It should come as no surprise that Tony Marsiglia, the
enigmatic director of Sin Sisters, The Witches of Sappho Salon and Dr. Jekyll and Mistress Hyde, counts filmmaker David Lynch as one of his many inspirations and influences. After
all, he too is drawn to the darker side of human nature, with its quirks and
harsh, angular collisions between sex and violence. And with three more films
poised to see release in the coming year, Marsiglia has established himself as
EI Independent Cinema’s top in-house director of arthouse sex-ploitation
entertainment. Yes, you read that right. The product is undeniably lowbrow —
trick amalgamations and variations on tried-and-true formula. Yet, other than
budget and star power, what makes these types of movies any less vital or
worthy than something that, say, Quentin Tarantino puts his imprimatur upon?

Lust For Dracula is Marsiglia’s latest movie, and it puts a
sapphic spin on the classic Bram Stoker story, weaving a tale of madness,
murder, obsession and plenty of gratuitous nudity. Mina Harker (the leonine
Misty Mundae) isn’t the happiest of Hollywood Hills wives, even though she’s
married to a wealthy pharmaceuticals magnate, Jonathan (played, in a twist, by
the decidedly non-masculine Julian Wells). Depressed and desperate for
Jonathan’s love and the perceived pleasure that a child would bring them, Mina
finds herself a more than willing succubus when Darian Cane’s Countess Dracula
shows up and offers her a chance at happiness. Mina’s covetous sister, however,
Abigail Van Helsing (Shelly Jones), has something else in mind. She seeks to
both destroy Dracula and in the process make her own play for Jonathan. As all
parties move closer toward their destinies, blood is spilled, blouses ripped
and souls destroyed. Marsiglia doesn’t have much of a budget to work with, and
the movie isn’t really scary by any stretch of the imagination, but he does a
job of still coming up with imaginative and effective imagery, making a nice
rental for adventurous fans of pure genre pulp.

EI has, from its humble beginnings as a mere distributor,
always done a good job of both branding itself and going to the necessary
lengths to provide potential customers with a wealth of supplemental material
on its releases that will satisfy their voyeuristic curiosity and have them
coming back for future iterations. Lust
For Dracula is no different. The unrated director’s cut disc includes audio
commentary by Marsiglia and producer Michael Raso, a (typically wandering)
behind-the-scenes documentary, an on-set interview with the taciturn Mundae,
Tim Friend’s short film Insex — an odd
bonus inclusion — and a vast trailer vault of other numerous EI releases. If you’re searching for nouveau grindhouse
titillation, Lust For Dracula is a
good time. For more information, visit SeductionCinema.com. B (Movie) B+
(Disc)