Obviously, Dracula in Istanbul is a Turkish version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It’s based on Ali Riza Seyfi’s Kazıklı Voyvoda (Impaler Voivode), which is nearly a translation of the Stoker book the Mina Harker analogue being a showgirl named Güzin.

It’s also the first Dracula movie to explicitly show his fangs and also the first film to link Dracula with Vlad the Impaler.

A lawyer named Azmi travels to Romania for real estate business with Count Dracula, who is feared by everyone who hears his name. Much like the Universal adaption, Dracula welcomes him to his castle and even says the line, “Listen to them— the children of the night!” as wolves howl. Azmi is attacked by vampiric women, watches the Count scale down the walls of his castle and even empties his gun into the man himself with no reaction before he runs.

His wife Güzin is awaiting his return when she sees four men carrying a coffin filled with dirt from Romania. Dracula soon has his way with her best friend Sadan, eventually turning Sadan and giving her mother a heart attack. Where this film differs somewhat from the expected story is that it seems like garlic plays more of a role in stopping the vampire. That’s because this was made in an Islamic country where crucifixes wouldn’t make sense.

Directed by Mehmet Muhtar, who wrote the screenplay with Turgut Demirag and Ümit Deniz, this has some incredibly ingenious ways of getting effects, like thirty crew members chainsmoking to create fog.

You can learn more about this movie from the always incredible Deja View. You can also purchase a digital version of the film here.