Movies - Zoltan, Hound of Dracula

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	Movies - Zoltan, Hound of Dracula

Zoltan, Hound of Dracula is a 1978 film in which a 17th century innkeeper (played by Reggie Nalder) becomes the willing thrall to the line of Dracula.

A Russian Road Crew Blasts Open a Crypt

With a Russian road crew blasting up a bit of the countryside, the story opens with the prospect of a bonanza of pyrotechnical displays, but this was the limit to the explosions in this movie. It was just enough to unearth a subterranean crypt, and the captain of the road crew, fearing the depredations of looters from the local village, stations a sentry around the site. But would an all night vigil be enough to stop the occult in its place? No, an earthquake in the wee hours of the night shakes the crypt until one of a dozen crypts comes out of a hole in the wall, slides down, and lands at the feet of the sentry. Curious at what has fallen before him, the sentry bends down, opens a coffin, and pulls a stake out of the corpse, only to see the shrouds swell up, and reveal that it is actually the body of a big dog, Zoltan. Revived, the dog leaps up and kills the sentry. From there, it proceeds to another coffin shaken out of the wall. It turns out to be the coffin of the innkeeper (played by Reggie Nalder) that once owned it. Leaning forward, it grabs the stake between its jaws and pulls it out of the innkeeper's chest. The stake withdrawn, he becomes animated as well.

The viewer is now treated to a flashback, indicating that the real beginning to the story was 200 years ago in a small village in Russia.

But 200 Years Earlier a Dog Had Been Bitten by Dracula

When an innkeeper's dog saved a woman from being bitten by a vampire bat, but the bat was really Dracula, and since Dracula was not to be denied a meal, he takes a bite from the dog, passing vampyrism on to man's best friend. After the dog switches allegiance to Dracula, there is little surprise that the disease of vampyrism gets passed onto the innkeeper, so they are now both faithful to the lineage of Dracula. All of this takes place in the nature of a flashback in the first 10 minutes to the movie.

Dracula's Lineage Now Has One Last Surviving Descendant

Now, 200 years later, it appears that Igor Dracula has only one last descendant, Michael Drake, a meek and mild-mannered psychiatrist (played by Michael Pataki) who decides to take his wife and kids on a summer vacation in his Winnebago recreational vehicle, hoping to spend some quality time out in the national forest. Unbeknownst to the psychiatrist, the crypt containing the dog and the innkeeper has been unearthed in Russia by a road crew blasting a countryside.

Innkeeper and Dog, Revived, Ride a Ship to America

The innkeeper and dog find themselves mysteriously compelled to return to the service of the last surviving member of the line of Dracula. So they are shipped (or ship themselves) to America, and travel to California for a momentous reuniting of historic proportions.

Innkeeper and Dog Arrive in California

One way or another, the Innkeeper and Dog arrive in the same forest where the psychiatrist is vacationing with his wife and kid. Other couples are there, and some people are out hunting and fishing.

Hound of Dracula Attacks Other Dogs

Those people vacationing with their dogs discover that their dogs are being attacked and killed, but little do they realize that burying the bodies of their beloved pets will not stop the dogs from being animated by the curse of dracula. The theme of having "a nice dog turn into a killer dog" was subsequently borrowed, to much good effect, in the movies Cujo (1981) and Pet Sematary (1983).

Zoltan Attacks a Summer Cabin

Vacationers in summer cabins are attacked, and although Zoltan may have died in the last scene to the movie, it is possible that one or more of the poodles and mutts that contracted his disease may live on, essentially to plague the public with a sequel. The night darkness is penetrated only by the glowing eyes of a dog that had turned.

As fate would have it, a sequel to Zoltan, Hound of Dracula was never filmed, though the foundation for that kind of movie was certainly laid, and the public was made ready for one.

Polyphonic Music Score

Many vampire films have organ music for a sound track but Zoltan, Hound of Dracula contains an experimental music synthesizer that seems to have been programmed to simulate an organ but comes off sounding more like an electric oboe. This was a daring thing to do in 1978, as music synthesizers were far from common in that day and age.

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