Summaries

Synopsis

Southern California 1897: While Dumas [Mark Bedell] is in the parlor cleaning his gun, his sister Roxanne [Kennedy Johnston] is in the bedroom beingseduced by the lusty vampiress, Diana Ruthven [Glori-Anne Gilbert]. WhenDumas finally puts down his gun and checks on Roxanne, he finds her bedempty. Suspecting that Roxanne has been spirited away by vampires, Dumasconsults with Padre Jacinto [Paul Naschy]. Arming himself with a cross, a bottle of holywater, and a Bible, the Padre and Dumas set off to find the vampires'sanctuary. There they find Roxanne, stake Diana, and stab Lord Ruthvenwith a silver dagger as he lies in his coffin. Padre takes this as a signfrom God and vows to fight against such evil until it is eradicated fromthe world.

Present day Los Angeles: Count Dracula [Tony Clay] has learned that the remains of his old Britishdrinking buddy, Lord Ruthve [Arthur Roberts], are in L.A., so he sends out his daughterMartine [Eyana Barsky] along with their servant Renfield [Del Howiso] in order to bring Ruthven backto unlife and to deliver to him a copy of The Ruthvenian , the vampire'sBible written in blood. Martine and Renfield dutifully locate Ruthven'sbody, still lying in the coffin where Padre stabbed him over 100 yearsago. They pull out the dagger, and Ruthven awakens.

Ruthven relates to Martine and Renfield the story of how he and hissister Diana vied for the love of the human Roxanne and how was thisrivalry that led to their "deaths". Now restored, Ruthven vows to findRoxanne again. He starts his search in downtown L.A., but first he musthave blood, having gone over 100 years without a drink. He tries to bite astripper named Lilith [Lolana], but finds that he has been cursed by Padre Jacintoso as to never be able to drink blood again. He consults The Ruthvenianand finds that his blood stream has been poisoned by the consecratedsilver dagger with which he was stabbed and that he can only drink humanblood if it is first filtered through the veins of another vampire. So, hepulls the stake from Diana's heart and brings her back to life, too.

Diana is also thirsty and goes looking for blood. She stops at theUnderworld, a strip club, where she becomes enchanted by the samestripper. Diana follows Lilith home, seduces her, and turns her into avampire. Later, when Ruthven begs her for some nourishment, Diana slits abreast and collects the blood in a cup for Ruthven. A number of victimslater, and Ruthven is beginning to feel stronger and is looking forward tothe time when he can leave his sanctuary and begin his search for Roxanne.Unfortunately for Ruthven, Diana finds Roxanne first and brings her backto their lair in order to taunt her brother. Ruthven is so angry at Dianafor possessing Roxanne again that he replaces the stake in Diana's heartonly to find that, when Roxanne awakens, she wants Diana, so Ruthven isjust about to stab Roxanne with the silver dagger when Padre Jacinto'sspirit appears and forces Ruthven to use the dagger on himself. With bothRuthvens now destroyed, Padre Jacinto is free to rest.

Meanwhile, because he feels that the Ruthvens have not been keeping alow enough profile, Dracula sends out Martine and Renfield once more totell the Ruthvens to cool it. When they arrive at the Ruthven's sanctuary,however, they find both Diana and Ruthven have been destroyed. However,Roxanne and Lilith are still there, so Martine bring them, along with allof Diana's victims (now turned vampire), back home to her father. "Ladiesof the evening," says Dracula, "welcome to the House of Dracula. Let'sparty!" [Synopsis by bj_kuehl]