RARE FINDS

The following film is so bad that SCP has to acknowledge it as a "Rare Find." When compared to any real film, you'll see just how bad it is, but something about it makes me watch it over and over again.

Dracula and Son is the English version of the film Dracula Pere et Fils. No, they are not the same movie. The original was a black comedy based on an acclaimed novel, helmed by an acclaimed French director, and written by a screenwriter I happen to like (for those of you too lazy to click the links provided above, he also wrote the script for Enemy At the Gates and The Name of the Rose). When it was released in Europe in 1977, it was comical, but still maintained the serious undertones that the story revolves around. In 1979 the film was released in the US with an English dub that tends to make fun of the film, similar to the dub in What's Up Tiger Lilly?, and making it seem more like an episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" than an actual finished film.

I've never seen the original, nor do I want to... it's so much better this way. It's hilarious because of how absurd some of the scenes and dialogue are. Yes, it's really really stupid at times, but at other times it's quite clever, bordering on a brilliance similar to Steve Oedekerk's Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.

The story revolves around Dracula (Christopher Lee) seeking his bride and having a son to be taught to someday take over the role of Prince of Darkness. But the bride dies, and the son (Bernard Menez) grows up to be a real pussy of a vampire. He doesn't want to bite people, he doesn't really like blood, and he's just not a good vampire. Think of the way Lee is in almost every film... distinguished, intelligent, full of style. Well, Menez's vampire son, named "Junior" is more like Groucho Marx than Christopher Lee, but with a voice that's been permanently affected by years of helium sucking and glue sniffing. As time passes to modern day, the two must leave their castle and are seperated on their way to Paris. They each eventually arrive there, and while Junior works at a hospital trying to survive as an every-man, Dracula (suffering from temporary amnesia) is cast in a movie playing Dracula (because "he's a dead ringer for Christopher Lee"). They find each other again, though, and things start to happen.

So why is this movie good, because it's funny. Whoever did the dub must've realized that this drama-vampire father-son bullshit made for one waste of a movie. No American audience would sit through this, so let's just make fun of it because we're American and that's what we do to foreign films. But it works. To let you get a taste of what I mean, I'm going to describe the opening of the film.

We open to various cartoonish drawings of vampires as cavemen and dentists and old ladies etc. Huge walrus-like teeth protrude from their smiley-face mouths. It looks really bad, but it only gets worse... wait'll you read what the voice-over says. It's read by some uptight sounding British guy. This is word for word the opening narration:

Definately worth renting if you can find it (doubtful), or buying off of e-bay for a couple bucks. Don't bother with some special edition dvd or even with the original french version. Like I said, I haven't seen it, but I can't imagine this film being any good even if it were taken seriously by the filmmakers. Something tells me that the filmmakers realized that the finished product was laughable, and so that's why this genius version was born.

Worth a look, but please please please don't take any of this the wrong way. This is a bad movie! Bad! If you don't enjoy watching bad movies for the simple fact that they are so bad they are funny, you should leave the RARE FINDS section immediately. Otherwise, happy hunting.

Garth Simmons