Michael Pate stars as Drake Robey, a gunslinger who dresses all in black. After he sets up a plan for himself in a small western town, he starts to make his move on a young woman named Dolores Carter (Kathleen Crowley) who owns a large ranch that was once owned by Robey's family.
Dolores has a boyfriend named Dan (Eric Fleming) who happens to be a preacher. Robey is, of course, a vampire who wants both the ranch and Dolores for his own. Dan suspects that something is very wrong and after the death of Dolores' father Dr. Carter (John Hoyt) he discovers a diary and some papers that reveal Robey's true identity.
Soon it's time for Dan and Drake to have a shootout, with surprising results. This was actually the first film to combine the western genre with horror and it works very, very well. There are the usual western set pieces including cattle rustling, gun fights and romance and the horror elemnets are played somewhat low key.
For example, Robey does not have fangs and he can be out in the daylight even though the sun hurts his eyes. This was Pate's only starring role and he makes the most of it in a performance that is full of both horror and sympathy.
The cast is top notch and everyone does an excellent job with the material directed by Edward Dein from a script by himself and his wife Mildred. I fell in love with this film the first time I saw it and have waited for YEARS for it to come out on disc. I used to own the VHS and now I have finally gotten the Blu-ray.
The film looks magnificent thanks to the pros at Kino. This is easily one of the top release for 2020 and it should be a no brainer to add the stunning disc to your horror collection.
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