Toho Kingdom

Does anyone know whether or not Toho's vampire films ( i.e., The Vampire Doll ( 1970 ), Lake of Dracula ( 1971 ) and Evil of Dracula ( 1974 ) ) have ever been released in the U.S.? I really don't know that much about them and even Wikipedia has no articles about any of them. Any and all information would be most appreciated. Thank you. UPDATE: I think I remember seeing in an old British book on horror movies from the 1970s that at least one of them-Lake of Dracula-made it to the U.K. Other than that, I know nothing more. Is there anyone out there that can help me out on this subject?

To my knowledge they were released, but the title for the first one got changed to "The Night of the Vampire" or "Fear of the Ghost House: Bloodsucking Doll".

I heard somebody say vampires. I'm very interested in this now. Any releases on video that anybody knows of?

Found this on eBay, if anyone is interested:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VAMPIRE-DOLL-19 ... Sw3v5Yqx4c
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LAKE-OF-DRACULA ... Swr~lYqx9E
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVIL-OF-DRACULA ... SwWxNYqx~v
Guy's from France, but ships worldwide and has a lot of japanese films with english subtitles.
Never bought from him, but it looks like he has a good rating on eBay.

Destorogoji wrote:Found this on eBay, if anyone is interested:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VAMPIRE-DOLL-19 ... Sw3v5Yqx4c
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LAKE-OF-DRACULA ... Swr~lYqx9E
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVIL-OF-DRACULA ... SwWxNYqx~v
Guy's from France, but ships worldwide and has a lot of japanese films with english subtitles.
Never bought from him, but it looks like he has a good rating on eBay.

The trilogy was released in the U.K. on DVD, but they use Region 2 and the transfer was non-anamorphic and would have suffered from the PAL speedup. Of course, the Toho Region 2 DVD was anamorphic but had no subtitles.

Desghidorah wrote:To my knowledge they were released, but the title for the first one got changed to "The Night of the Vampire" or "Fear of the Ghost House: Bloodsucking Doll".

Thanks a lot! It's good to know that they did make it here, but if anyone could, please give me more details, i.e., U.S. titles and years of release, which companies released them, if they were released to theaters or directly to TV, etc.

I bought all three last year via bootleg. Very good quality though as usual from this vendor. I recommend getting them. Strange movies.

Now I'm interested in how Toho handles vampires. Any impressions on these?

mikelcho wrote: Thanks a lot! It's good to know that they did make it here, but if anyone could, please give me more details, i.e., U.S. titles and years of release, which companies released them, if they were released to theaters or directly to TV, etc.

The Vampire Doll has never been released in the U.S. It probably played at Toho-owned cinemas in California, subtitled, but it's never seen wide release. There have been some theories why it was never released here. I think the strongest of these is that it's just too short (70 minutes) for TV.

The sequels were picked up by UPA for television, being released under their international titles (Lake of Dracula and Evil of Dracula, respectively). Both of these were more or less Toho's original international versions, although they're edited to remove some of the blood and nudity. I'm not sure exactly when these first showed up on TV here: it's possible they were being shown by 1981, but I've never seen definitive proof. These tv versions were released by Paramount on VHS in 1994. That's presently the only official way to see either film in the U.S. today.

IMO, Vampire Doll is probably the best of the three movies. Come on, it features a young Akira Nakao (Aso from the Heisei series)!

Terasawa wrote:

mikelcho wrote: Thanks a lot! It's good to know that they did make it here, but if anyone could, please give me more details, i.e., U.S. titles and years of release, which companies released them, if they were released to theaters or directly to TV, etc.

The Vampire Doll has never been released in the U.S. It probably played at Toho-owned cinemas in California, subtitled, but it's never seen wide release. There have been some theories why it was never released here. I think the strongest of these is that it's just too short (70 minutes) for TV.

