House of Dracula (1945)

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.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

You get your money's worth here - Dracula, the Wolf Man & Frankenstein's Monster in just over an hour. It doesn't hang about either, quite fast paced. Sure, Carradine as Dracula is no Lugosi but he still gives a good performance, though Chaney Jnr is the real star of this monster fest. Some decent effects too, for the time.

This is a sequel to the House of Frankenstein. House of Frankenstein is about Frankenstein Dracula and the wolf man. This movie is also about Dracula Frankenstein and the wolf man. Dracula come to a scientist who he think can make him human again. The wolf man come to the same scientist looking for a cure. The Frankenstein is discovered to still be alive. He stats out slow but give it time. It is really one of the scariest movie ever made. This movie is scarier then Frankenstein (1931). This movie is scarier then The bride of Frankenstein. It is very intense. If you like really scary movie then you need to see this movie.

A sequel to HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (which makes this, simultaneously, Wolf Man 4, Frankenstein 7 and Dracula 5), this would prove to be the last horror outing for these classic Universal monsters. Though they would be revived for Abbott and Costello, they would never appear again in a strictly "scary" movie. As a sequel to HOF, it is also, pretty much, a repeat of a lot of the plot points of that movie, as well as recycling ideas from many of the classic Universal movies.Somehow, Dracula and Wolf Man have escaped their inexplicably escaped the deaths we saw in the previous movie. Both show up at the home of a doctor, seeking out a cure for their ailments. In the case of the Count, it is a ruse to get closer to a female assistant. That is not discovered until our good doctor has already performed blood transfusions in an attempt to cure him. Eventually, the vampire reveals his evil self and is eliminated. This comes much too soon in the movie and, just like HOF, they miss a golden opportunity because Dracula never really shares a scene with any other monster.Larry Talbot is a broken record at this point in the Universal cycle. Sad, because he is my favorite of the monsters, but he becomes like a teen girl in a bad family drama, always moaning about how terrible his life is. After attempting suicide, this leads to the inevitable discovery of the Frankenstein monster. Not long after, Talbot is cured of his affliction, which is a shame because he never shares a scene with either Drac or Frank and the movie really grinds to a halt with the lack of any monster once he's cured.The main plot point is our doctor, who you will remember performed blood transfusions on a vampire. Somehow, this doesn't lead to him becoming a vampire, but rather an occasional maniac, more like a meth addict strung out on drugs. His evil mind eventually decides to resurrect Frankenstein which leads to about 2 minutes of actual Frank footage, most of which is recycled from previous movies.The main problem here is a lack of any atmosphere or scares. The movie is just sort of going through the motions at this point, churning out low budget filler that Universal knew would attract an audience regardless. Mind you that I am not saying this is a terrible movie. It's still got some fun to be had and I am a brainless sheep who will pretty much watch anything with these monsters in it, but it's definitely one of the weakest of all the Universal sequels.

House Of Dracula feels tired, running on nothing but the fact that there is an onslaught of monsters here but not much else. It does manage to be somewhat entertaining however and its probably as best a send off Universal could get at this stage.The star is no doubt Onslow Stevens as Dr. Edelmann, a man who tries to help both Dracula and Larry Talbot become normal but in the process becomes a Hyde-like character and becomes the very thing he set to destroy. Great performance from Stevens and he upstages everybody else, even when he's not in the same scene. Strange doesn't get even 5 minutes a The Monster before getting destroyed (again). Chaneys Wolf Man is getting boring by this point although its nice to see Talbot get cured from his disease. Once again Universal missed out on an opportunity to just face each of the monsters off and again I sorely want that but no use crying over spilt milk. Overall, average with some great things sprinkled on top. End of an era and its a shame it didn't end on top but at least it ended with a band, even if the bang was recycled.