. They decide that it is an archaeological site, and it has to be protected from the locals. Later on, when the earth begins shaking in the middle of the night, coffins come tumbling out of the wall, and the guard grows curious and opens up a lid. Yep, no sooner does he see a wooden stake sticking out of a corpse than he foolishly takes it out, and a shape begins to swell up from within the burial shroud, and what do you know, it takes form and the guard just stands there. Even more shocking, a big, snarling, black dog jumps out of the coffin and kills the guard. Then there is a flashback to the days of the late 1700s when the dog was not a vampire dog, but just a normal dog. We see the dog barking at an intruder, and discover that it has scared a vampire away from a sleeping woman. But because the vampire is angry for being deprived of its meal, it turns into a bat and attacks the dog, sucking blood out of the dog's neck, and that is how the dog becomes a vampire dog. For one reason or another, the shopkeeper that owns the dog contracts vampyrism, too, and in short time they, as a pair, become faithful servants to their master, Count Dracula. So much for the flashback. The rest of the movie involves these two servants, fortuitously resurrected from death, coming to America, and traveling to California to reunite with the very last surviving representative of Dracula's lineage, a non-vampire named Drake, a practicing psychologist, off on a well-deserved vacation by the lake. This movie suffers from its poorly arranged musical soundtrack, not from its camera work, as the best music is saved for very the last part of the movie when the credits are scrolling down the screen. If I had to describe the music, I'd guess that the composer was just beginning to learn how to use a music synthesizer, and the organlike sounds - seemingly new to him - were overused and poorly arranged. I guess you'd have to be a vampire movie collector to buy this movie, or maybe you just liked the stunning Arlene Martell (the lady Russian commandant) who had a bit piece at the start of the movie (discussing with the inspector what is a new kind of vampire, one who is not completely a vampire, just someone who is "half-undead"). Although Arlene Martell had a very small part in this movie, lasting only 2 or 3 minutes long, she did manage to have her name listed on the credits in letters just as big as Reggie Nalder's. (Reggie Nalder plays the old and wrinkled shopkeeper from the 1700s.) Maybe Arlene Martell's background in television soap operas led to her bit piece in this vampire movie... And if you still can't remember who she is, she played Spock's wife on Star Trek. Finally, if this movie were to be improved in any way, the musical score would be completely thrown out and replaced with something more moving.

