Nocturna
1979·Comedy·1h 25m
7.1
★
Hard times have fallen on the Transylvanian House of Dracula. To help pay the taxes, Castle Dracula has been converted into the Hotel Transylvania. Dracula himself is aging and toothless, being cared for by his granddaughter Nocturna. When Nocturna books a disco group to play The Claret Room and winds up falling in love with one of the backup guitarists, a mortal named Jimmy, she notices that she is able to see her reflection when she dances, so she decides to follow Jimmy to New York in search of mortality.
Directed by Harry Hurwitz
vampire
disco
disco dancing
dracula
Trailer
IMDB
N/A
Cast
John Carradine
Count Dracula
Yvonne De Carlo
Jugulia Vein
Theodore Gottlieb
Theodore
Sy Richardson
RH Factor
Antony Hamilton
Jimmy
Monica Tidwell
Brenda
Al Sapienza
Musician
Jerry Sroka
Musician
John Blyth Barrymore
Punk Vampire
Irwin Keyes
Transylvania Character
Crew
Mac Ahlberg
Director of Photography
Robert Harmon
Still Photographer
Joel Goldsmith
Sound Recordist
David Boyd
Second Assistant Camera
Stefan Czapsky
Gaffer
Popular Reviews
3 reviews
jamblo
6.0★ · 06/02/26
Holy moly, how to even address this?
Let's start with the fact that it is outrageous that I had to watch this on YouTube, dubbed, I'm assuming, from a VHS that had been left in a mud hole.
Next up, let's briefly discuss the notion that a belly dancer (star Nia Binet) came up with a story, founded a production company, and convinced (paid?) both Yvonne de Carlo and John Carradine to put in appearances in order to get this made. Oh, and spent nearly a third of the budget on music licensing (if IMDb is to be believed).
So what is the story you ask? Well, see, Dracula's granddaughter (the titular Nocturna) has, times being tough, revamped her grandpappy's Transylvanian castle into a hotel and has booked NYC-based disco act Moment of Truth (they were a real group -- look 'em up) for a performance in the lounge. While they are rehearsing, she and guitar player Jimmy (he wasn't in the real band) do some awkward, jerking, and spinally questionable 'dancing' which naturally results in her falling in love with him and announcing she's following him to the Big Apple, which promptly she does (apparently taking a horse-drawn carriage to Transylvania International Airport). Once there, she moves in with her aunt in a crypt under the Brooklyn Bridge (the real one -- the production somehow convinced the city to open up a section that had been sealed for decades!), hooks with the local chapter of the BSA (Bloodsuckers of America, dontcha know), wanders about town, and hits the clubs for more dancing. Meanwhile, old Drac, being none too happy at this turn of events, heads to town with the hotel desk clerk (the Renfield of the piece), played by monologuist-come-performance artist Brother Theodore (also a real guy, look him up), to quash the romance.
Before you ask, no, it isn't good, but it more than pays the bills with jaw-dropping nuttiness. There's animated bats, time-stops, voice-overs, Brother Theodore spouting baffling proto-Incel nonsense directly to camera, a scene of belly dancing star/producer/etc Bonet in full costume walking through Times Square, miked up and filmed from a moving car, as she fends of non-actors, discussions of how kids today eat such terrible sugary food that it's causing the diabetic vampires trouble and, separately, the 'best' art of the latter Ming dynasty, and, well, I'm kind of only scratching the surface. And it's all set to Gloria Gaynor, Vicki Sue Robinson, and others.
Prolly worth mentioning that there's a lot of topless female nudity going on here (even on YouTube), that Bonet spends nearly the entire movie with a slightly terrifying full-on smile plastered across her face (sorta like the smiling-based horror movie from a couple of years ago, I guess -- I dunno, though, I didn't see it), and that Sy Richardson (soon to be of Alex Cox's world) seems to be having a grand time, selling all the vamps on his snortable, powdered blood cell concoction.
You should probably just watch it yourself.
Let's start with the fact that it is outrageous that I had to watch this on YouTube, dubbed, I'm assuming, from a VHS that had been left in a mud hole.
