Dracula's Dog
Dracula's Dog (U.K. title: Zoltan...Hound of Dracula; original working title: Hounds of Dracula) is a 1977 American horror film starring Michael Pataki 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. In the United Kingdom, the novel was  titled "Zoltan...Hound of Dracula". Plot. The Romanian army accidentally blasts open a subterranean crypt, 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 (Reggie Nalder), who is also buried in the crypt, which belongs to the Dracula family, all of whom are vampires. Zoltan removes the stake from the innkeeper's chest, re-animating the innkeeper. The film cuts to a flashback of a village in Romania in 1670, over 300 years ago. The dog of an innkeeper saves a sleeping woman from being bitten by Count Igor Dracula (Michael Pataki). Furious over losing his meal to a dog, Dracula, in bat form, bites the  woman's savior, turning the dog into a vampire. Then Dracula, with the dog by his side, turns on his owner, turning the innkeeper 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) and thus turning him into a slave of the Draculas. Back in the present (1977), it appears that the Draculas have only one surviving (mortal) descendant, Michael Drake (also Michael Pataki), a psychiatrist, and (unknown to him) the image of Count Igor Dracula. He decides to take his wife, Marla (Jan  Shutan) and their two children, Linda (Libby Chase) and Steve (John Levin) (who, technically, are "also" descendants of the Draculas), as well as their two German Shepherd Dogs, Samson and Annie, and their two puppies, on vacation in the family's Winnebago camper, hoping to spend some quality time with his family and their pets out in a national forest. Still loyal to the Draculas, the vampire dog and his master travel to the United States, shipping themselves via boat to Los Angeles, California to make Michael their new master. Eventually, Zoltan and Smit find themselves in the same forest  as Michael, his family, and their dogs. Two fishermen, vacationing nearby with Buster, a Pointer belonging to one of them, discover that Zoltan bit their dog. The Drakes' two dogs are also bitten. The deceased dogs soon re-animate 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 before escapes destruction. Release. Thorn EMI/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 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" called it the nadir of vampire films."TV Guide" 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.