Review
ZOLTAN ... HOUND OF DRACULA
aka
DRACULA’S DOG
Rating: 
USA. 1977.
Director – Albert Band, Screenplay – Frank Ray Perilli, Producers – Albert Band & Frank Ray Perilli, Photography – Bruce Logan, Music – Andrew Belling, Makeup Effects – Zoltan Elek & Stan Winston, Art Direction – PFOM. Production Company – Vic Productions.
Cast:
Michael Pataki (Michael Drake/Count Dracula), Jose Ferrer (Inspector Branco), Reggie Nalder (Veidt Smit), Jan Shutan (Marla Drake), Arleen Martell (Major Hessle), Libbie Chase (Linda Drake), John Levin (Steve Drake)
Plot: While conducting excavations, the Rumanian army accidentally uncover the tomb of the Draculas. A guard inadvertently removes the stake from the body of Dracula’s vampire dog Zoltan, reviving it. Zoltan revives Dracula’s partially undead manservant Veidt Smit. The two travel to California to find and serve the modern day descendants of Dracula. This happens to be psychologist Michael Drake and his family. As the Drakes go away on holiday, Smit and Zoltan pursue, determined to make Michael accept his inheritance.
Most people who hear the title think it is a joke – but Zoltan ... Hound of Dracula/Dracula's Dog is a real film. Unfortunately, the product on display is played with a remarkable restraint that belies either the brainlessness or the sheer chutzpah of the concept – it is hard to decide which. And the film lives up to none of it – being neither truly bad nor playing itself zestfully tongue-in-cheek. It is just a B film of no distinguishing interest. (A sense of humour emerges only upon one occasion – when informed of his heritage as a Dracula, Michael Pataki comments: “I’m going to sue all those people for making Dracula movies without my permission”).
More than anything one feels the film has been put together to exploit the interest in killer canines as a result of the previous year’s The Omen (1976). Some of the canine attack scenes are quite gory and vicious and the siege climax maintains a reasonable tension. The film’s one casting coup is the amazingly gaunt, cadaverous presence of Reggie Nalder. But Michael Pataki’s harsh, thuggish presence as the hero becomes a turnoff – you can’t believe he is a psychologist and the film wisely limits the flashback scenes of him doubling as Dracula to a minimum.
Into the 1980s, director Albert Band became a prolific producer of low-budget video-released sf and horror films. He founded both Empire Films and Full Moon Productions. Under these labels both he and his son Charles have overseen the likes of the Ghoulies, Trancers, Puppetmaster and Prehysteria! series of films, among numerous others. Last updated: Monday, 20 July 2009
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