- WWI soldier is saved (or, is he cursed?) by the efforts of a vampire. Afterwards, GI settles in New Jersey, where detective theorizes about unsolved murders and disappearances.
- A World War I U.S. soldier is cursed by a vampire and when he returns home to his hometown of Newark, New Jersey, he tries to stay alive by his daily consummation for blood. Nearly 80 years later, a dogged police detective, seeking material to write a book about vampires, teams up with a local journalist. They try to find this mysterious person whom the press has dubbed 'the Ironbound Vampire' due to his M.O. of leaving murder victims dry of blood.—matt-282
- While he was still active with the Newark, New Jersey police force, former police detective Eric Steele (Dennis Drenth) noticed a distinctive pattern of deaths and disappearances dating from the early 1920s. Consequently, Eric is investigating the possibility that there may be a vampire or vampires working the Ironbound area. He is placing his theories and findings in a book that he is writing, tentatively titled, "The Ironbound Vampire." His main focus is on longtime Ironbound resident Tom Lane (Richard Matyskiel).
Quarter Master Sergeant Tom Lane went off to France to serve his country during WWI. In 1918, he was badly wounded and cut off from his troops. While wandering in the woods and close to death, he was "saved" by a vampire. When he recovered from being turned, Tom snuck aboard a ship and returned home to Newark and his slutty girlfriend Nadia (Deana Demko), whom he turned into a vampire, too. Today, looking no older than he did in 1918 (except that he now has long hair), Tom poses as a writer of stories set during WWI, and his stories are well-respected because "it's almost as though you were there." His latest book is a love story, inspired by famous but aging film actress Theresa Powell (Dolores Fuller), who can't get over how much Tom looks like his "father", the man with whom she was romantically involved some years ago.
Needing help with his research and with catching Tom, Eric contacts Dr Helen Williams (Suzanne Lenore), a parapsychologist from the Center for Paranormal Research in New York. Helen agrees to help, but she first stops to visit with Russian parapsychologist, Dr Petrovich (Víctor Bruno), currently working in Philadelphia. Petrovich advises Helen that the only way to destroy a vampire is by decapitation, and he gives her a dagger he brought with him from Eastern Europe.
As part of their investigation, Eric and Helen interview individuals who were known to work for Tom Lane during the 30s, 40s, etc. They learn that, in most cases, the "work" involved donating blood for which they were well-paid. Certain now that Tom is a real vampire, Eric and Helen track him to an old, rundown factory where they find two coffins. They haul the coffins outside, but when they open one of them, the body inside immediately burns up in the sunlight. The police take into custody the coffin with Tom in it. He is chained and placed in a darkened room.
The question now becomes what to do with Tom. The police won't release him because that would make them responsible for Tom's future activities. They can't kill him because that would be murder. Because Tom is an ex-soldier, the V.A. wants to get involved on grounds that his vampirism could be classified as a "war-related injury." Doctors and researchers from around the world want to examine him, but Tom doesn't want to spend the rest of his immortality being prodded, poked, and turned into a specimen, like a zoo animal, for all the world to gawk at.
He asks for Helen's help...not to escape but for her to kill him. Helen refuses, so Tom breaks free from his chains, transforms himself into a demon-faced monster, and rushes at Helen. In self-defense, Helen decapitates him with Petrovich's dagger.
Epiloque: The narrator explains that, when the police raided the factory, they trapped 23 women hiding in the basement and an adjacent tunnel. Of those 23, 11 ran into the sunlight and were burnt beyond recognition. Of Tom's two renfields, one (Ambrose (Conrad Brooks)) was taken into custody but the other (Johnny (John Link)) was never found and is believed to be wandering beneath the streets of Newark. Consequently, Eric's theory was proven correct, and he was finally able to publish his book.
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