The Batman vs. Dracula

Plot synopsis:
Joker and Penguin have escaped from Arkham Asylum, and Batman is summoned to round them up. Unfortunately for the Joker, he appears to have been electrocuted when, in order to escape Batman, he jumps into a river with his palm shocker still activated. Penguin, however, makes it to the Gotham City Cemetery where an inmate has told him some loot is buried in a certain tomb. In searching for the tomb, Penguin inadvertently awakens Dracula when he spills blood on Drac's corpse. After feeding on the cemetery guard, Dracula turns Penguin into his renfield. A cloud of fear descends over Gotham City as people begin to go missing.At the same time that Dracula is planning to turn Gotham City into the City of the Undead, Bruce Wayne is planning the Wayne Industries Energy Expo to be held tomorrow evening at Wayne Manor. During an interview with Gotham City News reporter Vicky Vale, he invites Vicky (who appears to be developing a thing for Bruce) to be his date. That night on his watch over the city, Batman sees the cemetery guard attack a woman after knocking out a hoodlum who was trying to steal her purse. When Batman jumps in to help the woman, all three of them -- the guard, the hoodlum, and the woman -- turn on Batman, all of them now vampires. Batman escapes by jumping on the top of a passing El train.It is now the evening of the Expo. Guests are beginning to arrive, including Dracula. He takes a fancy to Vicky and introduces himself to Bruce as Dr Alucard, newly arrived in Gotham to study the Batman, whom he sees as a fearful individual who assumes the guise of a bat. In return, Bruce introduces Alucard to the SL-5, one of Wayne Industries' latest technological advances. It collects and stores solar energy as true sunlight. Alucard is impressed that science has finally done something "positive" with the sun. When the food servers circulate with trays of hors d'oeuvres, Alucard grimaces at the garlic shrimp but wolfs down the steak tartare, then excuses himself in order to find something to wash it down with. That something is Bruce Wayne's blood. Alucard mesmerizes Bruce into going out on the terrace. Just as Alucard is about to pounce on Bruce, however, Alfred comes out looking for him, dashing Alucard's plan. Instead, Alucard feasts on the serving captain, Stipes.Bruce isn't sure how he got out on the terrace, but he suspects it was Alucard's doing. He follows Alucard as Alucard prepares to leave and sees him turn into a bat and fly away. Alfred notices that Alucard casts no reflection in a mirror, and Bruce writes Alucard's name on a silver platter then holds it in front of the mirror to notice that "Alucard" is "Dracula" backwards. Now that he knows what he's up against, Bruce figures that his first course of action should be to find a cure for vampirism so that he can rescue Dracula's victims, so it's off to the Thomas Wayne Old School Medical Library to do some extensive research.Vicky Vale has been sent out to interview a man who claims to have seen a large bat attacking a Gotham City resident. Vicky and the authorities conclude that the attacker and the individual behind all the missing persons must be none other than the Batman. All of Gotham is now looking for Batman, who now finds himself being hunted, shot at, and feared by the city he tries to protect. Dracula, too, has decided that there is room in Gotham City for only one bat and vows to destroy Batman after Batman refuses to ally himself with Dracula. Fortunately for Batman, the sun starts to rise before Dracula is able to make good on his threat.That evening, as Penguin goes down into the catacombs to awaken Dracula, he is confronted by his old friend, the Joker. Joker explains that he was saved when he was caught in the net of a fisherman who retrieved him from the water. Penguin attempts to elude the Joker by running through the catacombs, but the Joker follows. When he sees Dracula's coffin and bends over to peek into it, Dracula grabs him by the throat and pulls him inside. "Breakfast in bed...fresh squeezed," Penguin comments. Now turned into a vampire, the Joker raids a blood bank, which sets off an alarm, seending Batman over to investigate. Enhanced by his new vampire powers, Joker leaps at Batman, but Batman sets off a series of garlic bombs. The Joker is subdued, and Batman takes him to the Batcave in order to test some of his antivampire medications.Bruce and Alfred work through the night and all the next day looking unsuccessfully for a cure. So busy are they that they are both surprised when the doorbell rings. They had both forgotten that Vicky was dropping by for dinner. Alfred attempts to stall Vicky while