Truly Dreadful Film

Strong and Moving!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I've been seeking out Dracula movies since reading Bram Stoker's novel, and I've now seen five from 1979 alone. "Dracula Bites the Big Apple" is certainly the smallest of these pictures, both in production and runtime. Its parody is similar to "Love at First Bite," another Dracula parody from 1979. In both films, Dracula extends his trip to the West farther than had Stoker's original character--all the way to New York. In both films, his travels are aided by Renfield. Moreover, both films find much of their humor in Dracula's adjustments in the New World, both fire the gags with rapid fire--some miss, some are dated, but most of them hit--and I think that both parodies are rather cathartic experiences after having also viewed the two disappointing major dramatic Dracula movies of 1979, Universal's Disco Dracula starring Frank Langella and Werner Herzog's dreary Nosferatu remake.Neither comedy specifically parodies either of the dramatic Dracula films of the year (and they may've been made before one or both of them--I haven't checked production or release dates), but both contain bits that mock the kind of filmmaking done in the dramatic versions. In "Love at First Bite," the tanned George Hamilton seems no more ridiculous than Langella's boyishly-handsome vamp--fashioned as he is in the style of 1979 instead of the film's early-20th-Century setting. Moreover, the mutual fun of the two leads in "Love at First Bite" is so much better than the dime-romance-novel misogyny of the Universal film. "Dracula Bites the Big Apple," on the other hand, opens with images of corpses and a brooding Drac quoting Hamlet--the film's only scene photographed in black-and-white. It's the kind of ponderous, if not pretentious, filmmaking that bogged down Herzog's "Nosferatu," which also opens with images of corpses and features a dour vampire and drab cinematography.Both comedies are silly fun without reference to the other films, though. Besides the twist on the location of Dracula's Western invasion, "Dracula Bites the Big Apple" doesn't have the heft or length to do much more of interest in regards to reworking Stoker's character as with "Love at First Bite" and other feature-length Dracula movies, but it gets quite a few laughs out of common Dracula elements: his fellow fliers all leave the plane rubbing their bitten necks, the bits regarding his lost coffin and his cape being spray painted by a graffitist. Other bits aren't specific to the Dracula persona. The best part might be when Dracula leads New Yorkers in a musical number of "Dancing in the Moonlight," including an interruption for Dracula to break the fourth wall.(Mirror Note: No mirror shots, but Dracula's inability to be photographed is employed for a brief gag.)

The blood is lacking in Transylvania, so Dracula gets on a plane and heads to the night city New York for new blood. However to this city seems harder to dominate. This wonderfully winning 22-minute comic spoof short film was the starting point for director/writer Richard Wenk and would get the producers interested in him for creating their film "Vamp (1986)". It was shot in 3 nights for just over $5,000 after he graduated film school, and he cooks up a funky and odd episodic story, which is broken up by it's random nature and funny sight gags within the authentic locations of New York. The vivid nightlife backdrop comes across as a character of its own. The light-hearted, silly humour seems to hit the right spots and the inventive script is bursting with often funny lines. There's even an out-of-nowhere musical number of "dancing in the moonlight" that's rather amusing! Also Studio 54 and its owner Steve Rubell make an enjoyable appearance. Wenk keeps it moving at a brisk pace and does a stylish job with what his got to work with, and a pulsating music score with some nice familiar cues give it much added energy. Peter Loewy's pulpy performance is picture-perfect and always compelling as Dracula, which you're just waiting to see what he does next.

This very funny and engaging 22 minute short feature spoof was made by director/producer Richard Wenk right after he graduated from New York University Film School. He shot it in three nights for only $5,500. Moreover, this short film helped Wenk land the job of writing and directing the supremely cool 80's horror comedy blast "Vamp" (it's included as a nifty extra on the Region 1 Anchor Bay DVD for "Vamp"). Fed-up with the dried-up old blood in his dreary native Translyvannia, Dracula hops a plane to America so he can take a big bite out of the famous City That Never Sleeps, only to find out much to his horror and chagrin that Gotham is too tough a modern metropolis for even him to easily handle. Wenk makes especially witty and inspired use of music: the Count arrives in the Big Apple via plane while an instrumental version of "I Love New York" plays on the soundtrack, heartily sings a funky disco revamp (a bad pun I know, but I just couldn't resist using it) of "Dancing in the Moonlight" that's rudely interrupted by the director (!) halfway through the number, and stalks a lovely potential lady victim in Central Park to Bernard Herrmann's legendary ominous "Psycho" theme. The single funniest moment occurs when Studio 54 owner Steve Rubell refuses to let Dracula into his notorious swingin' night club because he can't dance. Yeah, it's admittedly quite dated and silly, but this amiably goofy spoof has a certain sweetly inane charm which makes it a perfectly amusing little hoot just the same.

I'm baffled as to how this bonnefied masterpiece has gone unnoticed by movie goers and critics alike. It is one of those few films that will genuinley change your life and your outlook on the human condition. From the opening credits you know this is no mere movie, not just pictures on a screen. It's a poigniant tale of an outsider, a loner in a new and strange land. Dracula is missunderstood, that's what this film's all about, if we could just see beyond the teeth and the outragious accent, perhaps we'd see a man as frightened as the rest of us, just searching a big world for a little love. It's a message we'd all do well to take note of, don't just let this movie teach you to look beyond the assumptions you've made about undead counts, let it help you to do the same with all the creatures of the night, be it werewolves, zombies or just really big cats. So go, see Dracula Bites the Big Apple, and let it teach you, let it mesmerise you and let it be free..........please, just let it be free. Dracula bit the big apple, and in doing so, bit his way into our hearts. May you leave the cinema enlightened having experienced the beauty, the magic and the chins, this 'fish out of water' masterpiece has to offer. Go now! BE FREE! DRACULA HAS RELEASED HIS CHILDREN!!!