The Vampire Doll (1970)

Such a frustrating disappointment

How sad is this?

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This film starts well and the cast are all good apart from the token lunk that every vampire film seems to have. Atsuo Nakamura (Mr Sagawa) visits his girlfriend Yukiko Kobayashi (Yuko) in a remote house that she lives in with her mother Yôko Minakaze (Mrs Nonomura) and the previously mentioned lunk Kaku Takashina (Genzo). One problem, though, the girlfriend is now dead. Or is she? After 8 days, Atsuo's sister Kayo Matsuo (Keiko) goes to look for her brother who has now disappeared. She goes with her partner Akira Nakao to the house to find some answers.The story seems refreshing at first with some moments that make you jump, an excellent campy soundtrack and a very effective Yukiko in the lead spooky role. She's scary. Unfortunately, we needed more of her, and by the end of the film, things wrap up rather speedily with an explanation and some gore thrown in. Old ground, I'm afraid, although we do get a different version of vampirism than we are accustomed to. It's OK to watch but only on occasion as, annoyingly, a lot of the nighttime scenes just morph into a black screen. What's the point of that? We can't see anything!! The doll element could have been worked on to provide more intense scares and paranormal theories. I don't mean blow-up dolls – there aren't any of those kind in this film, neither are there any of those weird people who like dressing themselves up as dolls. I watched a documentary about them and that was way more frightening than this film.

This movie begins with a man named "Kazuhiko Sagawa" (Atsuo Nakamura) taking a taxi from Tokyo to a remote area of the country to see his fiancé "Yuko Nonomura" (Yukiko Kobayashi) who he hasn't seen in 6 months. When he finally gets to her house he meets Yuko's mother "Shidu Nonomura" (Yôko Minakaze) who sadly informs him that Yuko died in a car wreck 2 weeks ago. Stricken with grief and unable to get transportation back home he is invited to spend a few days at the house. That night he sees Yuko. Eight days later his sister "Keiko Sagawa" (Kayo Matsuo) gets concerned because he hasn't called her or returned to Tokyo. So she asks her fiancé "Hiroshi Takagi" (Akira Nakao) to drive her to Yuko's house to see what is going on. Now rather than reveal any more of the story I will just say that, having already seen the other two movies in the "Bloodthirsty Trilogy", I was a bit disappointed. Part of the reason for my disappointment was the fact that this film didn't have the same Gothic foundation as the other two and I felt that this deviation wasn't for the better. To be more specific I was expecting a "classic" vampire picture but got what appeared to be an "old style" zombie movie instead. At least, that's how it seemed to me. Having said that I realize that vampires are portrayed differently in various cultures but even so the other two movies in the series—even if they had no thematic relationship with one another—were more similar to a "Hammer" movie than this particular film. In any case, whether a ghost, zombie or vampire movie it seemed both out-of-place and rather lackluster and because of that I rate it as slightly below average.

Very well shot and creepy tale that seems to be somewhat unoriginal at first, albeit, still able to induce a few jumps by me, which is a bit unusual. Gradually, though, this becomes less familiar and whilst occasionally verging on the silly, still enough solid horror element to hold one pretty spellbound in its grip. The most unusual and intermittent soundtrack helped keep up the unease and indeed, ramp up the scares. The final denouement almost degenerates into farce but once again the direction is so sharp that we are still persuaded. Good performances all round and a particularly energetic one by the guy playing the mute servant. Lovely old western style house too, which, I assume is why we had none of the usual shoe removing. Effects were simple yet effective and the dead girl always very good indeed. Well worth catching and I must watch out for the other two in the series.

Keiko (Kayo Matsuo) and her friend try to find her missing brother after he disappeared on a trip to visit his girlfriend Yuko (Yukiko Kobayashi). They don't get very far as Yuko's mother claims the brother ran away after finding out Yuko had been killed in a car wreck the week before his visit. But Keiko finds signs that she might be being lied to - namely, a doll that her brother had purchased and, oh yeah, she sees Yuko's corpse walking around at night. This Toho production is a unique Japanese take on vampires. Fans of suave vampire types will be disappointed as this film's count is very different. The film does benefit from some great scary and atmospheric bits though. I also wonder if Tobe Hooper ever saw this as several things remind me of his later SALEM'S LOT (1979), most notably the design of the vampire (pale blue face with gold glowing eyes) and the rotting depiction of the vampire's lair. Toho produced two more vampire films after this in LAKE OF Dracula (1971) and EVIL OF Dracula (1974).