EDITOR’S NOTE: The Vampire was on Chiller Theater on Saturday. December 28, 1968 at 1:00 a.m.

Directed by Paul Landres and written by Pat Fielder, who also collaborated on Return of Dracula, this film was also shown on TV as Mark of the Vampire. Dr. Paul Beecher (John Beel) gets his migraine meds screwed up with vampire pills. Yes, really, it’s his daughter Betsy’s (Lydia Reed) fault. His colleague, Dr. Campbell, had been trying to reverse the evolution of animals, and these pills are the result. In just a few hours, the doctor’s patients start to fear him, and some die, showing small holes in their necks.

So yes, according to this belief about scientific vampires, the doctor was “regressing animals’ minds to a primitive state, then reversing the process as a step toward advancing the intellect from its normal state.” He goes full vampire at one point and kills his college buddy, Dr. Will Beaumont (Dabbs Greer), and throws him in an incinerator. The cops listen to an audio recording of this and go to arrest him, but cops being cops, they shoot and kill him. Yes, you can shoot a vampire to death. A science vampire, at least, if this movie is to be believed.

It’s way better than you’d think, moddy and dark, a vampire addicted to pills, which is a very modern take on the monster that still resonates today.

Supposedly, this is where Roy Thomas got the idea for Morbius the Living Vampire.

You can watch this on Tubi.