WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Scott LeBrun A different spin on the classic vampire tale as well as a truly wonderful lead performance make this more than just your typical low budget genre picture of the time. Like many other movies of its kind, its script is talky for a while (and has a pretty fantastic premise), but it also has a solid and engaging horror quotient. The film can boast one stalking sequence and one murder set piece that are both reasonably effective.This viewer is partial to any movie featuring either Kenneth Tobey or Dabbs Greer, and since they're both here, that just makes "The Vampire" all the more enjoyable. John Beal has the starring role of Dr. Paul Beecher, a kindly physician who gets messed up when he mistakenly ingests some experimental regression-inducing pills instead of his normal migraine pills. The result: he mutates into a primal being (his makeup, however, is more suggestive of a werewolf than a vampire) that must kill. And, unfortunately, Paul finds that the pills are much too addictive.Beal is indeed excellent, delivering a heartfelt performance as the good man overcome by a dangerous force. You genuinely feel for this character, and fear for those close to him. Tobey is a delight as the perplexed heroic detective who aggressively pursues Paul's young nurse Carol (gorgeous Coleen Gray). In addition to Greer, the supporting cast is good and includes Lydia Reed as Paul's daughter, Herb Vigran as a cop, Paul Brinegar as a coroner, and the scene stealing James Griffith as an eccentric researcher.Up to par are the makeup effects devised by Donald W. Roberson, the appropriately flashy music score composed by Gerald Fried, and the crisp black & white photography by Jack MacKenzie.Overall, a satisfying little movie that clocks in at a tight 77 minute running time.Screenwriter Pat Fielder, producers Arthur Gardner & Jules V. Levy, and director Paul Landres reunited the following year for "The Return of Dracula".Seven out of 10.

Mark Honhorst In the 1950's, when most horror films had giant monsters running amok, this film attempts to revive the vampire as a serious form of horror entertainment, by mixing classic 30's horror elements with 50's Science Fiction camp. The result was this unsuccessful but nonetheless likable flick. The vampire in this film is unique as he doesn't live in a castle in Transylvania and he doesn't wear a black cloak. He is your typical small town doctor, a man you're supposed to trust and believe in. This is also unique because of the relationship between the father and his daughter. I was actually moved when he tells her she should go live with her aunt Sally, and she begins to cry. It was a surprisingly touching scene in a type of film that you believe should only be watched for camp value. It is filmed in glorious black and white, with a clean film transfer on an MGM "Midnite Movies" double feature. In short, this is underrated 1950's horror-scifi entertainment.

slayrrr666 "The Vampire" is an overall decent entry if not overly spectacular.**SPOILERS**Hearing of an accident, Dr. Paul Beecher, (John Beal) takes over the practice of a recently deceased friend and begins to start treating patients. When several of them start dying from mysterious deaths, Police Detective Buck, (Kenneth Tobey) finds that an epidemic may be on their hands. Researching the dead doctor's work, they find that he was experimenting with a radical new pill that would control behavior in the subjects, although none of them can find the results of the experiments. When the series of deaths continue, they finally find evidence that a vampire is behind the murders, and soon race to bring the deadly creature down.The Good News: This is a mildly decent entry in the genre. This is mostly memorable for it's new and original approach to the genre. This is brought on not by an ancestral curse or anything else, but rather by taking experimental pills that bring about a regressed state. That is a new one, and that gives the this one a little extra. The fact that the several on-screen attacks five some entertainment is nice. The main one near the end, where the shadowy figure chases a victim home, attempts to break in and then turns attention to a lone figure walking nearby in the dark. This quite chilling scene is atmospheric, quite creepy and handled the right way for this type of scene. A later revelation scene in a cemetery has some great atmosphere as well, with the actual reveal being quite chilling and looking really creepy. The mystery about what's going on is competently done as well, as several clues lead up to a decent mystery in the film. This is quite nice, and a great way to make this a decent overall film.The Bad News: This wasn't terrible, but did have some really healthy flaws. The biggest is that this one changes around the vampire myth to a really unhealthy degree. Though the creature still sucks blood from the neck, this one still changes the lore around quite often. The creature doesn't need to be killed with a stake through the heart, as it is brought down with bullets. The vampire can walk around in broad daylight. There's even a transformation like a werewolf, which is quite terrible effects wise and what he transforms into is only laughable. Even the classic theory where those bitten by the vampire come back as minions of the one who turned them doesn't get used in this one. That one here is just a part of how many vampire rules aren't a part of the film. The last big flaw is that there's no real activity early on. It's endless set-up with nothing going on and everything that happens is the finding of what happened off-screen. That really makes the beginning quite aggravating and also really dull. These here make the film feel quite ordinary.The Final Verdict: While not that bad, it's generally unwillingness to follow normal vampire guidelines is a little hard to swallow for the die-hards. Recommended to those in the mood for campy fun or are willing to expand what a vampire film should be like, while those who are die-hard followers of the tradition will find a lot to take this one apart.Today's Rating-PG: Violence