This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of 'Zoltan... Hound of Dracula' released by Shout! Factory in 2019.*****NOTE***** This movie is also known as 'Dracula's Dog'. 'Dracula's Dog' is the American version.Even though I gave this release 4 stars, my rating for the movie itself is 2 stars. I'm bumping it up simply because Kino Lorber bothered to release it on Blu-Ray, give it a nice picture and add a commentary track. My ratings are below. This is strictly for hardcore collectors for old low budget horror films. This movie would be better as part of a double feature release.I know that some people out there will say that this movie goes into the "so bad, it's good" category, but it just isn't my cup of tea. In general, I don't like movies that use real animals as villains. In my old age, I can never get the image of the animals being trained while filming out of my head.BLU-RAY: The picture is very good. The contrast looks just right. The picture is clear and you don't see many imperfections. I think that you will be quite pleased with the picture if you are a fan of this movie. The movie is shown in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio.EXTRA'S:-The inside is an alternate cover with the title 'Dracula's Dog'.-Audio commentary by film historians Lee Gambin and John Harrison - These two are enthusiastic about this movie. They manage to point out everything positive you could possibly find about this movie.-Radio Spot - This is a short 30 second spot which refers to the movie as 'Dracula's Dog'.-Theatrical Trailer - This is a pretty long trailer. It is in standard definition and it is 3m21s long. This may be several trailers stitched together.-Trailers for 'Jennifer', 'Madhouse', Chosen Survivors', 'Deranged', 'Burnt Offerings', 'Parasite' and'Phobia'-Subtitles*****WARNING - LOTS OF SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT*****PLOT/SUMMARY: The army accidentally blows open a crypt in Romania (I assume this is Transylvannia). A guard is put on duty to prevent people from looting it. An earthquake causes one of the coffins to come loose. The guard opens the coffin and finds, Zoltan, Dracula's dog, inside the coffin. He obviously knows nothing of vampire legends and he removes the stake from Zoltan and the dog comes back to life. Zoltan kills the guard and opens up another coffin that contains his former master, Veidt Smit, an innkeeper.We flashback to Romania in 1670. Dracula turns Zoltan into a vampire after he saves a woman fromDracula. Dracula persuades the dog to bite the innkeeper and turn him into a slave for Dracula.The next morning, Inspector Branco (Jose Ferrer) orders all the bodies to be burned. Branco discovers that Count Igor (Dracula?) had a human son sent to America when he was seven years old. He surmises that Veidt Smit went to America to find Mikhail, the son of the last Count Dracula.Mikhail Dracula, now known as Michael Drake is living in Los Angeles. Michael, his wife Marla, son Steve and daughter, Linda leave for a two week camping vacation. They bring along their dogs and puppies. When they leave, Smit follows them.At night, Zoltan goes out and kills one of the puppies and turns the adult dogs into vampire dogs. He also kills other campers. Two hunters rescue Linda from Zoltan and his minions. When the Drakes are getting ready to leave, Inspector Branco shows up after being told where to find the Drakes by the person watching their house. Branco tells Michael what is going on and he decides to stick around with the Inspector and find Veidt Smit and sends his family home. Michael and Branco plot to stop Veidt Smit and Zoltan.PRODUCTION: This movie was made in 1977 and was released by Crown International Films.-The U.K title is 'Dracula's Dog'.-The special effects are by Academy Award Winner, Stan Winston (Parasite, Aliens).-The director, Albert Band, is the director of the very good, 'I Bury The Living'. I strongly recommend that film if you are a fan of 'The Twilight Zone'.-I think the casting in this film is questionable. Of course Jose Ferrer is a great actor but his talents are wasted in a movie such as this. Obviously they just wanted his name appeal. Michael Pataki just does not come across as Dracula. Reggie Nalder is fine and looks undead even without makeup.-There is a novelization of this movie called 'Hounds of Dracula', written by Kenneth C. Johnson. He wrote the novel using the original script.A BRIEF HISTORY OF JOSE FERRER: Jose Ferrer is easily the biggest star in this movie. Obviously this was just a payday for him. Ferrer won a Tony Award as well as an Academy Award for 'Cyrano de Bergerac'. He also received nominations for 'Joan of Arc (1948)' and 'Moulin Rouge (1952). He was an award winning director for stage plays as well. Ferrer continued acting until 1987. He died in 1992.THAT BAD GUY LOOKS FAMILIAR, WHO IS HE?: That man with the scarred face is Reggie Nalder. He was known to have "The Face That Launched a Thousand Trips". Nalder was a character actor from Austria who acted from the 40's to the 90's. He had distinctive facial burns that made him ideal for playing a villain. He is most well known for his role as an assassin in 'The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)'. He is also known for an appearance in the Star Trek episode "Journey to Babel".COMMENTS:-The rules of this 'Dracula' film kind of confused me. What exactly is a son of Dracula doing using a cross? Perhaps because he was half human?-I just can't 'un-see' in my mind, the trainer trying to get the dogs to perform.-I'm not exactly sure why the dogs are attacking their master but you just have to go with it. Michael Dracula is attacked both in the shed and a convertible.-I think that Veidt Smit could have found a more inconspicuous vehicle. Using a hearse isn't exactly going to make you 'blend in'.CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS: I am not a fan of this movie. For most of the movie, I felt sorry for the dogs. No matter how I tried, I just could not get myself to take the movie seriously. This is the sort of movie that I would be better off watching as a young child when I didn't notice many things. I can't really recommend this movie for anybody other than diehard Dracula fans. Even then, it isn't much of a vampire movie. To me, the only real attraction of this movie, is that of it being an oddity.As far as extra's go, you get an audio commentary, which is always nice but not much else that gives added value. This is basically a release for completists and vampire enthusiasts that want to own every vampire movie. Other than that, I can't see anybody else wanting this release, other than someone who may have memories of it from late night television. I had not seen or even heard of this movie until this release.RATINGS:Plot: 3/10 or 1 1/2 stars - Starts off with good idea but low budget shows as story unfolds.SFX: 3/10 - This is not a strong point. Some trained dogs... that's about it. Very few scenes are believable.Picture: 7.5/10 or 4 stars - Very good picture. This is probably the best you will ever see this movie.Extra's: 5/10 or 2 1/2 stars - Audio commentary and trailer are always good for two stars as far as I'm concerned.Overall: 5/10 or 2 stars - I'm bumping this release to 3 stars simply because I want to see Blu-Ray releases of movies like this one to continue. But I don't want to completely compromise myself and rate it higher. I think this would be better as part of a double feature of low budget movies rather than a solo release.Thanks to Kino Lorber for the release.

Video and audio presentation of this film were top notch. Lots of fun bonus extras. This movie is a riot, borderline vampire film and nature attacks movie

This is a quiet favorite of mine. It was nice to see a vampire dog for a change. After all Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee/Raul Julia/Frank Langella gave us so many versions lf Dracula, it was nice to see he had a best friend who was just as diabolical. This was a good story

Der Film wurde leider nicht als Pal oder Ntsc in der Beschreibung angegeben !Nun kann ich ihn leider nicht im Couchmodus genießen !das geht Besser !4 Sterne für Stan Winston und einer für den Film !

Zoltan is a vampire dog. Hold that thought and you know what kind of rubbish this film is - but you also know that it is a must-watch. You need to get this, you need to own it, and then you need to watch it.

Un film tout à fait dans l’esprit des bons Draculas... cette fois-ci, son chien.. les yeux lumineux et tout...!Micheal Pataki qui a déjà fait un vampire dans Grave of the Vampire, revient ici en tant qu’un descendant de vampire.... un bon film pour se divertir et surtout si vous aimez les chiens...!!!

Perfect! Just a bit long BUT worth it thanks guys

Film ist nicht auf deutsch und läuft auch nicht auf deutschen Geräten. Daher Vorsicht. Hätte man ruhig Mal für Deutschland dabei schreiben können. Jetzt versuchen wir Mal den Rückversand