The sequels were picked up by UPA for television, being released under their international titles (Lake of Dracula and Evil of Dracula, respectively). Both of these were more or less Toho's original international versions, although they're edited to remove some of the blood and nudity. I'm not sure exactly when these first showed up on TV here: it's possible they were being shown by 1981, but I've never seen definitive proof. These tv versions were released by Paramount on VHS in 1994. That's presently the only official way to see either film in the U.S. today.

Thanks! That's a big help. I only wish that all three could be released on DVD or Blu-ray or both in unedited versions with subtitles. Maybe the next big project for Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock, hmmmm? Pretty please, guys?

Added in 10 hours 40 minutes 34 seconds:
Just thought of something else that I need to know about these films...was the order of release in Japan 1) Space Amoeba and The Vampire Doll in that order, or the other way around? 2) Godzilla vs. Hedorah and Lake of Dracula in that order, or the other way around? 3) Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Evil of Dracula in that order, or the other way around? The TK articles on the trilogy don't give release dates (I think) for them and of course, there's no Wikipedia articles on them. Any help would, again, be greatly appreciated.

mikelcho wrote:Just thought of something else that I need to know about these films...was the order of release in Japan 1) Space Amoeba and The Vampire Doll in that order, or the other way around? 2) Godzilla vs. Hedorah and Lake of Dracula in that order, or the other way around? 3) Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Evil of Dracula in that order, or the other way around? The TK articles on the trilogy don't give release dates (I think) for them and of course, there's no Wikipedia articles on them. Any help would, again, be greatly appreciated.

A simple IMDB search provides the answers.

1. Vampire Doll was released on July 4th, and Space Amoeba on August 1st of 1970.
2. Lake of Dracula was released on June 16th, and Hedorah on July 24th of 1971.
3. GvsMG was released on March 21st, and Evil of Dracula on July 20th of 1974.

Thanks. That helps a lot.

Added in 7 months 23 days 3 hours 43 minutes 23 seconds:
Well, the Bloodthirsty trilogy is finally coming to Blu-ray here at last! You know that I'm going to get this!

Added in 4 months 23 days 4 hours 41 minutes 48 seconds:
Well, I'm going to order the The Bloodthirsty Trilogy Blu-ray tomorrow! Can't wait to get it!

I find these movies to be highly enjoyable, and they will be part of my Halloween movie watching this year.

Just ordered it this afternoon. I'll be waiting with bells on!

UPDATE: it should be arriving in the mail at my house on Friday.

UPDATE 2: Make that Saturday.

UPDATE 3: It came in on Friday (8-31-18) after all! Yaaaaahoo!

Added in 4 months 11 days 18 hours 54 minutes 14 seconds:
A few weeks ago, I finally watched The Bloodthirsty Trilogy and it was excellent!

All three of them were uniquely Japanese, with a touch of Hammeresque elements thrown in. In fact, they look like a cross between Hammer and Toho if both of them had done such a thing back in the day.

mikelcho wrote:Just ordered it this afternoon. I'll be waiting with bells on!

UPDATE: it should be arriving in the mail at my house on Friday.

UPDATE 2: Make that Saturday.

UPDATE 3: It came in on Friday (8-31-18) after all! Yaaaaahoo!

Added in 4 months 11 days 18 hours 54 minutes 14 seconds:
A few weeks ago, I finally watched The Bloodthirsty Trilogy and it was excellent!

All three of them were uniquely Japanese, with a touch of Hammeresque elements thrown in. In fact, they look like a cross between Hammer and Toho if both of them had done such a thing back in the day.

Makes the death of the Toho/Hammer Nessie sting even more huh? Lake was my favorite of the three.

Are these worth watching/trying to hunt down?

LSD Jellyfish wrote:Are these worth watching/trying to hunt down?

Well you have a whole page of people saying how much they like the films. So yes. Hunt it down

LSD Jellyfish wrote:Are these worth watching/trying to hunt down?

If you have Amazon Prime, very little hunting is required, as you can stream them for free.

eabaker wrote:

LSD Jellyfish wrote:Are these worth watching/trying to hunt down?

If you have Amazon Prime, very little hunting is required, as you can stream them for free.

Dubbed or Subbed?