Zoltan: Hound of Dracula

Who let the vampire dogs out?
Ah, those Communists; it's all their fault, you know. In Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, the forces of Communism unleash a mean, lean, killing machine in the form of a huge, fanged vampire dog on the good old USA. Sure, the film makes it look like it was accidental, but I have to ask: why was the Red Army going around blowing up holes all over Romania? There can be only one explanation: they were trying to find an ancient vampire tomb so they could bring a vampire back to life and enlist him in their cause. And that comrade who sacrificed his life for the cause? Clearly a ringer. Let's say I'm guarding a newly discovered Dracula family tomb when the earth starts quaking and a coffin slides out of the mausoleum onto the floor? Do I open the coffin? Do I then, seeing a stake projecting from the innards of the shrouded corpse inside, reach right in and pull the stake out just for the heck of it? No. Nobody would do that - unless they were acting under orders (or were just born...

A Well Kept Secret
This film was originally entitled "Dracula's Dog." This was the title of the original theatrical release, the subsequent home video release, and the Saturday afternoon UHF television release.

But for whatever reason, someone got the bright idea of re-titling it for the DVD release. Maybe they thought it would sell better with a new title. So now it's called "Zoltan, Hound of Dracula" . . . because that's so much better. I can imagine droves of people lining up for it now . . . "I'd never go see a movie entitled 'Dracula's Dog,' but "Zoltan, Hound of Dracula' on the other hand . . .

Anyway, the movie itself is a fun little B-horror production from the 70s. It stars the late Reggie Nalder, whom horror fans will recognize as the purple skinned, candy-cane toothed Kurt Barlow from the 1979 adaptation of Stephen King's "Salem's Lot." He was also in a number of seventies B-horror films such as "The Dead Don't Die" and "Dracula Sucks."

In this film, he...

What happens when vampyrism crosses species
The movie opens with a beautifully detailed shot of some trees standing up against a blue sky, and when I zoomed in, the details were not lost so I guess the movie must have been shot on 35 mm. It's really not a bad movie but some of the scenes that serve to tie the movie together must have been lost when the movie was mastered onto DVD. When the camera pans down from the trees in full foliage - it is summertime - some guys dressed in Soviet uniforms flip a switch on a box and we see an explosion in the distance, and a cloud of dust rises up from the excavation site. Perhaps they were building a road in the area, perhaps they were trying to seek out the underground crypt where a vampire was reputed to be buried, we don't know for sure because some exposition seems to be lacking. In any case, discovering a way into the crypt, the soldiers descend into an elaborately detailed crypt with coffins sealed up in the walls around the tomb, and the camera hovers on the dimly lit...

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