Starring Toshio Kurosawa, Mariko Mochizuki, Kunie Tanaka, Shin Kishida, Katsuhiko Sasaki
Directed by Michio Yamamoto
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A psychology teacher is hired for a position at a girls' school, and is told by the principal he intends him to replace him, but a weird dream convinces him there are vampires about.
The third film in Toho's "Bloodthirsty Trilogy" is entertaining and notable for some more revealing bits of gore and flesh then in the previous films, although it's very tame compared to the excessive amount of each in Hammer's similarly themed Lust For A Vampire, released a few years earlier. There is a mystery at the heart of the story which helps propel the film along, although much is left unexplained, including why none of the men hunting the lead vampire seem to have the slightest familiarity with vampire defenses, with no crosses, garlic flowers, holy water, or wooden stakes ever appearing in the film. A supposed origin flashback for the vampires in the area is competently filmed, but doesn't seem to explain a whole lot, or have much relevance to the story. There's also an odd Renfield-like character who serves the vampires but spends most of his time staring at the girls and quoting unidentified erotic poetry- as their characters say, "he's weird!" The performances are overall good ones, although no one really stood out for me. The photography in the film is much darker, without the beautiful color and scenes of nature of the previous "Bloodthirsty" films, with much of the picture taking place inside the school's grounds. I wouldn't call this a great film, but liked it a little better than the second film in the series, and as a series the trilogy is interesting for the opportunity it gave Yamamoto to play around in the vampire genre.
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