Next up, let's briefly discuss the notion that a belly dancer (star Nia Binet) came up with a story, founded a production company, and convinced (paid?) both Yvonne de Carlo and John Carradine to put in appearances in order to get this made. Oh, and spent nearly a third of the budget on music licensing (if IMDb is to be believed).
So what is the story you ask? Well, see, Dracula's granddaughter (the titular Nocturna) has, times being tough, revamped her grandpappy's Transylvanian castle into a hotel and has booked NYC-based disco act Moment of Truth (they were a real group -- look 'em up) for a performance in the lounge. While they are rehearsing, she and guitar player Jimmy (he wasn't in the real band) do some awkward, jerking, and spinally questionable 'dancing' which naturally results in her falling in love with him and announcing she's following him to the Big Apple, which promptly she does (apparently taking a horse-drawn carriage to Transylvania International Airport). Once there, she moves in with her aunt in a crypt under the Brooklyn Bridge (the real one -- the production somehow convinced the city to open up a section that had been sealed for decades!), hooks with the local chapter of the BSA (Bloodsuckers of America, dontcha know), wanders about town, and hits the clubs for more dancing. Meanwhile, old Drac, being none too happy at this turn of events, heads to town with the hotel desk clerk (the Renfield of the piece), played by monologuist-come-performance artist Brother Theodore (also a real guy, look him up), to quash the romance.
Before you ask, no, it isn't good, but it more than pays the bills with jaw-dropping nuttiness. There's animated bats, time-stops, voice-overs, Brother Theodore spouting baffling proto-Incel nonsense directly to camera, a scene of belly dancing star/producer/etc Bonet in full costume walking through Times Square, miked up and filmed from a moving car, as she fends of non-actors, discussions of how kids today eat such terrible sugary food that it's causing the diabetic vampires trouble and, separately, the 'best' art of the latter Ming dynasty, and, well, I'm kind of only scratching the surface. And it's all set to Gloria Gaynor, Vicki Sue Robinson, and others.
Prolly worth mentioning that there's a lot of topless female nudity going on here (even on YouTube), that Bonet spends nearly the entire movie with a slightly terrifying full-on smile plastered across her face (sorta like the smiling-based horror movie from a couple of years ago, I guess -- I dunno, though, I didn't see it), and that Sy Richardson (soon to be of Alex Cox's world) seems to be having a grand time, selling all the vamps on his snortable, powdered blood cell concoction.
You should probably just watch it yourself.
Holy moly, how to even address this?
Let's start with the fact that it is outrageous that I had to watch this on YouTube, dubbed, I'm assuming, from a VHS that had been left in a mud hole.
Next up, let's briefly discuss the notion that a belly dancer (star Nia Binet) came up with a story, founded a production company, and convinced (paid?) both Yvonne de Carlo and John Carradine to put in appearances in order to get this made. Oh, and spent nearly a third of the budget on music licensing (if IMDb is to be believed).
So what is the story you ask? Well, see, Dracula's granddaughter (the titular Nocturna) has, times being tough, revamped her grandpappy's Transylvanian castle into a hotel and has booked NYC-based disco act Moment of Truth (they were a real group -- look 'em up) for a performance in the lounge. While they are rehearsing, she and guitar player Jimmy (he wasn't in the real band) do some awkward, jerking, and spinally questionable 'dancing' which naturally results in her falling in love with him and announcing she's following him to the Big Apple, which promptly she does (apparently taking a horse-drawn carriage to Transylvania International Airport). Once there, she moves in with her aunt in a crypt under the Brooklyn Bridge (the real one -- the production somehow convinced the city to open up a section that had been sealed for decades!), hooks with the local chapter of the BSA (Bloodsuckers of America, dontcha know), wanders about town, and hits the clubs for more dancing. Meanwhile, old Drac, being none too happy at this turn of events, heads to town with the hotel desk clerk (the Renfield of the piece), played by monologuist-come-performance artist Brother Theodore (also a real guy, look him up), to quash the romance.
