Arrow are releasing this interesting set of early 1970s Japanese vampire movies made by Toho. For obsessives of that particular genre and / or era of film-making they're going to be a must-see. For everyone else, here's what you get:
The Vampire Doll (1970)
A curious mixture of contemporary Western horror movie genre-plundering filtered through a contemporary (for the period) cultural Japanese sensibility, Michio Yamamoto's THE VAMPIRE DOLL gives us a modern-day setting, an isolated mansion, a ghostly girl, blood-drained corpses and a disappearing relative to power the plot along.
However, nothing is quite what it seems in Yamamoto's picture, and by the time we get to the end, with its convoluted explanation for what has been happening, the film feels more reminiscent of Italian giallo cinema than European gothic. Adding to this sense is a distinct lack of gothic atmosphere to much of it, with brightly lit sets, indifferent acting, and a perfunctory approach to a genre that, if anything, was at its most full-blooded during this period.
Lake of Dracula (1971)
In which we have a lake that things happen near but not actually in, and a tenuous at best connection to Count Dracula. It does all feel a bit COUNT YORGA, though, with a truck delivering a crate to a lakeside town. In the crate is 'The Vampire' (Shin Kishida) who causes a bit of trouble before he meets his end (literally) in one of those 'oh my how fortunate that long sharp piece of wood was propped just so' endings. A bit more atmosphere than THE VAMPIRE DOLL but this is still one for completists.
Evil of Dracula (1974)
Things start to perk up a bit with this one. A teacher arrives at a remote village to take up a new post at an exclusive girls' school (aha!). The headmaster is played by Shin Kishida, the vampire from the previous film (aha again!). Cries in the night lead the protagonist to a Jean Rollin-style almost naked Japanese vampire lady (am I selling this one to you yet?).
The vampire headmaster is keeping his vampire wife in a coffin in the cellar (oh yes!) and with her husband she helps wreak havoc including cutting the face off of a naked student she has vampirised so she can assume their identity (if you're not sold on this now you never will be). There's a bit more atmosphere, a lot more action, and I have to say I really enjoyed this one.
The only significant extra is a talking head piece by Kim Newman where he contextualises the films into 1970s vampire cinema while admitting he has difficulty remembering which scene happened in which film. And I have to admit that having just picked out the stills above from the press pack now I can't either. The transfers look lovely, though. The first pressing also comes with a booklet by Jasper Sharp.
THE BLOODTHIRSTY TRILOGY is out from Arrow on Blu-ray only from Monday 14th May 2018
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