The Vampire Doll (1970)

Effectively creepy spin on the vampire mythos

The first entry in Toho's Bloodthirsty trilogy, The Vampire Doll, is an aspiring and brilliantly atmospheric spin on the classic vampire mythos. It has all the gothic trappings you'd expect from its Western counterparts while retaining all the eccentricities that come with Japanese filmmaking. A slow-burning and technically fantastic film, Director Michio Yamamoto tells his grisly story with a cool taciturn detachment, with plenty of scares lurking around the bend, some of it even hair-raising. Moody photography and classy art direction sell the isolated mansion setting with eerie grace and although the relatively simple story may not be anything new, it is written exceptionally well and told at a steady pace to keep maximum attention, the fantastic performances from the cast certainly help to sell it. The film's dark spot for me is Riichirō Manabe's score, while ominous, melodic and gloomy it feels overly repetitive and cheap. Fantastically made and brightly hued, The Vampire Doll is not entirely faultless but for fans of old-school atmospheric scares, it's a corker.

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