Short Film: the Vampire Hunters Club

For a short film, this 2001 35-minute flick by Donald F. Glut was a veritable who’s-who of US genre B actors, as a venerable group of vampire hunters finally track down Dracula (Daniel Roebuck).

The film starts in black and white with Debbie (Monica Kim) sat in front of a mirror as mist crawls under the door. She lifts up her picture of beau Reggie (played young by Steven Lekowicz, Vampire Zombie Werewolf, and old by John Agar, Daughter of Dr Jekyll) but a figure (Dracula) materialises and she drops it to the floor, the glass smashing.

the matriarchs

It is 1958 and a vampire (Dan Campbell) runs along railroad tracks followed by a group of vampire hunters. This is seen by two matriarch vampires and one, played by Carla Laemmle (Dracula), hopes it isn’t Dracula they’re after as she hasn’t seen him since 1931. Of course Carla Laemmle was the niece of Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle and spoke the first words in the 1931 Dracula as a passenger in Renfield’s coach. The vampire is cornered by Marty (John Norris) in a narrow alley and manages to bite the hunter. The vampire is staked and, to be cautious, the hunters stake Marty too.

Debbie and Dracula

They manage to find Dracula and he is with Debbie, who is bitten and smitten. There is some bravado, a thrown cross and then Dracula and Debbie vanish leaving the hunters; Reggie, Johnny (Played young by John Pepe, the Boneyard Collection, and old by William Smith, also the Boneyard Collection, the Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula & Grave of the Vampire), Bob (played young by Sam Aaron and old by Bob Burns, the Lemon Grove Kids meet the Monsters & The Ghost Busters: The Vampire’s Apprentice) and Forry (played young by Nick Bennett and old by Forrest J. Ackerman, also the Boneyard Collection, Dracula Vs Frankenstein, Scarlet Moon, Vampirella & the Dead Undead), behind. They form a vampire hunters club and hunt vampires through the decades.

fangs

Moving to a contemporary time they are approached by Tina (Dina Vernon), Marty’s niece, and she has a lead on Dracula. For the first time they might actually get to the King Vampire. Tina will go to a vampire club alone and, with luck, be able to secure the information about his whereabouts and allow the club to track him down and finish the business from all that time before… Will they succeed, well you’ll have to watch it to find out. I have, of course, listed several of the players but there are other genre stars in there that I haven’t mentioned so have fun spotting them all.

The imdb page is here.