It's the End of the Year- the School Year- and Some Lives-When a Student Transforms in "Blood of Dracula"- Tonight!

Tonight, on MeTV- we end the year by bringing back an American International 1950s offering that takes its place among the teenage monster films like “I Was a Teenage Frankenstein” and “I Was a Teenage Werewolf”- but this film puts a twist on the formula by making the terror- a female! Should old acquaintance be forgot-but not the old savage murders in “Blood of Dracula”?!

In this 1957 chiller, we meet Nancy, whose life has taken an unhappy turn -not only has her mother passed away, but she resents that her father has, shortly after Mom’s death, taken a rather nasty new bride. The friction between her and the new parental arrangement has Nancy now forced to go to a distant girls’ school, so father and his new mate can begin their lives together -without her.

When she spends her first night at the Sherwood School for Girls, it’s no picnic- a clique of popular girls, the “Birds of Paradise” invade her room, rifle through her belongings, and give her a hard time. By not ratting on them when the housemother comes in to check what all the noise is about, Nancy actually passes their “test”! Myra, the head “bird,” introduces Nancy to the one and only boy on campus, a groundskeeper that the girls take turns dating. Nancy, however, is unimpressed by the lawn-mowing Lothario, for obvious reasons once you see him- and, besides, she has a much better specimen of a boyfriend back home.

When Myra heads to the office of the school’s chemistry teacher Miss Branding, to whom she is an assistant, the teacher tells her about her prize thesis- which claims there is a terrifying power within us all, just waiting to be unleashed. She tells Myra all she needs is to find a student to “experiment” with to validate her theory- someone with anger issues. From what she’s seen of her, Myra suggests Nancy would be the perfect subject.

Miss Branding schemes to have a nasty mishap occur to Nancy in her next chemistry class- that will allow her to have a one-on-one meeting with the troubled girl. She works on gaining Nancy’s confidence, then asks to hypnotize her (supposedly to help her work out her problems). Nancy agrees, and Branding puts on an ornate amulet, which Nancy jokes is costume jewelry- only to be told that it is actually an ancient artifact from the Carpathian Mountains ( yes, the original home base of Count Dracula, the renowned vampire)! She claims this bauble possesses great and unusual power. Branding puts Nancy into a hypnotic trance- and then, places the poor unaware girl under her control!

This control is first tested the night of a “Birds of Paradise” party, where some uninvited male guests sneak into the girls’ dorm and come dangerously close to getting caught! Miss Branding has sent word that, even at this late hour after the party winds up, Myra should go down to a storeroom to get the things needed for tomorrow’s chemistry lesson. As she does, Branding clutches the amulet and remotely exerts her control over Nancy. The result- Myra ends up being fatally attacked by –well, something -that has left two puncture marks on her throat- and all her blood drained! When a coroner’s assistant recognizes that condition, and brings up tales he was told by an exchange student from a village in the Carpathian Mountains about vampires, investigators scoff, and will not even consider that theory. So much for keeping an open mind…

They will have to take the theory seriously soon- when more similar murders occur! Nancy begins to suspect that she herself is involved- but can she find release from Branding’s “experiment” before there is more mayhem?

As I said, this movie has similarities to the other AIP teenage monster films, especially “Teenage Werewolf”- with both the main characters being troubled teens who undergo hypnosis to supposedly “help” them. I guess they felt it would be too cumbersome to call this movie “I Was A Teenage Female Dracula” … Anyway, we’ll run down the cast list, with some faces you’ll recognize from other films of this era, give some production background, invite you to guess in one more round of our “Too Drawn Out” game, give you yet another alternative for further education, and provide a song. We are also happy to bring back some of the interview we did a few years ago at the Flashback Weekend horror convention-with the one and only Robert Englund- doing a rare appearance in full Freddy Krueger make-up! Plus- we have a much-requested revisit with a Dracula-like duck hunting family. It’s a celebrity packed show with cameo appearances, and some anniversary greetings that our staff wanted you to see again.

“Blood of Dracula” runs tonight (or does it flow?) at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central time. If you need help in finding the time and station in your area, you can consult your local listings or check at www.metv.com. As always, viewers will be live-Tweeting on Twitter/X and also posting comments on Bluesky during the show, using the hashtag #svengoolie on both – and you are welcome to join in! Chicago area viewers can get an encore of “Phantom of the Opera” this morning on WCIU, The U, at 11 am.

As we wind up 2024, we want to thank you for hanging with us this year- for your generous support and celebration of the first half of my 45th anniversary as Sven (with more to come), and for your loyalty. Here’s hoping that the new year will bring us all good health, happiness, and success- and that, once again, you’ll be joining us every week

Tonight, though, we’ll drink a cup of kindness yet- although it sounds like Nancy will be sipping something else!