Dracula conspires with a mad doctor to resurrect the Frankenstein Monster.
Judith Fontaine (Regina Carrol) is looking for her sister Joanie, who has disappeared into the hippie community of Venice, California. It turns out Joanie has become the victim of Groton (Lon Chaney Jr.), an ax-wielding homicidal maniac working for Dr. Durea (J. Carrol Naish), who is really the last living member of the Frankenstein family and is now both running a house of horrors on the beach's boardwalk and performing experiments on Gorton's victims. One night, Count Dracula (Zandor Vorkov) visits the mad doctor, showing him the original Frankenstein Monster that was buried in a nearby graveyard. The doctor revives the Monster and uses him to take revenge on his professional rival, Dr. Beaumont.—Jeremy Lunt <[email protected]>
During the day, Dr. Durea (J. Carroll Naish) runs the Creature Emporium (a sideshowattraction in the amusement park / boardwalk on the beach in Venice, California) from theconfines of his wheelchair but, by night, Durea is a mad scientist (and the last living memberof the Frankenstein family) working on some sort of blood serum. For this serum, he needsthe blood of young women who were scared to death, as it is their fear that "energizes themolecularstructure of their blood". To do this, he has his mute, mentally disabled assistant Groton(Lon Chaney Jr.) behead young girls with an ax and then bring him their corpses. Durea thenresurrects them so that he can harvest their blood for the serum.
One night, Dr. Durea is visited by Count Dracula (Zandor Vorkov) who has foundthe Frankenstein Monster (John Bloom), which had been buried in a secrettomb in Oakmoor Cemetary. In exchange for Durea's serum (which Dracula hopes willmake him invincible by enabling him to be active during the daytime without the sunlightdestroying him), Dracula offers Durea the use of the Monster in order to get revenge onDurea's professional rival, Dr. Beaumont (Forrest J Ackerman), who was responsiblefor setting the laboratory fire that crippled Durea when Beaumont and two of his colleaguesfound out about Durea's experiments and his plans for the Monster, after which they buriedthe Monster in the secret tomb and then forgot about the tomb and where it was. Together,they revive the Monster, who eventually does kill Beaumont.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas showgirl Judith Fontaine (Regina Carrol) is searching for her missingsister Joanie (Marie Lease), who disappeared after joining a group of hippies who hang outnear the Creature Emporium. Police Sgt. Martin (Jim Davis) has been no help, soJudith goes to the local hippie hangout and shows around a photo of hersister. No one has seen her. When someone slips some LSD into her coffee,Judith goes through an acid trip and falls unconscious, then wakes up on the couch of aging hippieMike Howard (Anthony Eisley), who offers his help (along with a few kisses). When they learn thatJoanie was last seen at the Creature Emporium, they both pay a visit to Dr. Durea,but he claims to have never seen Joanie.
Meanwhile, more girls have turned up missing and a few male bodieshave been found chopped to bits on the beach. When a girl named Samantha (Anne Morrell) is killed and her corpsecarried up a ladder and through a trap door underneath the Creature Emporium by Groton, Mike and Judithbreak into the place and discover, to their horror, the naked and motionless, but neither dead nor alive, bodiesof Samantha and Joanie that the mad doctor has been using in his blood serum experiments.In the fight that ensues, Dr. Durea is beheaded in his own sideshow attraction's guillotine while trying to escapeand Groton is shot on the rooftop of a nearby building by Sgt. Martin, falling to his death on the pavement below.Judith is then hypnotized by Dracula, who ties her up with rope to a railing so that he can drink her bloodand make her his vampire bride. Mike confronts Dracula and the Monster, then shoves a lit car distress flare into the Monster's face, temporarily blinding him, which causes the Monster to briefly turn on Dracula in his pain. Mike then frees Judith but, as they run away, Dracula blasts Mike with a fire bolt from his one-eyed demon-headed ring on his hand, killing him. Dracula has the Monster (Shelly Weiss from this point on; billed in both the film's opening and closing credits as "the Creature")carry the unconscious Judith (who has fainted after seeing Mike's death) to an old abandoned church where his coffin is hidden. Dracula again ties up Judith with rope (this time to a chair) and again prepares to drink her blood and make her into his vampire bride. Judith awakens and screams in terror. Just then, the Monster has a sudden change of heart and protects Judith by turning on Dracula, but not before removing his ring from his finger and dropping it onto the ground.
Dracula and the Monster then start fighting each other. The fight takesthem both outside into the surrounding woods and a good distance away from the church.Dracula kills the Monster first by dismembering him, tearing off first his arms and then hishead. But the Monster has prolonged the fight to the point where the sun is starting to risejust as he had planned, and Dracula knows that he must return to his coffin or be destroyed.He runs back to the church just as fast as he can, but the sun fully rises, causing him tocollapse at the church's front door and slowly disintegrate into dust. Judith frees herselffrom her bonds and escapes, stopping only to observe Dracula's remains at the church'sfront door and pick up his ring, after which she recalls everything that has happened toher, drops the ring onto the ground and flees in terror. [original synopsis by bj_kuehl]
