Killer Barbys vs. Dracula (2002)

User Rating:

2.1/10   

Director:

Jesus Franco

Writers:

Jesus Franco (screenplay)
Jesus Franco (story)

Genre:

Horror | Comedy | Music

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Vampire Hunter | Blind Hero | Punk Rock Girl | Rock Group | Punk Rock Music

Cast

Silvia Superstar	...	Silvia
Enrique Sarasola	...	Count Dracula (as Kike Sarasola)
Dan van Husen	...	Dr. Seward
Aldo Sambrell	...	Pepe Morgan (as Aldo Sanbrell)
Bela B. Felsenheimer	...	Bela Blasko Lugosi
Billy King	...	Billy
Lina Romay	...	Irina von Karstein
Katja Bienert	...	Katja van Barenboim
Pietro Martellanza	...	Dracula (as Peter Martell)
Carsten Frank	...	Albinus
Sandra Ibarra	...	Selena
Fata Morgana	...	Puri
Carmen Montes	...	Carmen
Paul Lapidus	...	Martin Fierro
Viktor Seastrom	...	Ivan Ivanovich

Also Known As:

Killer Barbys contra Dracula (Spain)
Killer Barbys vs. Dracula (Germany) (DVD title)

Runtime:

Germany:86 min | USA:90 min (DVD)

Country:

Spain | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15 | Germany:16 (DVD rating) | USA:Unrated (DVD rating) | Germany:12

Company:

Impacto Films

Movie Connections:

Follows Killer Barbys (1996)

Soundtrack:

Mystery Land

An interesting cast, but otherwise strictly amateur hour for Jess Franco

It's ironic a director like Jess Franco who has been making films for more than forty years now has been reduced to the kind of ultra-low-budget, shot-on-video projects like this usually associated with first-time amateurs. It's also ironic that the guy that once helmed what was supposed to be the definitive version of Bram Stokers "Dracula" with Christopher Lee (although many of Lee's Hammer Dracula movies were vastly superior to Franco's 1969 version) would make something like this that is laughably bad even for a spoof.

For no apparent reason, a woman (Lina Romay) has brought Dracula's coffin to a Spanish western theme park where the Killer Barbys (a punk band that kind of resembles an Iberian version of The Cramps) are performing. "Dracula" awakens and puts the bite on the park's fake Dracula and a pesky reporter (Katja Beinert) before becoming infatuated with the Barby's lead singer, Sylvia Superstar (can't really blame him there). This is actually a better vehicle for the Barbys than their first collaboration with Franco. They get to play a lot more of their music, which may not be to everyone's taste, but is FAR better than their acting. And Sylvia Superstar certainly adds a lot of sex appeal with her husky Spanish accent and her ridiculously skimpy wardrobe. This is good because otherwise there is a real lack of anything resembling sex or nudity --and a Franco film without sex and nudity is like a tall glass of water without the water.

Lina Romay, Franco's wife and long-time collaborator, actually keeps her clothes on for a change, which is probably for the best as she was pushing fifty here. It's interesting to see Katja Beinert, who was kind of the German version of Traci Lords in the early 80's, except that instead of appearing in actually pornography, she only appeared in several sleazy Franco "nudie" movies and a couple German "schoolgirl report" films. Like Traci Lords, Beinert apparently STOPPED doing nude scenes when she turned 18, but the bigger problem in this movie perhaps is her ridiculous reporter character who interviews everybody (the fake Dracula, the real Dracula, etc) EXCEPT the Killer Barbys. This might be because her scenes seem to have been shot almost completely separately from everybody else's. The same is true of the great Spaghetti western character actor Aldo Sambrelli who is totally wasted here as an elderly suitor of Silvia Superstar (trust me, she would probably kill the old guy in thirty seconds if he actually got her into bed).

This movie definitely has an interesting cast, but otherwise it is strictly amateur hour for Franco.