Blood for Dracula

Blood for Dracula (Andy Warhol’s Dracula in the US) is an aimless mess.

Despite the US title, Andy Warhol had nothing to do with the film, which is the brainchild of writer-director Paul Morrissey, who shot it immediately after the superior Flesh for Frankenstein using the same cast and crew.

Working from a script with no ending, Morrissey forgoes any kind of real story or theme in favor of over-the-top sex and gore, allowing his cast to improvise along the way. While there are moments when this works, they’re too few and far between.

The result is a film that’s surprisingly boring. Udo Kier’s Dracula is a sickly, whiney man-child who’s anything but terrifying, and lead Joe Dallesandro’s porn-quality performance as Italian servant named Mario replete with Brooklyn accent is laughably bad.

By the time the finale rolls around, Morrissey, in a weak attempt to give this 106-minute mess some meaning feeds Dallesandro’s character some Marxist ramblings about class equality and revolution, but it’s too little, too late to make Blood for Dracula worthwhile. Watch Flesh for Frankenstein instead.