The Return of the Vampire1943

Name: The Return of the Vampire
Genre: Vampire, Werewolf, Classic Monsters, Gothic
Released: 1943-11-11
Rating: 6.6

“The Vampire's Prey... a Beautiful Girl! Compelled to follow his commands! The blood of her fiancé on his hands! How can she escape the vampire?”

Directed by Lew Landers

6.6

Crypt Score

Blended from 3 sources

IMDb 6.2Rotten Tomatoes 86%TMDB 6.1

✍ Review

On the charts

#14·Top Werewolf Films

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Year

1943

Runtime

69 min

Box Office

Budget

$75,000

Revenue (worldwide)

$1,090,000

Domestic

$1,090,000

The premise

In 1918, an English family is terrorized by a vampire, until they learn how to deal with it. They think their troubles are over, but German bombs in WWII free the monster. He reclaims the soul of his wolfman ex-servant, and assuming the identity of a scientist who has just escaped from a concentration camp, he starts out on a plan to get revenge upon the family.

Horror Vault's take

When German bombing raids over London inadvertently disturb a long-buried evil, a cunning vampire rises again after decades of dormancy — and he's nursing a grudge. Disguising himself among the living and wielding sinister hypnotic influence over a monstrous servant, he sets his sights on the family that once brought him low. Set against the backdrop of the London Blitz, this 1943 Universal-era chiller blends wartime dread with old-world monster menace. Bela Lugosi commands the screen in a role clearly designed to echo his iconic Dracula, delivering gothic atmosphere in spades.

Content: Vampire Violence, Mild Horror Imagery, Hypnosis And Mind Control Themes