School's Out- and So Are Fangs - When Class Gets Dismissed for the “Blood of Dracula”- Tonight!

Tonight on MeTV- we bring 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! This teenage vamp puts a cramp on campus activities in “Blood of Dracula”!

In this 1957 chiller, we meet Nancy, unhappy about her life, especially since her father has, shortly after the death of Nancy’s mom, taken a rather nasty new bride. This circumstance and the unrest it has caused has now forced Nancy to go to a distant girls’ school, so father and his new mate can begin their lives together -without her.

Her first night at the Sherwood School for Girls is no picnic- a clique of popular girls, the “Birds of Paradise” invade her room and give her a hard time. Nancy actually passes their “test” by not ratting on them when the housemother comes in to check what all the noise is about! 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- she has a much better specimen of a boyfriend back home.

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, Myra suggests Nancy would be the perfect subject.

Miss Branding plans a nasty mishap in her next chemistry class that will allow her to have a one-on-one meeting with Nancy. 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 is possesses great and unusual power. Branding puts Nancy into a hypnotic trance- and places the poor unaware girl under her control!

This control becomes evident the night of a “Birds of Paradise” party where some uninvited male guests sneak in 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 her all 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.

Perhaps soon they will have to- 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. 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 along another 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- complete in Freddy Krueger make-up! Plus- we do have a much-requested revisit with a Dracula-like duck hunting family.

“Blood of Dracula” runs tonight ( blood usually runs in these movies) 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 during the show, using the hashtag #svengoolie – and you are welcome to join in! Chicago area viewers can also once again go ape over “Konga” this morning on CW26 at 11 am.

Make sure you check under the “appearances” tab here on our website- for the info on my live guest appearance next Tuesday night at Zanies in Rosemont, IL, for Nick Digilio’s podcast ( now with a new special “buy one, get one” ticket deal!)- and the schedule for our visits to the C2E2 comics and entertainment convention next Friday and Saturday!

Tonight, though, you will have to stick to our lesson plan- which could lessen your blood count!