Countess Dracula’s Orgy of Blood – review

Director: Donald F Glut

Release date: 2004

Contains spoilers

Allegedly Countess Dracula’s Orgy of Blood is a sequel to The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula. I say allegedly because, other than a location (the castle), Del Howison reprising his Renfield role (in cameo it would seem) and the appearance of a character purporting to be Dracula – this time played by Tony Clay – this has precious little to do with the first film, no Scarlet Countess appears (or is the name of a club) in this little movie.

It does, however, share a need to have naked ladies and girl on girl action. Fair enough, it is a Glut production and at this point it meant softcore with an attempt at story.

We start in 1897 and a man (Jason Peters) cleans his gun in the living room of a ranch as his sister Roxanne (Danielle Petty, Tomb of the Werewolf) sleeps in another room. We get some mist (or dry ice) and the vampire Diana (Glori-Anne Gilbert, Blood Sisters: Vamps 2) appears and they get down to some naked rumpy… Couple of points here. Ms Petty was very pale of skin, whereas the vampire was tanned, with tan lines! Our vampire also clearly had been surgically enhanced and wore footwear boasting Perspex heels – in 1897… Now I know that Bram Stoker pushed the boundaries with his scientific inclusions when Dracula was published in 1897 but these were idiosyncrasies too far! Anyway, in the heat of passion Roxanne knocks a perfume bottle over and her brother comes in to find her missing… off he goes to enlist the help of Padre Jacinto (Paul Naschy).

Yes, the iconic Mr Naschy cameos in this movie – and his talents are unfortunately squandered by the filmmakers. As it is he plays a monk looking for a sign from God. He speaks in Spanish through his scenes and goes, with the brother, a-hunting vampires. They get to the lair and open up a coffin, containing a male vampire (Arthur Roberts, Not of this Earth (1988) and the Lair – season 1). Diana comes in and has a stake thrust through her for her troubles (and her unnecessary posturing, which included having to get her boobs out when faced with vampire hunters - so there is a salutary lesson for all vampires, concentrate on killing the hunters and not disrobing!) The male has not moved and gets a silver dagger through the heart. Jacinto prays to God that he might never rest until the evil is finally defeated… One questions why he doesn’t find a final solution (such as head off and cremation) for the now skeletal vampires, but his plea to God means that Naschy will appear, spirit like, later in the film!

Modern day and Martine (Eyana Barksy) summons Renfield (who was watching Count Gore De Vol on TV) as Dracula – her father – has summoned her. Dracula (who actually looks like a low rent Gore De Vol imposter) is watching the vampire Valerie (Jana Thompson) dance for him. When Martine arrives he sends her to resurrect his old English drinking buddy, the letch Lord Ruthven. Yes, despite mispronouncing his name (for the record Ruthven is pronounced Riven) the male vampire we saw destroyed is Ruthven – as in the character invented by Polidori in the first English language vampire story the Vampyre.

Things, therefore, could have been rather interesting. The Vampyre is not often used as an inspiration for films and there is a plethora of things that could be done with the character and pre-Stoker lore. Dracula tells them to resurect him whilst the moon is full – reminiscent of the way Ruthven was revived in the original story except… it was a cosmetic moment only, it seems. Later Ruthven quotes the Byron poem, She Walks in Beauty and this was interesting as the Ruthven character was a thinly veiled parody of Byron but when it is repeated a second time it becomes a quote too far. Anyway, when Ruthven tries to drink he is pained and his eyes stream with blood. Jacinto appears before him calling him cursed.

It appears that – new lore alert – if a vampire is staked with silver, said silver gets into the blood stream and poisons them. They cannot feed on humans and must filter their blood through another vampire. Rather than asking Dracula for help he resurrects his sister Diana (who he clearly dislikes). Thus the title of the film is a misnomer as the “Orgy of Blood” is instigated by Diana who is not Countess Dracula! She goes on a drinking frenzy, sating her lesbian lusts en route and healing her brother to boot. However both can feel Roxanne’s reincarnated presence in the city and both want her. He for love, she for lust (and, for the record, Roxanne is reincarnated as a lesbian).

This might have been an interesting twist on the reincarnation theme had it been explored, unfortunately it was less a part of the story and more an after-thought. Over all there was a barebones story that could have been interesting but it got lost in nudity. Most of the acting is poor, though Roberts is great as Ruthven. Idiosyncrasies in respect of historic details were blatant and the Dracula bits were simply silly add-ons adding an unnecessary (and unfunny) comedy.

Better than its predecessor, though, 3 out of 10. The imdb page is here.