Dracula's Dog (U.K. title: Zoltan... Hound of Dracula; original working title: Hounds of Dracula) is a 1977 American horror film starring Michael Pataki and José Ferrer. It revolves around a dog who is turned into a vampire by a member of the Dracula family, who is also a vampire.
The film's screenplay by Frank Ray Perilli was the basis for the mass market paperback novel Hounds of Dracula (1977) by Ken Johnson, which was re-titled Dracula's Dog upon the film's release in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the novel was titled Zoltan...Hound of Dracula.
Plot[]
The Romanian army accidentally blasts open a subterranean crypt, and the army captain, fearing looters and criminals, stations a guard near the site. Late in the night, an earthquake shakes loose one of the coffins, which slides down and lands at the feet of the confused guard. Curious as to what has fallen before him, the guard opens the coffin and discovers a dog's body, impaled by a wooden stake. He removes the stake, which revives the vampiric Doberman Pinscher Zoltan.
After slaying the guard and drinking his blood, Zoltan opens another coffin shaken loose from the crypt, this one holding the body of his master, an innkeeper named Veidt Smit. The crypt belongs to the Dracula family, all of whom are vampires. Zoltan removes the stake from the innkeeper's chest, re-animating him. The narrative then cuts to a flashback of a village in Romania in 1670, over 300 years ago.
The dog of an innkeeper saves a sleeping woman from being bitten by Count Igor Dracula. Furious over losing his victim to a dog, Dracula, in bat form, bites the dog, turning it into a vampire. Then Dracula, with the dog by his side, turns on the innkeeper, turning him into a "fractional lamia" (an undead creature that is only part vampire, able to function in the daytime and having no need to drink blood) who can be used as a slave.
Back in the present day, it appears that the Dracula family have only one surviving (mortal) descendant, Michael Drake, a psychiatrist, and (unknown to him) the image of Count Igor Dracula. He decides to take his wife (Marla) and their two children (Linda and Steve), as well as their two German Shepherd Dogs (Samson and Annie) and their two puppies, on vacation in the family's Winnebago camper.
The vampire dog and his master travel to the United States, shipping themselves via boat to Los Angeles, California to make Michael their new master. Eventually, Zoltan and Smit find themselves in the same forest as Michael and his family.
Two fishermen, vacationing nearby with a Pointer called Buster, discover that Zoltan has bitten their dog. The Drakes' two dogs are also bitten and all the deceased dogs reanimate into vampire dogs, the minions of Zoltan. Veidt Smit and the four vampire dogs are all destroyed at the end of the film but, unknown to everyone involved, a vampire German Shepherd puppy (one of the two puppies belonging to the Drakes) that Zoltan had bitten previously, escapes destruction.