There are few characters which have been portrayed on movie extra incessantly than Dracula. Nearly each potential angle has been exhausted – from Dracula 3000 taking him to area to Mel Brooks spoofing the story in Dracula: Lifeless and Loving It. A current Dracula incarnation, Renfield, starring Nicholas Hoult and Nicolas Cage shifts the main focus from the Depend to his devoted servant. The Final Voyage of the Demeter, which hit theaters this summer season and stars Corey Hawkins and 2023 king David Dastmalchian, adapts a single chapter from Bram Stoker‘s well-known 1897 novel. Nevertheless, essentially the most left-field method is in William Beaudine’s Billy the Child Versus Dracula from 1966. Starring John Carradine because the titular vampire, this unusual and distinctive entry within the huge vampiric catalog pits Dracula in opposition to famed gunslinger Billy the Child in a battle to avoid wasting Billy’s fiancée from the clutches of the undead.

John Carradine Regrets ‘Billy the Child Versus Dracula’

On the face of it, the mix of components doesn’t make a lick of sense. That first intuition might be the proper one as a result of Billy the Child Versus Dracula is borderline nonsensical. Nevertheless, there’s a way of congruency within the characters of Billy the Child and Dracula in that each have been already mainstays in widespread tradition. In reality, Billy’s story was tailored to movie twice in 1911, greater than a decade earlier than Bram Stoker’s novel was first tailored as Nosferatu. Billy the Child has dwindled in recognition because the Western fell out of favor in Hollywood whereas Dracula has stayed robust, however in 1966, they have been all Beaudine wanted them to be: identify recognition with no copyright.

Filmed back-to-back with the equally ridiculous Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter in simply eight days, Billy the Child Versus Dracula has the doubtful honor of being the one film prolific character actor John Carradine regrets showing in. In accordance with Johnny D. Boggs‘ e book Billy the Child on Movie, 1911 – 2012, the patriarch of the Carradine performing household stated, “I’ve labored in a dozen of the best, and I’ve labored in a dozen of the worst. I solely remorse Billy the Child Versus Dracula. In any other case, I remorse nothing.” Regardless of this withering evaluation, Carradine was an excellent alternative for the half, having performed the character beforehand in each Home of Frankenstein and Home of Dracula, bringing a degree of ham that manages to undercut the self-serious tone of the film.

‘Billy the Child Versus Dracula’ Isn’t Attempting To Be Humorous (However It Nonetheless Is)

The opening moments of Billy the Child Versus Dracula trick the viewers into pondering that the filmmakers could be leaning into the comedy. Specializing in a household of German settlers sleeping within the open expanse of the Previous West, the mom wakes up from a way of unease and a really awful-looking bat overhead. The one smart factor to do right here is to offer your daughter a cross due to course there’s a vampire about! The humorous half is that she’s proper, with Carradine showing over the lady with bug eyes, a high hat, and a cape. The cross saves her, however not earlier than he will get a chew in. That is adopted by the title showing in massive letters throughout the display screen and credit that characteristic a bat silhouette as a display screen wipe. This all appears like it’s performed for laughs, however from this level on, the comedy is solely unintentional.

Among the many funniest scenes is one with an outdated woman inviting Dracula to go to her ranch after he exhibits a disgusting degree of curiosity in her daughter. They’re in a stagecoach along with a whiskey salesman and her brother who (and that is shockingly key to the plot) the daughter has by no means met. Dracula basically ignores his touring companions till he’s proven an image of the younger woman, at which level he activates the allure and will get extremely creepy: “18 and delightful? Sure, I’d like to see her.” So, what’s a vampire to do on this state of affairs? Rile up an area tribe of Native People by killing a younger lady, prompting them to assault the stagecoach and kill all inside in order that he can impersonate the uncle. It is what anybody would do!

‘Billy the Child Versus Dracula’ Sticks to Vampire Tropes When It’s Handy

This leads Dracula into the trail of reformed outlaw Billy the Child (Chuck Courtney), who has given up a lifetime of crime to work as a ranch hand and is now engaged to none apart from the younger woman Dracula is obsessive about, Betty Bentley (Melinda Plowman). It’s not made solely clear, however presumably, the movie is indulging the idea that Billy the Child survived the showdown with Pat Garrett and turned his life round. The arrival of Betty’s “uncle” is all smiles till that German household from the opening turns up on the town with tales of vampires and Dracula finishes the job and kills their daughter. From right here, it’s all wolfsbane on home windows because the German household convinces Billy that the creepy man residing with them is probably not who he says he’s.

RELATED: It’s Time for Dracula To Be a part of the MCU

The city physician, referred to by Dracula as a “backwoods feminine pillslinger,” by some means has vampire info in a medical e book. Medication within the late 1800s wasn’t unbelievable, however this looks as if a stretch. Nevertheless, this plot contrivance does result in the one solution to show that Dracula is a vampire – a scarcity of reflection. This is among the hallmarks of vampire cinema that’s maintained, with a lot of the different traditional tropes being ignored or half-implemented. At first, it looks as if Dracula solely travels at night time, which might make sense, however then he’s in daylight principally for the remainder of the movie. He by no means must be invited right into a home to enter and the effectiveness of crosses is sketchy at greatest. On the flip aspect, he can flip right into a bat and have to be killed by a stake via the center, and bullets don’t harm him, however a gun thrown at his face will knock him out! Beaudine could not have put a lot thought into the vampiric lore right here.

‘Billy the Child Versus Dracula’ Is the Worst Model of the Vampire

Among the many virtually uncountable variety of depictions on movie, lots of that are nice, you’d be hard-pressed to search out an inferior film. Diversifications of the character vary from the blaxploitation traditional Blacula, to extra simple takes like Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and each type of reimagining in between. Billy the Child Versus Dracula isn’t simply the worst Dracula film as a result of it has a foolish idea or as a result of it has a nasty script. The worst factor in regards to the movie is that it seems like they didn’t even attempt to make film. Nonetheless, it’s arduous to be mad at a film that features Dracula being pistol-whipped.