Rent Zoltan: Hound of Dracula (1978)

Spoilers follow ... - Zoltan: Hound of Dracula review by NP

It's easy to imagine the idea of The Lord of Vampire's owning a dog as a bit of a joke. This film's tagline wouldn't necessarily stray you from that viewpoint - ''There's More To The Legend Than Meets ... The Throat!'

This is certainly a film produced with its tongue in its cheek, but it is a lot more entertaining than many Dracula films that have garnered more respectable views over the years. Putting to one side the curious decision to repeatedly label hero Michael Drake (Michael Pataki) as the 'last of the Dracula line' when he is the proud father of two children, there's a genuine bargain-basement appeal to this.

For a start, the wonderful Reggie Nalder, who has played a number of unpleasant characters over the years (most notably the indomitable Mr Barlow - uncredited, can you believe?? - in 1979's 'Salem's Lot'). José Ferrer plays the Van Helsing-lite Inspector Branco. The rest of the cast delivers universally good performances - even the lad who plays Zoltan.

There's a real spookiness here too, aided very much by Andrew Belling's minimalist score. A definitive work this may not be, but it doesn't pretend to be. My score is 8 out of 10.