Before you ask, no, it isn't good, but it more than pays the bills with jaw-dropping nuttiness. There's animated bats, time-stops, voice-overs, Brother Theodore spouting baffling proto-Incel nonsense directly to camera, a scene of belly dancing star/producer/etc Bonet in full costume walking through Times Square, miked up and filmed from a moving car, as she fends of non-actors, discussions of how kids today eat such terrible sugary food that it's causing the diabetic vampires trouble and, separately, the 'best' art of the latter Ming dynasty, and, well, I'm kind of only scratching the surface. And it's all set to Gloria Gaynor, Vicki Sue Robinson, and others.
Prolly worth mentioning that there's a lot of topless female nudity going on here (even on YouTube), that Bonet spends nearly the entire movie with a slightly terrifying full-on smile plastered across her face (sorta like the smiling-based horror movie from a couple of years ago, I guess -- I dunno, though, I didn't see it), and that Sy Richardson (soon to be of Alex Cox's world) seems to be having a grand time, selling all the vamps on his snortable, powdered blood cell concoction.
You should probably just watch it yourself.
Let's start with the fact that it is outrageous that I had to watch this on YouTube, dubbed, I'm assuming, from a VHS that had been left in a mud hole.
Next up, let's briefly discuss the notion that a belly dancer (star Nia Binet) came up with a story, founded a production company, and convinced (paid?) both Yvonne de Carlo and John Carradine to put in appearances in order to get this made. Oh, and spent nearly a third of the budget on music licensing (if IMDb is to be believed).
So what is the story you ask? Well, see, Dracula's granddaughter (the titular Nocturna) has, times being tough, revamped her grandpappy's Transylvanian castle into a hotel and has booked NYC-based disco act Moment of Truth (they were a real group -- look 'em up) for a performance in the lounge. While they are rehearsing, she and guitar player Jimmy (he wasn't in the real band) do some awkward, jerking, and spinally questionable 'dancing' which naturally results in her falling in love with him and announcing she's following him to the Big Apple, which promptly she does (apparently taking a horse-drawn carriage to Transylvania International Airport). Once there, she moves in with her aunt in a crypt under the Brooklyn Bridge (the real one -- the production somehow convinced the city to open up a section that had been sealed for decades!), hooks with the local chapter of the BSA (Bloodsuckers of America, dontcha know), wanders about town, and hits the clubs for more dancing. Meanwhile, old Drac, being none too happy at this turn of events, heads to town with the hotel desk clerk (the Renfield of the piece), played by monologuist-come-performance artist Brother Theodore (also a real guy, look him up), to quash the romance.
Before you ask, no, it isn't good, but it more than pays the bills with jaw-dropping nuttiness. There's animated bats, time-stops, voice-overs, Brother Theodore spouting baffling proto-Incel nonsense directly to camera, a scene of belly dancing star/producer/etc Bonet in full costume walking through Times Square, miked up and filmed from a moving car, as she fends of non-actors, discussions of how kids today eat such terrible sugary food that it's causing the diabetic vampires trouble and, separately, the 'best' art of the latter Ming dynasty, and, well, I'm kind of only scratching the surface. And it's all set to Gloria Gaynor, Vicki Sue Robinson, and others.
Prolly worth mentioning that there's a lot of topless female nudity going on here (even on YouTube), that Bonet spends nearly the entire movie with a slightly terrifying full-on smile plastered across her face (sorta like the smiling-based horror movie from a couple of years ago, I guess -- I dunno, though, I didn't see it), and that Sy Richardson (soon to be of Alex Cox's world) seems to be having a grand time, selling all the vamps on his snortable, powdered blood cell concoction.
You should probably just watch it yourself.
peter
2.0★ · 03/18/26
wow this was fucking amazing
wow this was fucking amazing
Michael
6.0★ · 03/18/26
genuinely an amazing cinematic experience with gang!! 🫶
"Is she never going to molest me?" 😔
"Is she never going to molest me?" 😔
genuinely an amazing cinematic experience with gang!! 🫶
"Is she never going to molest me?" 😔
"Is she never going to molest me?" 😔