Mama Dracula (1980) User Reviews

Mama Dracula: A failed emulation of the Carry On movies success

[Platypuschow · 2/10 · 28 September 2016]

When I initially heard about Mama Dracula and read the premise I immediately thought of the Carry On films. I expected a camp Carry On Screaming knock off set around Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Truth be told that's what it tries to be but sadly lacks the talented cast, the charm and the humour that was essential to the Carry On movies success.

Featuring a terrible generic story line, viciously annoying characters, jokes that fall flat and some dire dialogue this is everything I'd hoped it wouldn't be.

I get the impression the vampire twins were supposed to be the true stars who steal each scene but truth is the movie dropped in my opinion every time they appeared as they offered little beyond face palms & cringe inducing moments.

If you seek horror, keep looking. If you seek comedy, you won't find any here. If you seek something that quite frankly isn't far off deserving a place in IMDb's bottom list, you've found what you're looking for.

Wampires, Willagers, and Wirgins

[BaronBl00d · 4/10 · 28 December 2006]

Decidedly off-beat, farcial, incomprehensible story about Countess Dracula(an Elizabeth Bathory type that keeps young bathing in the blood of young, female virgins - or as she says "wirgins")and her two vampire sons who run a clothing story called Vamp and have enlisted the aid of a young, American professor of blood. While there is no denying that the film is really going for your funny bone rather than your jugular, much of the humour is hit and miss(mostly miss) akin to a nurse with poor eyesight trying to find a vein with a needle. Academy Award winning actress Louise Fletcher plays Mama Dracula with subtle humour, grace, and charm and looks quite stunning in much of the fashion, but she has virtually nothing to work with in this Belgian horror comedy that relies more on two vampire son boobs for much of the film's motivation. The Wajnberg brothers, Marc-Henri and Alexander, are two strange men indeed. They look quite ridiculous, act even more so, and, despite such elementary things as gaping and running about like two school children much of the time, have glimpses of talent. There is one scene with them doing a pantomime which I rather liked, but the story, the rest of the actors, the less than inspiring direction make this film a far more arduous thing to sit through. Much of the failure of the film must be squarely put on the shoulders of director Boris Szulzinger and his adolescent prowess at showing virtually nothing resembling horror. We see a quite impressive castle with impressive sets, but maybe total three shots of any blood at all - all nothing more than a prick-size bleed. No one is bit on stage so to speak. There are lots of girls showing us their breasts but no action otherwise. The humour is pretty stale stuff too. I like a good horror parody...OK, this is nothing like a good horror parody...but Mama Dracula just doesn't mange to do what a good horror parody does: blend comedy and horror together so as to create something that could be labeled as both legitimately. this film has only Dracula in the title and some scenarios that revolve around the concept of a bloodsucker - beyond that it is nothing more than a mild European sex comedy. Poor Louise Fletcher - she really does and did deserve more than this.

Abysmal "horror" "comedy" that doesn't offer a single laugh

[gridoon · 2/10 · 26 May 2007]

Unless the comic idea of heavy mid-European accents (mostly pronouncing the letter "v" as "w" and vice versa - "wampire" instead of "vampire", "vant" instead of "want", etc.) strikes you as hilarious, avoid this utterly awful "comedy" - it's the best idea that it has to offer! The script sucks harder than any vampire ever could. It's hard to decide who's more annoying - the nerdy scientist or the vampire brothers? (the brothers probably win). Maria Schneider is also in this, and it's easy to see why she's been described elsewhere as a "non-actress" - she doesn't even try to act. At least Louise Fletcher manages to keep her dignity (the makeup artists have done a marvelous job on her). A few beautifully natural breasts get bared, but I still cannot give this anything higher than 0.5 out of 4 stars.

Poor, poor Louise..... How on earth did she get roped into this?

