Summaries

Dracula's granddaughter falls in love with a disco guitarist and runs away to New York City with him.

Geriatric Dracula owes taxes, so he turns his castle into Hotel Transylvania. His granddaughter Nocturna, books a disco band, learns that she loves dancing and can turn mortal whenever she dances and moves to NY to get a life and find love.

Details

Keywords
  • female topless nudity
  • sex
  • female pubic hair
  • female buttocks
  • male buttocks
Genres
  • Comedy
  • Horror
Release date May 31, 1979
Motion Picture Rating (MPA) R
Countries of origin United States
Language English
Filming locations Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, New York, USA
Production companies Compass International Pictures Nai Bonet Enterprises

Box office

Budget $500000

Tech specs

Runtime 1h 25m
Sound mix Mono
Aspect ratio

Synopsis

Hard times have fallen on the Transylvanian House of Dracula. To help pay the taxes, Castle Dracula has been converted into the Hotel Transylvania. Dracula [John Carradine] himself is aging and toothless, being cared for by his granddaughter Nocturna [Nai Bonet]. When Nocturna books a disco group (Moment of Truth) to play The Claret Room and winds up falling in love with one of the backup quitarists, a mortal named Jimmy [Antony Hamilton], she notices that she is able to see her reflection when she dances, so she decides to follow Jimmy to New York in search of mortality.

Along with Jimmy, Nocturna falls in love with New York. She hasn't told Jimmy yet about her heritage, so she moves in with an old family friend, Dracula's ex-lover Jugula [Yvonne de Carlo], and meets Jimmy each night at the StarShip where they dance till sunup. However, New York does have its problems, Nocturna soon learns. The quality of the blood supply is being compromised by drugs, pollution, high-sugar diets, and preservatives so that the local vampires have formed a club, the BSA (Blood Suckers of America), in order to discuss possible solutions, such as the use of syringes instead of fangs and the opening of a blood bank that solicits donors from the public. At one of the BSA meetings, Nocturna meets Rh Factor [Sy Richardson], who has opened the Trickey Hickey Massage Parlor as another way of procuring a supply of blood. Nocturna is coming to realize, however, that she is losing her taste for blood. One night, after discoing hard and smoking a joint, she finally tells Jimmy about her background, even showing him how she can change into a bat. "Fantastic grass!" exclaims Jimmy.

Back in Transylvania, Grandpa Drac isn't buying that Nocturna is feeling anything other than infatuation for Jimmy and decides to bring her back home. Accompanied by his renfield Theodore [Brother Theodore], Dracula flies to New York and pays a visit to Jugula in order to find Nocturna. While Dracula and Jugula stay behind to discuss old times, Theodore goes looking for Nocturna, for whom he has raging hots. Theodore ensnares both Jimmy and Nocturna. Just as Theodore is about to exsanguinate Jimmy, Nocturna overpowers Theodore, who returns to Dracula as a beaten failure. Jugula suggests to Dracula that they look for Nocturna at the StarShip. Jugula tries to loosen up Dracula, but he is intent on taking Nocturna home. When Dracula threatens to kill Jimmy, Nocturna agrees to go back, but Jimmy grabs the neon "T" from the "StarShip" sign and aims it at Dracula, who changes into a bat and flies away.

Epilogue: Jugula and Dracula share a coffin on the return flight to Transylvania, while Jimmy and Nocturna watch the sun rise. Nocturna has gained mortality in Jimmy's arms. [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

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