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| A poster for Evil of Dracula on display at the National Film Archive of Japan. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
This afternoon (Wednesday, December 14), I took in a screening of the Toho horror classic Evil of Dracula (1974), one of my favorite horror films. The screening was part of the Film Archive's program called "The 90th Anniversary of Toho: A Film History of Modernization and Innovation [Part 2]," which ends on December 25. This will be the only film of this program that I'll see, but what a film it is to see!
This wasn't the first time for me to see it theatrically in 35mm, and hopefully it won't be the last. It's incredibly atmospheric with a great performance by Shin Kishida as the titular vampire. The late actress Mio Ota (a.k.a. Izuhi Higashioka) also gave an excellent performance as student-turned-vampire Yukiko Mitamura, and I especially enjoyed seeing her work on the big screen. I was privileged to meet her about a year before her sudden passing, and she was as big a sweetheart as I've ever met.
The film has some minor flaws, but they aren't really worth mentioning, as they don't affect the overall quality of the film. I wish Toho made more gothic horror movies like this one, but we'll just have to cherish the ones we have.
I was particularly pleased to discover that more sci-fi/horror screenings will be happening early next year, which is the perfect way to kick off the New Year. I can't wait to attend those screenings, too, which I will post about here when they happen.
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