Dracula's Widow (1988)

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

When people focus on the character of Vanessa in this movie, they are actually missing the point of the film. This isn't about vampires, this isn't about sex or gore, this is about what it is like to become the enslaved servant of a vampire.The main male character Raymond, is the owner and operator of a wax museum preparing for a new display about Dracula and vampire in folktales, legends, and popular culture. He accepts an extra shipment of boxes and soon finds himself in the thrall of Dracula's wife, Vanessa. Played by Lenny von Dohlen, Raymond is confused, enchanted, terrified, aroused, and even giddy at various times in the movie. He clings to his humanity by clinging to love of his girlfriend, Jenny, as he struggles in pure Renfield fashion to resist his own blood lust.With so much romance about vampires in our literature and films, it was a nice change to see a truly horrific vampiric creature and her nevertheless strong hold over a main character. Too often female vampires are belittled as sexy or subordinate but Vanessa is a real monster and she holds Raymond in her hand, using mental powers on him even while she sleeps, and forcing him to witness her murderous rampages.While not the best vampire film ever, this hardly qualifies as one of the worst either. If you step back and look at Raymond in the film you may appreciate it on a new level.

I rented the video "Dracula's Widow" in October, 1989 and I enjoyed watching that video. I am not really sure why I like that move; it may be because I like the cinematography, the atmospheric music, the fact that the vampire woman Vanessa portrayed by actress Sylvia Kristel is not a lesbian and yet a strong heterosexual woman.. Vanessa's victims are males and her male companion is the character Raymond portrayed by actor Lenny von Dohlen. I have read other reviewer's comments and most are critical of the video "Dracula's Widow." Yet, I enjoy watching "Dracula's Widow." I think seeing a strong woman on film may intimidate some male viewers. The story line, the cinematography, atmospheric music, a strong woman vampire, a helpless victim being a male, and a girlfriend fighting to get her boyfriend back help makes the video "Dracula's Widow" exciting for me to watch.

I saw this film back in 1989 and bought it at a video store for $1.00. I feel the same way about this film as I did back then: it's craptacular!The SFX is crappy (ESPECIALLY the make-up)and a lot of the plot is garbage (If Vanessa was so much in love with her husband, how could she not know that he was dead?)and the acting is just HORRIBLE!!! (Sylvia Kristel is just BAD!!!).Still...It makes for a fun evening! Just great for a horrible horror movie fest!

Could this have been the very film that inspired the director's uncle, Francis Ford, to make "Dracula" some three or four years later?We're supposed to ignore other reviewer's comments, but I can't resist mentioning another opinion in these hallowed "comment" pages, where the film viewer sounded scared out of his wits. Fear is a relative thing, isn't it? The shock moments were awkwardly handled for the most part, in this film; note the guard who's sitting by a window, and the monster uses the old "crash through the window" trick (Argento, for example, used this trick a little more effectively in "Tenebre" six years earlier) to make the guard wish he had a guard. How could you crash a window and dig long vampiric fingernails into the victim's neck at the same time? I've tried it, and believe me, it takes some doing.Then there's the create havoc with over a dozen devil worshippers scene. Talk about one uninspired montage of creating havoc.A friend lent me this, along with a few other vampire films... he loves vampire films... and I happened to see "Midnight Kiss," another obscure film about bats. As it was made a few years after "Dracula's Widow," perhaps it was Dracula's Widow that inspired it (since Uncle Coppola may have been inspired by Dracula's Widow, why shouldn't the makers of Midnight Kiss?), but I was struck by some similarities. Let's see... vampire bites victim, and victim takes a few days while the vampire virus goes to work. Meanwhile, victim has to wear sunglasses and be tempted to feast on animals. There was even a "morgue" scene, where recent victims get served stake, coming to life as soon as they got the point.Sylvia Kristel did a credible job as the widowed Dracula, conveying an otherwordly and monstrous power pretty effectively. Raymond, our hero-turned slave (or is it slave-turned-hero?) played by Lenny von Dohlen, reminded me of a Jon Stewart-ish Harry Langdon... the helpless child trapped in an adult's body. He even had silent film star Langdon's eye make-up. My favorite performer was Stefan Schnabel, who played the grandson of Dracula's famous nemesis, Van Helsing. Boy, what a great ham! He was like a combination of Burgess Meredith as "The Penguin" from the old Batman TV show and Gilbert Gottfried. Josef Sommer was also very solid and watchable, as the police hero. As far as sweet girlfriend Jenny, played by Rachel Jones, at least we get to see her topless in a bathtub scene.