- An evil hypnotist puts a beautiful woman under his spell.
- John Wainwright, Ph.D. [Larry Hankin] has written a book on reincarnation [The Second Coming of Svengali] which is fitting, as Wainwright claims to be the reincarnation of the famous hypnotist. Wainwright has been invited by Hadley Radcliff [John Carradine], leader of the Society of the Occult, to give a demonstration of his hypnotic powers (and sell a few books). In attendance is Radcliff's friend, Steven Elliot, [Donald Barry] and Elliot's daughter Stephanie [Susan McIver], who is pining the recent death of her mother, Valerie. Valerie died under mysterious circumstances, her blood drained and with two puncture wounds on her throat. Stephanie is attempting to get Wainwright to help her contact her dead mother, but Wainwright does not wish to be bothered. Later that evening, however, Stephanie pays a visit to Wainwright at his home. Caught off-guard, Wainwright/Svengali finally agrees to help Stephanie. He hypnotizes her and promises her that she will be the instrument of revenge upon the one who killed her mother. Stephanie goes home and begins to perform satanic rituals and speak as though she is possessed. Worried about his daughter's mental state, Elliot calls in psychiatrist Anatole Gregorio (Dracula) [Geoffrey Land] who promises that he can be of more help to Stephanie than that charlatan Wainwright.
Wainwright, in the meantime, is busy wining and dining Trilby [Jane Brunel-Cohen], a dancer he met at a nightclub and who is supposedly a pure soul with great psychic powers and the one for whom the cult has been searching for 60 years in order to give them the psychic power to sustain their many reincarnations. Wainwright has been selected as the host body for Svengali, and it is Svengali's duty to prepare Trilby for the ritual in which she will be sacrificed to the horned beast. But there is a problem. Wainwright is falling in love with Trilby and is attempting to reclaim his body from Svengali.
Cut to the Dracula/Stephanie storyline. After a few scenes in which Dracula gets the girl, he reunites Stephanie with her mother, who is now a vampire. But it is not the happy reunion of mother and daughter. Valerie is jealous of Stephanie's presence and tells her to go away. Stephanie is horrified to see what her mother has become.
Cut back to the Wainwright storyline. Wainwright tries to exorcise Svengali by "using the weaknesses of Svengali's soul," which means that Wainwright plies himself with booze. When their bodies separate, Wainwright goes to Trilby to warn her that Svengali means to kill her. His parting words are, "If you ever see me again, don't look into my eyes." Of course, the next time she sees Wainwright/Svengali (in her rearview mirror), she is mesmerized by his eyes.
Tonight is to be Trilby's sacrifice. All of the reincarnated cult members (actually those from the Society of the Bleeding Rose, an ancient cult) are looking forward to Trilby's sacrifice, which means that they will be able to maintain their existence. Trilby lays on the altar as each of the cult members come forward to kiss her. In turn, Wainwright, Stephanie, Gregorio...When it becomes Radcliff's turn to kiss Trilby, he notices that she is already dead and declares Dr Gregorio a traitor. Svengali pits his powers against those of Dracula by holding up two candles in the form of a cross. Dracula knocks the candles out of Svengali's hands, and Dracula and Stephanie leave the enclave as the reincarnations lay dying.
Dracula explains to Stephanie that the cult had no power. They died because, in their minds, they expected to die. Not even Trilby's sacrifice would have helped them. Dracula then offers Stephanie a life with the same powers he has bestowed upon her mother. Stephanie refuses to live like her mother--a lost soul with her life drained out--and blows up the car, killing both herself and Dracula. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]
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