THE VAMPIRE DOLL (1970, original title Yurei yashiki no kyofu: Chi wo su ningyo, aka LEGACY OF DRACULA, BLOODSUCKING DOLL, NIGHT OF THE VAMPIRE) is a low budget slow burning Japanese spin on the classic vampire story, heavily influenced by Hammer and Euro gothic and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. It was made by Toho, who are best known for their energetic kaiju movies, but this is something else entirely, quite a mature and old-fashioned kind of film.
In a gender twist spin on Dracula, a man returns to Tokyo and visits the home of his fiancee only to discover that she died recently in a car accident. When he himself goes missing, his sister and her boyfriend travel to the house to investigate and they're soon up to their ears in a sinister storyline. While the plot is quite sparse and the characterisation is negligible, it's a visual treat with lots of spooky scenes, a shadowy setting and a weird female vampire character. Plenty of creepy atmosphere for the fans alongside a gory climax. What's most interesting is the very different treatment of the vampire legend as compared to western movies; here, the vampire seems to arise as a result of hypnotism mixed with various bad luck factors coming together to form a kind of curse.
In a gender twist spin on Dracula, a man returns to Tokyo and visits the home of his fiancee only to discover that she died recently in a car accident. When he himself goes missing, his sister and her boyfriend travel to the house to investigate and they're soon up to their ears in a sinister storyline. While the plot is quite sparse and the characterisation is negligible, it's a visual treat with lots of spooky scenes, a shadowy setting and a weird female vampire character. Plenty of creepy atmosphere for the fans alongside a gory climax. What's most interesting is the very different treatment of the vampire legend as compared to western movies; here, the vampire seems to arise as a result of hypnotism mixed with various bad luck factors coming together to form a kind of curse.