Vampiress Review: "Dracula Unleashed"

The Gist: An American business man comes to London in the late 1800's and investigates some mysterious murders of people being drained of their blood.

Clarification: So this is an interactive CD game which came out in 1993.  For those too young to remember these types of games they were movies where different actions led to different outcomes.  This is one of the few games of this type to actually get positive reviews.  At the time it came out for the Sega Cd and PC but was re-relaased as an interactive DVD game in the early 2000's.

As the story goes this is a direct sequel to the Bram Stokers Dracula novel.  You play the part of Alexander Morris who is Quincy Morris' brother.  You go around talking to different people who knew your late brother.  If you hold the right items when going into the right locations the story will unfold.  If you do not something "bad" happens and it's game over.

Selling Point: It's is a surprisingly fun game (surprising since major electronics manufacturers like Panasonic got out of the video game business because these types of games didn't sell well).

Fame Vampire Factor:  So as I mentioned if you screw up it usually leads to your death.  During the early parts of the game that death is generally at the hands of your turned girlfriend Annessete.

If you do well enough you will have some run ins with Dracula's brides.

They also rehash the whole "Lucy comes back from the dead" storyline with the character Julia almost scene for scene

It's definitely worth a look if you have a few hours free (though it's not as good looking the Sega CD/PC original is a much more complete version than the DVD cut).  I give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 4 out of 5.

Vampiress Review: "Dan Curtis' Dracula"

The Gist:  Dracula but Dan Curtis-y???

Clarification:  Dan Curtis is probably best known for the Dark Shadows series from the 1960's.  The film stars Jack Palance in probably his least scary character.  For those too young to remember Jack Palance he was just scary in general

so for him to end up not being scary playing Dracula had to take some work.  Not sure if it was the slicked back black hair or the awkward scene where he kind of hisses in circles when presented with a cross.   Otherwise it's a no frills film based on the Bram Stoker novel.

Selling Point: If you're a Dracula film collector this is definitely a Dracula film.

Female Vampire Factor:  So no different than any other novel based Dracula.  It's very disappointing if you're a Dark Shadows fan as that was way better than this.  The Brides are just random attacking monsters in a very quick scene (the standard for made for TV movie Dracula films like this)

The only other female fangs of the film is Lucy Westenra (Fiona Lewis)

The film really isn't anything to write home about by any standard. I give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 3 out of 5.

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