Zoltan: Hound Of Dracula (a.k.a. Dracula's Dog)

The story of Dracula has been told from so many angles that it would seem impossible to find an aspect of the legendary vampire left unexplored. Nosferatu made him a monstrous ghoul, Bela Lugosi turned him into a hypnotic seducer, and Christopher Lee presented him as the stuff of gothic nightmares. There was Gary Oldman's romantic Dracula, and George Hamilton's comic Dracula. But what of Dracula the dog lover? Though Zoltan: Hound Of Dracula relegates Dracula himself to flashbacks, it does explore this crucial territory, with the story of a bloodsucking pooch's search for a new master. As the film opens, the Russian army has unearthed a mysterious crypt. One hapless soldier, ignoring the name "Dracula" on the graves, foolishly decides to pull the stake from a small corpse. In the process, he resurrects a befanged Doberman who promptly dispenses with his new acquaintance. As Zoltan reveals in a flashback to happier days, he was once a simple peasant's dog, but all that changed the night he interrupted Dracula (Michael Pataki) in mid-bite. The vampire returns the favor by feeding on the dog instead, turning him into a canine vampire and his owner (Reggie Nalder) into a half-vampire manservant. Resurrected by Zoltan, the present-day Nalder telepathically informs the dog, "We must find a new master." Since Dracula himself has apparently met a grim fate, they seek out suburban L.A. psychologist Michael Drake (also Pataki), the last direct descendant of the Dracula line. Eschewing the direct approach, Nalder and Zoltan instead follow Pataki's family on a camping trip, where Zoltan initiates Pataki's German shepherds Samson and Annie into the bloodsucking lifestyle, along with their new litter of puppies. Understandably upset by their beloved pets' new bad habits, Pataki and his family plan to leave, but are accosted by Russian inspector and vampire expert José Ferrer, who enlists Pataki in a quest to destroy the vampire dogs. As Nalder stares menacingly into space and delivers psychic commands, canine chaos rules the campground, leaving one dead hippie and several terrorized fishermen in its wake. Finally, the dogs track down their intended target and begin clawing at Pataki and Ferrer's cabin, almost as if attempting to get at hidden bits of meat. In a final showdown, the two men slay Nalder, stake the dogs, and force Zoltan to impale himself on a conveniently located wooden fence. "That was the last of them," Ferrer concludes, but the camera knows better: It pans to reveal a tiny puppy whose glowing eyes, pointed teeth, and irascible charm might just make a vampire of Pataki yet.