A Taste of Blood

The Movie

Only a stake through her heart could appease his appalling passion! John Stone, a mild American businessman, receives an odd inheritance in the mail: two bottles of ancient brandy which, unknown to Stone, also contain the blood of his ancestor, Count Dracula! Despite the foreboding of his wife, Helene, John drinks the brandy and, sure enough, slowly turns into a pasty-faced vampire. Worse, in addition to his newfound thirst for neck-slurping, Stone seeks revenge against the ancestors of those who killed the vampire king. However, when Stone murders an exotic dancer known as "Vivacious Vivian," Dr. Howard Helsing (of the famous Dracula-killing Helsings) takes notice, but not before Stone puts Helene under his spell. "A Taste of Blood" is a moody, modern-day vampire tale from cult director Herschell Gordon Lewis (The Wizard of Gore) who (as "Seymour Sheldon") also turns in an amusing cameo as a British seaman.

Actors: Cal Bowman (III), Dolores Carlos, Roy Collodi, Gail Janis, William Kerwin
Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis
Producer: Herschell Gordon Lewis

Reviews

This film has a good, solid story, with Dracula being reborn in a mundane executive through blood-doped cognac. It's logical that he'd seek revenge on the Harkers, Van Helsings and others. Nice idea. But so slow! Two attempts to alleviate the tedium with humour fail abysmally; first we have the director appearing as a chatty sailor - but his cockney accent is second only to Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins in it's awfullness. Later, just as the film appears to reach it's climax, everything stops for an idiot with a dog to take over the search "that's right, point with your tail - only an insider would know that" - if they'd shelled out for a trained pooch, we might have had a few minutes of genuine excitement. - Vampyreverse

"A Taste of Blood"... has very little gore, or action of any kind. Much time is allocated to plot and conversations, and it seems like Lewis was making a serious effort here to produce a thoughtful drama (with a vampire), but because as all HG Lewis films are pretty boring to look at when there's no gory violence on screen, that means that this film is boring all the way thorough! Rather ironic that this film, in which the least actually happens, is also one of his longest!" - Adrian Griffiths at Amazon

The DVD

Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0) Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Number of discs: 1 Rated: Unrated
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Release: 12 September 2000
Run Time: 117 minutes

Special Features

Extras include a fairly feeble gallery of horrors, and a quaint five-minute 'nudie short' called "Nightmare at Elm Manor, in which a well built lady battles with her fears of a strange man - who may or may not be a vampire - and a nightie that seems unwilling to stay in place. It's sweet!