Love at First Bite.

Happy Hallowe'en, folks!

In 1974, Mel Brooks made the ultimate spoof of the classic horror movies in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. He tried going back to that well in 1995 with the drastically inferior (and less successful) DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT. He needn't have bothered, as a far better DRACULA spoof had been made in 1979...

While LAFB doesn't have anything like the scope or hilarity of Brooks' 1974 masterpiece, placing a Lugosi style Prince of All Vampires (played almost completely straight by George Hamilton) into the contemporary New York City setting as he tries to win the latest reincarnation of his true love while coping with attacks from the most recent descendant of Van Helsing makes for an amusing romp.

Arguably the best scene in the movie, the one they built all the trailers around, featured the song "I Love The Night Life". Licensing issues resulted in the syndicated, VHS, and DVD versions of the film (and thus most Internet distribution) to have that perfect music replaced with a rather generic, disco version of a 1920s show tune. Naturally, your Old Horseman has patched that up for you here. (I understand the BluRay release also put it right.)

Observations: This version of Renfield is a remarkably competent minion, despite being a creepy lunatic. When you've had like ten lifetimes to get your moves down, I reckon you ought to own the dance floor like this Drac does!

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