Roger Corman was the first to realize the power of the fallen eastern block in order to wrap up El Cheapo!-El Sleazo! b movies.
In the wake of Coppola's Dracula success (still don't know why -but, hey, let's move on), he decided to produce his own version of some Dracula-like vampire. Next stop : Bulgaria.
Everlasting plot of a wandering vampire (Christopher Atkins), son of Vlad the Impaler, finding his long lost love in the figure of an american art conservator. If you know/saw Gerard Cicoritti's Central Park Driver, you know what I mean, being basically the same story.
Anyhoo... pretty scenery, good storyline but very poor production (the Hell sequence is Hell-arious!), a good nude underwater sequence... and a director who doesn't seem to handle properly the situation. Too bad. But an interesting effort overall.
The good part is the music. Ed Tomney, a musician from the Corman stable who worked previously on the disastrous Ultraviolet and Tamra Davis' Guncrazy, delivers more than expected. A truly haunting main theme (Dracula Rising Pt I and Pt II), the mysterious Motet #2 that gives a strange feeling of both fear and seduction. The whole soundtrack is, really, mesmerizing. A true hidden gem of the 90's, worth discovering and listening over and over.
Bring me that black candle. Now.