[sftiger · 1/10 · 28 June 2007]

What a bomb! Another example of how trying too hard to be camp just doesn't work. If you can imagine a bunch of stoners trying to make "The Three Stooges meet Countess Dracula" and loading it with bare-breasted women you may get an idea of what this is like. Unfortunately the many pairs of boobs make it unfit for 5-10 year old boys who would otherwise be the best audience for this. One pair of boobs just right for the little boys would be the idiot twin sons of the Countess who do a rather intriguing mirroring-each-other pantomime, getting out of bed and starting their morning ablutions. But mostly they're just two stooges in black capes and bad "Transylwanian" accents.

Louise Fletcher manages to glide over this morass, ever elegant and charismatic. Watching her shine so magnificently over the ordure that is the rest of it is rather amazing to see, and the fashion show in the last 15 minutes has some fun costumes. Maria Schneider just looks like she's waiting to get paid. One hopes that she and Ms. Fletcher were getting plenty. Given the production values, either their pay ate up the entire budget, or they were blackmailed into this disaster.

This may rival "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" for worst vampflick ever, but at least "JC" was clearly an amateur production. There is no excuse for this abysmal waste of time.

And no, it is not even Ed-Wood-so-bad-it's-good. Ed Wood, bless his soul, took his work seriously enough to give it a quirky charm. Even "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" was compellingly weird in its gawd-awfulness. I like quirky bad movies, but this was just pointlessly vacuous.

Poor, poor Louise... I'm sure she's done her best to forget this trainwreck, and so shall I!

It was films like this that killed many an Academy Award winner's career

[dbborroughs · 3/10 · 13 April 2006]

Louise Fletcher is Mama Dracula. Actually Elizabeth Bathory the long ago wicked queen who bathed in the blood of virgins to remain young. Here she's re-imagined as a vampire in modern day trying to deal with the dwindling number of virgins.

Its strange off beat films like this that kill many an award winning actor's and actress's career. Nominally a comedy this is a strange little film that is humorous but never laugh out loud funny. The plot careens along in odd directions and can be somewhat disjointed. Its the type of movie you watch and wonder why anyone thought to make since its neither good nor bad, it just sort of is. Clearly there was something in in the mix that made Ms Fletcher take the role, though it might have been only money.

Frankly this is a hard film to describe. worse its a hard film to remember, partly doing to its disjointed nature and partly due to the the film not being worth remembering. Is it worth seeing? not if you have to search it out. If it falls in your lap, I ran across it as part of a multi movie set, it might be worth trying, assuming you have something else to go to if it doesn't catch your fancy.

Seriously, that's one of the worst excuses for a movie I've ever seen

[bensonmum2 · 1/10 · 5 June 2009]

What a load! Regardless of how bad a movie is, when I write on of these user comments, I usually try to add a touch of humor or a joke here or there (how effective I am, I don't know). But with Mama Dracula I've decided to dispense with this little habit and cut to the chase as it were. Mama Dracula is quite simply dreadful. I don't know when I've been less entertained by a movie. Most of it comes off as amateur hour at its worst. The plot is an incomprehensible mess. The best I got out of it was that it involved the old Elizabeth Bathory story, a pair of utterly ridiculous twin vampires, a doctor who has developed synthetic blood, and the search for virgins. But it hardly mattered as Mama Dracula's plot is there only to set up one lame comedic bit after the next – most involving the twin vampires played by the Wajneberg brothers. Two un-funnier human beings I've not seen – unless, that is, you find humor in an hour and a half of mugging for the camera. And what in God's name was Louise Fletcher doing in this garbage? That Academy Award certainly paid dividends for her. I can only assume she was either trying to help out a friend, hard up for cash, or blackmailed into appearing in the movie. She literally looks embarrassed in almost every scene she has. The rest of the cast is abysmal and the less said the better. You know, I'm usually not one to say something like this, but man, that's 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Don't make the same mistake I did. Don't walk - run if you're ever faced with the prospect of watching Mama Dracula. You'll thank me later.