Bruce continues to work. When Joker's thirst becomes too painful to bear, Bruce withdraws some of his own blood and, donning his bat costume, feeds his own blood to the Joker. As the time closes in on 9 PM, Vicky sadly gives up waiting for Bruce to join her for dinner, much to Alfred's chagrin (Alfred is hoping that Bruce and Vicky will get it on together). Meanwhile, Bruce thinks that he may have found the cure. When it comes time to feed Joker again, Bruce slips some of the serum into the bloodbag. Joker drinks it and POOF, no longer is he a vampire. There is one side effect, however. Joker cannot remember anything about being a vampire. He only remembers being in the Gotham Cemetery with Penguin, so Batman sends him back to Arkham Asylum.Now on her way home after having been stood up, Vicky misses her train. Fortunately, Dracula shows up and offers to share drinks with her while she waits for the next one. Vicky tells him that she's running late and will catch a cab instead. Then she tries to contact Bruce, but Bruce is loading up his serum into syringes and doesn't answer. When Bruce gears up to go hunting for Dracula, Alfred convinces him to wait until morning when the advantage will be his but suggests that he return Vicky's phone call. Bruce does just that, but Vicky doesn't answer. Suddenly, he gets another call from Vicky, telling him that she met up with Dracula and needs rescuing.Dracula has taken Vicki into the catacombs where he, Penguin, and all of the "children of the night" are gathered to witness the "blood wedding." But it isn't Vicky Vale that Dracula intends to wed. He simply needs her life essence in order to awaken his true bride, Carmilla Karnstein, who was reduced to ashes when she was struck in the sunlight. As Vicky's essence begins to rise from her body and flow into the pile of Carmilla ash that Dracula has suspended on a platform over her, Batman makes his way into the catacombs. Too busy rehydrating his bride, Dracula sends his minions to stop Batman, but Batman is able to knock them out one by one and inject him with the antivampire serum. Soon, all the lost ones have rehumanized, so they exit from the catacombs. Batman goes looking for Dracula and Vicky.Vicky's essence is quickly draining, so Batman first ropes Penguin and puts him out of commission. Then he aims a triggerized syringe at Dracula, but Dracula mesmerizes him so that Batman cannot pull the trigger. Instead, he drops it on the ground. Then he remembers himself as a young boy and how he became the Batman. This seems to make him grow stronger until he is able to throw a garlic bomb at Carmilla. This interrupts the flow of essence from Vicky, sending it all back into her. Batman helps Vicky out of her coffin and tells her to run. Then he and Dracula go at it, fighting hand to hand until a big cloud of dust fills up the chamber. Hiding in the dust, Bruce sends a message to Alfred, triangulating his location.As Alfred watches on the computer screen, he sees Batman winding his way through the catacombs under Gotham City and realizes that Batman is leading Dracula into the Batcave. When the two of them break through the walls and are inside the cave itself, the fighting resumes. "I will drain you dry and use your cape as a dinner napkin," Dracula threatens. Alfred manages to shoot a syringeful of serum into Dracula, but it has no effect, as "no earthly medicine can cure a supernatural affliction." Dracula goes after Alfred, which gives Batman time to turn on the SL-5. As the harnessed sunlight begins to fill the Batcave, Dracula realizes that Batman is really Bruce Wayne. "And you are dust," Batman replies, as Dracula begins to disintegrate. As an added measure, Batman scatters Dracula's bones all over the Batcave, leaving Alfred to sweep into the dustbin straightaway.Meanwhile, back at the cemetery, Penguin has been sent out to recapture Vicky and return her to Dracula. She manages to elude him for a while, even knocking over the buried loot that Penguin came to find in the first place, but he eventually corners her just as Dracula is turned to dust. Having lost all memory of what he's supposed to be doing, Penguin turns to the pile of gold that has been uncovered, just as the police arrive and arrest him.It's all over the news that the missing ones have been found and that it was all a plot by Penguin to use them as hostages to uncover mob treasure. Batman has been exonerated, and Penguin's insistence that it was due to vampires is dismissed as insanity as he is escorted back to Arkham Asylum. [Original synopsis by BJ Kuehl]

Tags: violence, psychedelic, horror, comedy, suspenseful

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