Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Wmpyr Dumont Francis Ford Coppola did a great job with Bram Stoker's Dracula so I was looking forward to this one directed by Francis Ford Coppola's nephew, however let me say this was Chris Coppola's first feature, and this was filmed before Bram Stoker's Dracula. The plot is relatively simple enough, which is a good thing if you ask me. When an eccentric owner of a small wax museum in Hollywood receives an extra crate which has Dracula's wife, Vanessa in it, all the problems begin. If you like gore, there is quite a bit of it. I'm personally not into that, if the gore was there to show some kind of dynamic between how sensual she is and how violent she can be, it would have been much better for me, but I didn't feel that kind of relationship. The main problem though I have to say is with Vanessa herself. The 80s business suit she walks around in the entire duration of the film seemed like a waste of wonderful possibilities. With Dracula's wife, they could have had historical costumes to something along the lines of fantasy and so on. Her personality was also unattractive, with someone like Sylvia Kristel they could have explored a sensual/dominatrix style character, Dracula is a sex symbol, you would assume that his Queen is similar. The yelling and tantrum like parts were not attractive. The scene with the Devil worshippers was memorable and I wish it was explained a bit better. Always nice to see a Van Helsing in a Dracula film, the part where he is reading an old book about Dracula's wife and acts like it's the first time he's ever read that made me raise my brow. Nice to see the main character's GF sleep walking, for some reason I like seeing sleep walking in vampire films. All in all, it had potential, I would like to see a remake! -2 (for senseless gore and Vanessa)

thetammyjo When people focus on the character of Vanessa in this movie, they are actually missing the point of the film. This isn't about vampires, this isn't about sex or gore, this is about what it is like to become the enslaved servant of a vampire.The main male character Raymond, is the owner and operator of a wax museum preparing for a new display about Dracula and vampire in folktales, legends, and popular culture. He accepts an extra shipment of boxes and soon finds himself in the thrall of Dracula's wife, Vanessa. Played by Lenny von Dohlen, Raymond is confused, enchanted, terrified, aroused, and even giddy at various times in the movie. He clings to his humanity by clinging to love of his girlfriend, Jenny, as he struggles in pure Renfield fashion to resist his own blood lust.With so much romance about vampires in our literature and films, it was a nice change to see a truly horrific vampiric creature and her nevertheless strong hold over a main character. Too often female vampires are belittled as sexy or subordinate but Vanessa is a real monster and she holds Raymond in her hand, using mental powers on him even while she sleeps, and forcing him to witness her murderous rampages.While not the best vampire film ever, this hardly qualifies as one of the worst either. If you step back and look at Raymond in the film you may appreciate it on a new level.

HumanoidOfFlesh "Dracula's Widow" features a 70's soft core sex symbol Sylvia Kristel,who plays the true wife of Dracula.She is something of a monster herself and upon arriving at the Hollywood House of Wax sets about dispatching various lowlifes and Satanists before tracking down Van Helsing's great grandson in order to wreak her revenge."Dracula's Widow" is directed by Nicolas Cage's brother Christopher Coppola.The film is loaded with huge plot holes and there is plenty of cheesy gore to enjoy.The acting is pretty bad and the script is nothing to write about,however if you want to see Sylvia Kristel in her only one horror film you can give this one a try.Unfortunately she doesn't provide any nudity in "Dracula's Widow".5 out of 10.

Gluck-3 Could this have been the very film that inspired the director's uncle, Francis Ford, to make "Dracula" some three or four years later?We're supposed to ignore other reviewer's comments, but I can't resist mentioning another opinion in these hallowed "comment" pages, where the film viewer sounded scared out of his wits. Fear is a relative thing, isn't it? The shock moments were awkwardly handled for the most part, in this film; note the guard who's sitting by a window, and the monster uses the old "crash through the window" trick (Argento, for example, used this trick a little more effectively in "Tenebre" six years earlier) to make the guard wish he had a guard. How could you crash a window and dig long vampiric fingernails into the victim's neck at the same time? I've tried it, and believe me, it takes some doing.Then there's the create havoc with over a dozen devil worshippers scene. Talk about one uninspired montage of creating havoc.A friend lent me this, along with a few other vampire films... he loves vampire films... and I happened to see "Midnight Kiss," another obscure film about bats. As it was made a few years after "Dracula's Widow," perhaps it was Dracula's Widow that inspired it (since Uncle Coppola may have been inspired by Dracula's Widow, why shouldn't the makers of Midnight Kiss?), but I was struck by some similarities. Let's see... vampire bites victim, and victim takes a few days while the vampire virus goes to work. Meanwhile, victim has to wear sunglasses and be tempted to feast on animals. There was even a "morgue" scene, where recent victims get served stake, coming to life as soon as they got the point.Sylvia Kristel did a credible job as the widowed Dracula, conveying an otherwordly and monstrous power pretty effectively. Raymond, our hero-turned slave (or is it slave-turned-hero?) played by Lenny von Dohlen, reminded me of a Jon Stewart-ish Harry Langdon... the helpless child trapped in an adult's body. He even had silent film star Langdon's eye make-up. My favorite performer was Stefan Schnabel, who played the grandson of Dracula's famous nemesis, Van Helsing. Boy, what a great ham! He was like a combination of Burgess Meredith as "The Penguin" from the old Batman TV show and Gilbert Gottfried. Josef Sommer was also very solid and watchable, as the police hero. As far as sweet girlfriend Jenny, played by Rachel Jones, at least we get to see her topless in a bathtub scene.