Just because you CAN make a movie...

[btara_ktahn · 1/10 · 22 August 2008]

... doesn't mean that you should.

And few films seem to exemplify that more than this one.

I gave it 1 star because:

1) there wasn't anything lower available to give it here other than 0 stars, and it ain't getting off that easy, and

2) I did enjoy some of the music in the movie (when it wasn't trying to sound 'comical' when the twin vampires were doing whatever the heck it is they're doing while the cameras were rolling... it sure wasn't anything funny, that's for sure.) So, I gave it 1 star for some of the music. It's still probably 1 star more than it deserved, though.

The lead actress is Louise Fletcher who went on to portray Kai Winn in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I probably should go back and give it an extra star just for her... but that would probably cause people to think that I enjoyed this... thing... more than I didn't. And that would be the same as lying; and I don't want to be called a liar.

Vampire fans - If it was at all possible to drive a stake through the heart of a movie, I would gladly volunteer my services to do so in order to save the rest of you from ever stumbling across this rancid pile of guano.

Louise Fletcher fans - Watch something else which you will be able to enjoy her performing in, because this just ain't it.

In all, it was 90 minutes of my life which I shall never see again, and countless brain cells which I could've killed off with a good beer buzz, instead. I wish that I had a beer buzz right now; maybe it would help me forget this.

Okay, I don't see anything that qualifies as a spoiler in here, so I won't check-mark that box. It's impossible to spoil this movie any more than the director, writers and actors already did. In fact, this movie is so spoiled that it probably should be thrown out with the wilted lettuce and that expired milk carton in the fridge.

It's just... that... bad.

Apologies from Belgium!

[Coventry · 1/10 · 2 November 2010]

Obviously I had nothing to do with this production, and actually it was released before I was even born, but still I somewhat feel the necessity to apologize to all the poor people who – like myself – struggled their way through this film and literally hated every single minute of it. Why? Because I'm from Belgium and apparently so is this miserable excuse for a horror movie! There aren't too many horror films being made in Belgium, but judging by the quality of "Mama Dracula", that's maybe a good thing. This is supposed to be a horror comedy, but we all know what the main problem with these flicks is… They're not scary and they're definitely not funny! Some of the basic ideas in the script definitely show potential (like the spin on the Countess Bathory legend), but the film is unendurably tedious, imbecilic and embarrassing. It's a complete mystery how Louise Fletcher ended up in such an inferior Belgian film production, barely five years after winning an Oscar for one of the greatest motion pictures ever made, but luckily enough she stills keeps her dignity. Fletcher plays the title role, but perhaps they couldn't pay her enough, as her role definitely isn't the leading part. She's a posh vampire who requires bathing in the blood of young virgins in order to maintain her beauty. The problem nowadays, however, is that virgins are becoming quite rare in this indecent day and age. She therefore orders to kidnap the young scientist Dr. Van Bloed, as he's on the verge of achieving a breakthrough with his synthetic blood formula. The jokes – if you can even refer to them like that – solely revolve on a handful of totally insufferable characters. The horrible vampire twin brothers are the absolute worst, closely followed by a police inspector who yells out "sabotage" all the time, and the young dorky scientist. "Mama Dracula" is hectic and irritating, with a plot that continuously jumps back and forth between semi-processed plot ideas and lame gags. The twins own (or perhaps just work) in a fashion store where they kidnap young girls from the cubicles. These sequences aren't very important, but I want to mention them nevertheless because at least they featured some nudity. Horrible movie, avoid at all costs … and once more my most sincere apologies in case you already had the displeasure of seeing it.

Mamma Dracula

[Coxer99 · 5 July 1999]

Embarassing vampire satire with Fletcher sucking the life out of her career.

Late night on cable TV only...

