Import/Export: Pakistani Dracula

I should probably mention again just how much I love Mondo Macabro. This company is the one that is going to supply me with a couple of this weeks- as well as this month's- reviews. Their willingness to unearth every crazy, international film is what helps me get up in the morning. I mean, that and Crystal Meth. Today's film is one of their early releases that had gone out of print for a while. They brought it back in time for someone like me to finally decide to see it. Was it worth the wait? Can a country like that deliver on Bram Stoker's story? Find out all of these answers and more in my review of...

The Living Corpse (aka Pakistani Dracula)

Our story begins with a mad doctor trying to create a potion. His female assistant tries to dissuade him, but he has none of it. He finally completes his work, drinks the potion...and dies. Congratulations, you made poison! Through the magic of trick photography, his face changes to a pale shade (this is B&W) and he awakens in his coffin! Now dressed like a real vampire (read: all black and cape), he goes to his assistant's room, surprising her, and bites her. This brings up our title card. So, to review, a Doctor drinks a potion and turns into Dracula- that's a new one for you! Our story changes to that of a different Doctor who comes into town to see our titular villain. This is another aspect taken from the book, but changed in a curious way. He's not visiting to sell him land, so why is he there? No great reason comes to mind. They touch upon the usual riffs (there are no servants, 'the creatures of the night,' etc). All goes fairly normally until our hero decides to go downstairs, whereupon he runs into the assistant in a night dress. She decides to entice him with a silly dance number. No, really. Mind you, it is still nothing compared to what you will say Tuesday. After all of that, she goes for the bite, but our villain stops her. Nobody takes his food, dammit!

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The man manages to ward off the villain with a cross, but too much has already happened. The vampire has seen his wife and wants some of her. He wanders out in the morning and tries to kill both vampires. He stabs the lady through the heart with a knife (not silver) and moves on to the Doctor. He was ready and, since the coffins are in the attic, he is free to move about and kill the man. To keep this film at full-length, his brother comes into town looking for him. He finds the castle and the crypt, with only his brother inside. He goes to stab him as the film fades out. It returns with him talking to the man's wife and her family. The father does not believe his story, so he insists on proving it. When they go their, nothing suspicious can be found. Our villain is already on the move, since the film did not make his estate dramatically far away from that of our heroes. He sneaks in one night and bites the sister, which confuses everyone except our lead. Of course, nobody believes his crazy ass! The film shows it cultural issues by mentioning that a child was killed by a vampire, but showing us nothing. Despite our hero's efforts, the girl dies from blood loss. He tells the dad that they must decapitate her, but he, shockingly, is against it. You'll change your tune!

*

They build up the girl's return as a vampire quite well, hinting at it with the young girl mentioning that she was visited. Our hero and dad watch the graveyard, although the latter still does not believe. Right as he says 'screw this,' his daughter walks back with the young girl in tow. They stop her before she can be bitten, thankfully. The go the next night to find the fiend, but he takes advantage then. Someone calls the house and reports an accident involving the men, so the wife calls a cab. It goes past her destination and the driver is revealed to be our villain. If you ever wanted to see Dracula in a car chase (as opposed to Frankenstein's monster), then you are in luck. Our heroes battle the monster, but do about as well as these characters usually do (see Dracula: Dead and Loving It or 1973's Dracula). After a fairly-lengthy fight, our lead hero saves the day by complete accident. He grabs a stick, which just happens to be holding one of the windows shut. It opens up and the sunlight kills Dracula. Just like in Blacula, they do a nice, lengthy body-breakdown scene. The culmination of this is when a plaster mold of the man's head cracks in two- ouch! All is well, unless you are the brother or the wife. The End.

*

This movie is good, but quite strange. At times, it is a strong adherent to the book. Hell, it is more adherent than Bram Stoker's Dracula by Coppola! The cultural changes and quirks are what really sell the movie. Their Dracula was clearly molded after Christopher Lee (this movie is from 1967) and does a good job, even if he looks silly at times. The acting is solid and the movie is well-shot. If you are a huge fan of the original story, the redundancy of scenes may bother you a bit, but this is par for the course for these movies. If you like B-movies, this is a solid choice for you. The filmmakers did what they could and that should at least be commended. The DVD has an interviewer with the two stars (one of whom was also the director) and they talk about the troubles with the film. Sufficed to say, the film scared Pakistani audiences 42 years ago. I doubt that there is a better version- if there even is another one- of this film out there, so, as always, you are safe when picking Mondo Macabro.

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Next up, I celebrate a holiday about a Spanish man and his boat with a film by a Spanish man about a boat. Oh and it has zombies. Stay tuned...