StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

GL84 Unearthing a tomb in Romania, a half-man/half-vampire servant to Count Dracula and Dracula's dog discover the last remnants of the family living in California and set out to make them a part of their vampiric family using whatever they can to ensure he joins them in their quest.This here turned out to be quite the enjoyable cheesefest. A large part of what makes that so endearing is the fact that there's quite a lot of encounters and confrontations that paint this one in quite a cheesy manner from the outset. The central idea at the core of the film is the fact that this one has the reanimated dog of Dracula's servant running around taking out the animals near a family vacation that contains their next ancestor comes off as simply way too silly to take seriously, yet that doesn't really detract from this one as that comes about from the beginning of the film, and it remains consistent throughout here which makes the cheesiness grow quite well. It's no surprise that the best moments involve the dog, outfitted out with glowing eyes and ludicrously over-sized fangs, the dog often looks amusingly nonplussed with what is meant to be going on around him. He is certainly one multi-talented dog, however, as he drags heavy looking coffins out of crypts, removes stakes with his teeth and provides several other highly impressive stunts that come off as very well done and give it a certain amount of menace. It also makes the action of this one quite enjoyable throughout here, with the opening encounter in the crypt where the reawakened dog takes out the lone guard reviving his handler and the excursions into the campsite attacking the family are caused by this inclusion which is what makes for a fun time. The scenes of him gathering the dog army are just as cheesy, and the scene of the vampire-puppy crawling out of the ground are even more good cheesy fun here. That serves nicely enough for the set-up at the end, as the house-siege scenes do have some quite tense moments as the ethereal howling from the dogs in the background, their frantic assaults to get in anywhere they can in the house offer rather chilling and the several attacks do build up the tension quite nicely. There is some rather nice bloodletting in the attacks as well, but otherwise, this was still just a giant cheese-fest. That is the film's main strength as well as the great flaw in here, as it all depends on how much the plot points stack up in the cheese factor. There's quite simply too many to name, from the inherent stupidity of the soldiers early on who discover the corpses, to the reanimated dogs who spend the majority of the time simply staring at others, while the servant gazes at the dog who hypnotically stares at the other dogs in the area. The ludicrous situation that the film comes to, which has the dog army invade a small barricade set-up to stop them, to the events that preceded them, are just plain cheesy, and there's no getting around them. The amount of cheese that can be absorbed from a film will be about equal to how much you can find wrong with this one, as it's the only factor that really seems off in this one, but it's still a major one.Rated R: Violence, Language and violence-against-animals.

utgard14 This really should have been more fun than it is. I mean, Dracula's Dog just sounds like campy greatness. Unfortunately, it's a tired, mostly boring affair that looks like it was made for TV and takes itself too seriously. The story starts out where many Dracula movies have gone before, with someone removing the stake from the corpse and reviving Dracula. Only this time they don't revive Dracula but his guard dog Zoltan and his trainer or whatever (played by Reggie Nalder, one of moviedom's all-time best faces). Then the trainer takes Zoltan on a hunt for Dracula's sole living descendant (Michael Pataki), who has a dog of his own so expect a clash of canines at some point. This is all kind of dumb and could have been a lot better with a little more self-awareness and humor about what a 'dog' of an idea the movie is built around. See it if you must but keep expectations low.

Scott LeBrun The Russian Army (who don't have Russian accents in this movie, by the way) are busy blasting, and they unearth the crypt of the Dracula family line. Also among those bones entombed are those of Veidt Schmidt (Reggie Nalder), the Counts' ghoulish slave, and Veidts' faithful canine companion, Zoltan. The bodies of Veidt and Zoltan are resurrected, and they travel to America in search of the Counts' last living descendant. That turns out to be family man Michael Drake (Michael Pataki), who's gone on a camping trip with his wife (Jan Shutan) and two kids (Libby Chase, John Levin). Drake will receive assistance from an intrepid Van Helsing type named Inspector Branco (Jose Ferrer), who tails the villain and his dog to L.A. Before too long, Zoltan has sunk his teeth into the necks of a few of the canines in the lake area, creating a pack of vampire dogs.Admittedly, this is a fairly novel twist which the filmmakers exploit for all that it's worth. (Although there was also a vampire dog in the 1940s horror picture "The Face of Marble".) "Dracula's Dog" is low rent, to be sure, with less than stellar acting. Ferrer is just picking up a paycheck, Pataki really isn't cut out for family man type roles, and Nalder is required to basically stand around, most of the time. He either smiles for the camera repeatedly with that uniquely unhandsome face of his, or communicates telepathically with Zoltan. Also appearing are two other character actors with great faces, Simmy Bow and JoJo D'Amore, as fishermen in the area, and the sexy Arlene Martel as Russian Major Hessel. It's the dogs that come off the best, unsurprisingly.This viewer did enjoy the decent electronic music score by Andrew Belling and the cinematography by Bruce Logan. There is also some wonderful gore devised by Stan Winston. Directed by Albert Band ("I Bury the Living"), this movie does get one thing right: the animal attack sequences, supervised by old pros Karl Lewis Miller and Lou Schumacher. These, at least, are done with skill, accompanied by rapid fire editing by Harry Keramidas. One moment has Pataki in a car besieged by killer canines, prefiguring the story "Cujo" by a few years. (See also "The Pack", made around this time.)Minor league fare, but it may work for dedicated fans of animal attack horror. The final minute or so is both cute and sad at the same time.Dog and puppy lovers may find some moments to be hard to take.Six out of 10.

FlashCallahan Russian soldiers accidentally unleash the servant of Dracula, as well as his dog, during excavations of Romania. Together, they set out for America, to find the last descendant of the great Count...I had heard that the film was poor, but sometimes you just want to watch a bad film, to have a laugh and forget about the world, right?But this is just puerile, from the weird old bloke pouting with a torch under his head every time the titular dog attacks, to the actual dog with his lit up eyes, it's pretty dreadful stuff.The plot is weak, the performances are dreck, and what should be funny ends up as boring as hell.When you start to wonder how on earth they got the fangs on the dog, or the fact that they must have buried that puppy in order for it to climb out of the ground, your in trouble.Ferrer tries to add a little gravitas, but the clothes he wars just cannot be taken seriously, and also according to the film makers, everyone who goes camping in a tent, sleeps outside.It's awful stuff, not even worth it for the curiosity factor, and the ending promised a sequel. Well, 34 years down the line, it's doubtful.Good.