[bearfist2009 · 3/10 · 24 March 2013]

I was shocked to realize that the lead was Louise Fletcher. She must have been strapped for cash. Anyways: It was OK watching on a local weekend, hosted horror flick show. Primarily because of the outrageous filler between scenes. Definitely a movie you can chat online while it's playing. I always wonder what was going on on the movie shoots to films like this. I hope Lousise was having fun. It was 1980 and the free love, hippie, etc stuff was still happening. Very silly movie not to be gone into expecting a Hammer film. And whatever happened to those twins? This was their film debut. There is a lot of nudity but that was just par for the course in B or C films of the 70's & 80's. Nothing graphic. Just a lot of kidding around. Also, nothing scary or gross. Just lots of European slap stick. I wouldn't rent this video if I had to pay for it but like I said, check it out on free TV where you can change the channel if there is entertaining add on's like on a hosted horror show.

Woof!

[BandSAboutMovies · 2/10 · 31 August 2023]

Director Boris Szulzinger is best-known for the Tony Hedra-written science fiction cartoon for adults The Big Bang and Tarzan, Shame of the Jungle, the first foreign animated movie to be rated X in the United States.

A comedic retelling of the myth of Elizabeth Bathory, here known as Mama Dracula and played by Louise Fletcher. This is also written by Hedra, along with Szulzinger, Marc-Henri Wajnberg and Pierre Sterckx. Hedra was probably best known for his work with the National Lampoon, a series of parody magazines (Not the New York Times, Playboy: the Parody, The Irrational Inquirer and Not the Bible), being the editor-in-chief of Spy Magazine and co-creating, co-writing and co-producing Spitting Image. He was also Spinal Tap's manager Ian Faith. The sad part of his legacy is that he was accused of molestation by his daughter Jessica. That said, the article about it that was published by The New York Times had no proof and was disputed by several people (and supported perhaps by just as many). It's a stain on his career and life.

Back to the movie.

Professor Van Bloed (Jimmy Schuman) is brought to Transylvania as part of a special conference on blood research hosted by Countess Dracula. She also has twins who run a fashion boutique called Vamp. But the problem that Mama Dracula is having is that there aren't enough virgin women to keep on bathing in their blood. She wants the scientist to create something to help her. He also falls for a local, Nancy Hawaii, who is played by Maria Schneider, who had survived the PTSD of making Last Tango In Paris, drug abuse and a suicide attempt to finally find some level of happiness by the early 80s, if being in movies with Klaus Kinski can be considered joy.

This movie has a bad reputation, one of it being barely watchable. I can confirm this yet I am amazed that somehow both Fletcher - an Oscar winner! - and Schneider - a sex symbol on the comeback after walking out of her last big role in Caligula and probably that was the right call - are in it.

Wonderfully incoherent

[Mike Z-2 · 10/10 · 28 November 1999]

My sister found this for me at a local video store. After Iwatched it, I only had a vague idea of what was going on, but, the strange thing is, I didn't mind. The fact that this movie was so terribly incoherent, seemed to skip entire scenes, and had such awful humor made this a satisfying film to watch in the most bizarre way. It's amazing what people can think up.

Gorgeously shot "comedy"

[Poppysma · 6/10 · 10 March 2022]

This begins with the portrait of Countess Bathory (Louise Fletcher); the opening credits are presented in the form of florid booklet found in the menu; the mob with torches and pitchforks tries to attack the limousine carrying Bathory through the rural scenery to her castle. Bathory herself is icily elegant with her gorgeous red chignon and stylish make-up.

Too bad the comedy is either dull or embarrassing. Lowlights include Bathory's memories about torturing people to death. Hilarious?

Audaciously bad. Has to be seen for its genuine awfulness.

