When a large box, which happens to be a coffin, is delivered to a lakeside residence, all manner of menacing and strange phenomena begin to torment poor Akiko. To her boyfriend it appears that her grip on sanity is eroding, due to some childhood trauma she experienced on that Lake,which she believes never actually happened. How could it have? It was too horrible. But, Akiko soon discovers that her childhood visit to a hidden European styled mansion which contained a dead woman, and a vampire was very real. Now the vampire is back to claim her.
Lake of Dracula (1971) was the second of Toho's Western inspired vampire movies. This one, even with it's Japanese sensibility, and dream-like narrative, is clearly patterned on Hammer's Horror of Dracula (1958). The vampire is very much in the Christopher Lee mold; tall, noble, but with an animal-like ferocity when on the offensive. The vampire here, actually comes of as even more feral than Lee's Dracula. The ending is directly lifted from Horror of Dracula. These movies are oddities in that they are visually stylish, and fairly mesmerizing to watch, but there's not much going on beneath the superficial veneer. They're a very entertaining viewing experience, but that experience seems to dissipate rather quickly when they are over.
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