(amazon.com)CROW'S BLOOD-2016-Gruesome horror mini-series from Japan about a very strange schoolgirl who seems to have evil powers thanks to her scientist dad's experiments. Very gory and mysterious. Great stuff but not for everyone. It made its US debut on the now defunct El Rey TV network. Directed by Ryo Nishimura.
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(imdb)BLOOD OF DRACULA-1957-Nancy (Sandra Harrison), a trouble teenager is dropped off at Sherwood, a prep school, by her stupid father (Thomas B. Henry) and his new gold digging bride (Jean Dean). With her headstrong attitude she runs afoul of Myra (Gail Ganley) and her secret society. Myra also assists a mad woman teacher scientist Mrs. Branding (Louise Lewis) who wants to save the world from itself and says "We live in a world ruled by men for men" when her thesis is rejected. She decides to use Nancy in her incomprehensible experiments. The girls have a party crashed by three boys where a dork (Jerry Blaine) sings a song called "Puppy Love". Under Branding's subliminal hypnosis Nancy turns into a scary fanged vampire. She kills several people. Lt. Dunlap (Malcohm Atterbury) doesn't believe it when one of his officers (Richard Devon) says it's a vampire. Nancy's boyfriend comes to rescue her but all she can think about is his neck. In the climax she kills the doctor and falls on a stake and dies while her boyfriend cries and Myra regrets not telling about Branding's weird experiments.
This AIP teenage drive-in horror was produced by Herman Cohen who held the same capacity on I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF and I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN. Both those movies had been written by BLOOD's screenwriter Aben Kandel (who would work with Cohen later on when the producer relocated to England). Director Herbert Strock had also made TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN. BLOOD OF DRACULA is ok as AIP teen oriented horror films go. The vampire is creepy but I kind of felt sorry for the Nancy character, a troubled kid no one seems to care about except her boyfriend who shows up to help her, only to see her die. Should have been called “I Was a Female Dracula”.
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BURIED ALIVE-1989-A teenage girl runs
away from Ravenscroft Hall, a kind of correctional institute for
young women, but is caught by a masked person who beats her then
walls her up in an underground cave. After the credits Janet
Pendelton (Karen Witter) comes to teach at Ravenscroft. She meets Dr.
Gary Julian (Robert Vaughan), head of the place. Later after she
imagines a brick wall is breathing, she meets the weird Dr. Schaeffer
(Donald Pleasence in a wig with German accent). All the girls are an
unruly bunch of bitches and Janet gets a little roughed up by Yvonne
(Dee Dee Eybers) who's later electrocuted while curling her hair with
a mixer. Julian tells Janet she ran away. Then Janet hallucinates
she's being buried alive. Debbie (Ginger Lynn Allen) is the big
trouble maker. Janet has some problems especially over the death of
her father.
One girl says "You're messing with my head, man". Then she's captured by the masked killer and walled up in the basement while the other girls have a secret party. While doing some investigating Janet finds some unusual equipment in the basement and an old man ghost (John Carradine) seems to come out of the wall asking for help (although he's strangling her too!). It turns out the old man is Julian's father Jacob. When Debbie sneaks out to meet her pusher/boyfriend Tim (Bill Butler) they're both abducted. Julian tells Janet she was transferred. After the local sheriff (Arnold Vosloo) looks into their disappearance, Julian asks Janet to marry him! Of course Julian is a nutty killer who kills the sheriff with a spade. When Janet realizes her boss is a loony he loses it completely and chases her through the catacombs of the place while declaring his love for her. Dr. Schaeffer (who it turns out is a former patient) tries to stop him but has his brain fried. When Julian tries to wall Janet up she sticks a needle in his eye. He goes crazy with an ax and then his dad (who he obviously walled up too) comes crashing through the wall in a wheelchair and there's an explosion. Neither father or son seem to be dead in the final scene.
This kinda whacked horror film was directed by Gerald Kikoine (from France) who made the equally bizarre EDGE OF SANITY with Anthony Perkins the same year. As of this writing they were his last two films. BURIED ALIVE also marked the final film appearance of the great John Carradine who died in November of 1988. The film is dedicated to his memory. Vaughan and Pleasence were also in RIVER OF NO RETURN the same year.
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