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 13 May 2023]

The years have not been kind to Nurse Ratched. I'm sure that Louise Fletcher thought that a silly comedy would lighten up her image after "Cuckoos Nest" and the hideousness that was "The Exorcist Ii". The difference between that 1977 fiasco and this disaster three years later was that "Exorcist II" had a ton of pre-release publicity and this flew head first into obscurity. I'd never even heard of it until discovering it by accident, and instantly wished I'd tossed it right back into the catacombs of bad films that I forced myself to watch simply to write a review. It's up there with every other really bad horror spoof, and I hope this is the last one out there for me to spend 90 minutes of sucky comedy on.

While it is never clarified, Fletcher is playing the notorious countess Elisabeth Bathory, still bathing in virgin blood to stay young looking. But in the near end of the 20th Century, virgins are hard to find, and those who are have religious symbols on both sides of their panties that repel the two mincing sons of the Countess. These two young actors with hideous hairstyles are truly unfunny, and Fletcher is just bland. Everyone speaks with a speech impediment more outlandish than Dietrich's, but it just lands with a thud along with the performances of the actors playing an eccentric scientist and an idiotic inspector. The costumes, props and set design are just ridiculously garish, and the film drags tediously.

Charming in an odd way

[walk_wild777 · 10/10 · 4 April 2007]

I give this movie a ten, simply because I love discovering odd, interesting little films like this that I could have went my whole life without seeing, but luckily stumbled upon it.

This movie is odd and campy. Don't view it if you're looking for a movie that will change your life. Because it won't. What a lot of reviewers have said is true. It is disjointed, and sometimes you can get lost because of the plot. However, the quirkiness kept me there until the end. A particular highlight is the performance of the Wajnberg brothers, Alexander and Marc-Henry, twins playing the vampire sons of "Countess Dracula". But despite it's problems, this movie does have a very strange charm to it.

I don't recommend this movie for serious viewing, even as comedy (which is what it is). I recommend viewing this film with others that enjoy camp. The more people you watch the movie with, the better it becomes.

adding this to my faves

[dodoontherocks · 10/10 · 23 October 2006]

Mama Dracula was in a stack of 50 horror flicks that I had available for viewing over the weekend. It was the only one I watched through to the end. I loved it. The Wanjberg brothers were the highlights and I will seek out all of the rest of their films. Granted, the movie could've been pulled together a bit more, but considering the genre, I LOVED it.

I intend to put this film somewhere in my top ten favorites. Louise Fletcher was great and the storyline was fun.

I wish I could see this in a cinema on the large screen. The sound on my DVD left a bit to be desired. Guess I just need to find someone with a large screen TV.

Worse than its Reputation

[Michael_Elliott · 30 October 2008]

Mama Dracula (1980)

BOMB (out of 4)

Oscar winner Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and Oscar nominee Maria Schneider (Last Tango in Paris) star in this Belgian horror/comedy that has to be one of the worst films ever made. In a mixture of the Dracula and Elizabeth Bathory stories, Fletcher plays a female Dracula who needs to take a bath in the blood of virgins in order to live. Her two gay sons own a clothing store that keeps them supplied but it's getting harder and harder to find virgins in today's times. Man, oh man what a horrible film this one turned out to be. This was a minor holy grail to me as I've been wanting to see it for ages just to see if it was really as bad as the reputation that goes with it. It's every bit as bad and I'd say it's even worse than any of the reviews I've read for it. I'm really not sure what the hell they were going for or how they got Fletcher to star in this but the movie is a complete misfire from the opening scenes to the very last. There's plenty of slapstick and silly situations but I didn't laugh a single time nor did I ever crack a smile. The story makes very little sense and it appears that the screenwriter was a drunk because the movie jumps all over the place so much that you can't help but wonder what they're trying to do. As for Fletcher, believe it or not she comes off fairly well and never embarrasses herself too much. She's seems to be playing everything straight as if the producer's didn't tell her this was a spoof. Maria Schneider, like the rest of the cast, comes off horrible. The "wirgins" gag from Blood for Dracula is ripped off here but that doesn't even get a laugh here. There's plenty of naked women but not even that can save this turkey.