Lincoln International Studios’ first foray into horror was inspired by Hammer’s successful “Dracula in 1972 AD,” which brought new life to gothic horror but set it in the modern day (making it cheaper to produce)

The hastily written scripts by brothers Bishop and Deacon Lincoln were filmed back-to-back in Yugoslavia (the same area used in the film “Gymkata”) in the blazing-hot summer of 1973; both films starred local Yugoslavian theatre actors, whose lines were dubbed into English by the late Mel Welles.

For Dracula, the actor’s name is under the alias “Radu Warlock,” the actor portraying the Frankenstein monster is listed only as the mysterious “Azrak.”

The Evil of Count Dracula” revolves around an all-girl rock group, “the Stokers,” and Johnathan, their manager, having to spend the night in Castle Dracula when their van breaks down on the last leg of their European tour.

The film presents the Count as perfectly charming until he strikes, and then it uses the uncommon trait of vampiric transformation; his hands become large claws, and a green gel gives him an undead pallor.

The film also utilizes a copious amount of blood, and the original Japanese print featured a glaring amount of female nudity, which was cut for the North American release (which was again terribly butchered for Television)

Both films serve as loose modern-day adaptations of their source novels.

The films were marketed as a double feature across Europe in 1974, with additional marketing for Spectra-X, a psychedelic film process that gave the films a very “Mod” feel. They wouldn’t hit the US until 1975 when Trigon distribution ran heavily edited (all of the nudity and some of the gore were removed) but poorly promoted campaigns in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, eventually selling even more heavily edited prints to Television.

While Famous Monsters magazine deemed Radu Warlock “the new king of Horror”, other critics were not as kind. Leonard Maltin called the films “Cheap, crass exploitation of Karloff and Lugosi,” and Roger Ebert deemed the films “pointless knockoffs of movies that aren’t much better,” but in fairness, they were watching the heavily edited US versions, which sacrificed the story.

The films were only released on home video once by Dungeon Video in 1983; these were well-worn TV prints with so many missing scenes that the movie barely made up 80 minutes. A legal dispute forced all copies to be recalled by 1986, and they are now very rare and highly collectible.

There are rumours of a Japanese laser disk of “The Evil of Count Dracula,” but it’s primarily confused with the similarly titled Japanese film “The Evil of Dracula,” which was also released in 1974. (Editor’s note: The movie was retitled “Dracula Castle Man” in Japan)

When Lincoln International Studios collapsed, its film library was subject to numerous legal battles over ownership and rights. These arguments tied the films up for decades until the warehouse fire of 1992 destroyed the original masters.

Some believe the fire was arson, but it’s never been proven.