sol1218 (There are Spoilers)Delivering a package to the very overworked Dr. Campball's , Wood Romoff, lab Tommy the delivery boy, Brad Morrow, finds the doctor unconscious and on the brink of death. Running to get help Tommy gets the towns kindly and understanding doctor Beecher,John Beal, and he sadly declarers Dr. Campbell dead from a sudden heart-attack.While in the late Dr. Campbell's laboratory Dr. Beecher fools around with his latest experiment with regressing his subjects, bats and mice's, and unknowingly picks up a bottle of the doctor's regression pills. Back home suffering for brain-twisting migraines Dr. Beecher is given his headache pills by his 12 years old daughter Besty,Lydia Reed, as he suffers his latest attack and she gives her dad the wrong bottle; the regression instead of the headache pills that in fact was the cause of Dr. Campball's sudden death. It soon becomes apparent, to everyone but Dr. Beecher, that he's becoming a changed man. Changing from a man who was kind loving and caring to a violent savage who craves for human blood attacking his victims and infecting them with capillary disintegration after he bites them, but doesn't suck out their blood, in the neck.More like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of movie then anything that has to with with a vampire like it's title indicates "The Vampire" has poor and confused Dr. Beecher run around town killing people wherever his regression pills start to lose their effect on him. Needing his regression pills to keep him from going insane and becoming homicidal, as well as dead like Dr. Campbell, the doctor is torn between a rock and a hard place in walking the thin red line of sanity and insanity that the regression pills put him on.Soon the local cop Sheriff Buck Donnelly, Kenneth Tobey, starts to get suspicious of just what Dr. Beecher is all about, this after a number of his patients and associates end up dead. Dr. Beecher himself finally realizes that theirs something very wrong upstairs, in his troubled head, and in is own crazy way tries to correct it; by killing himself.Dr. Beecher is caught in the act at his doctors office by his nurse Carol Butler (Coleen Gray), who's very much in love with her widower and handsome boss, as he's trying to stick himself with a syringe loaded with a fatal solution of deadly chemicals. Both embarrassed and outraged at being exposed for the nut-case that he is, the doctor wanted to die with his secret life kept secret, he goes totally bananas, like the crazed doctor in the similar movie "the Neanderthal Man", chasing Carol outside into the woods in his attempt to murder her. Sheriff Donnally who by now had Dr. Beecher's number, in that he's the one who's been murdering people in town, rushes to the scene in order to both save Carol from Dr. Beecher and the doctor from himself by having him put away, in a mental institution, to be studied and, if possible, cured.Not wanting to be taken alive, being what he is what does he have to live for anyway, Dr. Beecher puts up a furious fight and just when it seems that he got the better of the brave but totally helpless lawman Sheriff Donnelly's assistant Sgt. Ryan, Herb Vigran, shows up and puts an end to Dr. Beechers reign of terror by emptying his gun into him.