In the realm of low budget filmmakers, Al Adamson, along with his partner, producer Sam Sherman, are gods among men. They created a wide variety of pictures, in just about every sub-genre out there, and made with more love than money. But they were entertaining, and always memorable. Perhaps their most memorable (and successful) film was 1971’s Dracula vs. Frankenstein, in no small part thanks to the casting of a young, unknown actor in the iconic role of Dracula. Raphael Engel, rechristened Zandor Vorkov was a whole new kind of creature of the night-longhaired, goateed, and able to shoot fire out of his ring, this was a brand-new Dracula for a brand-new age. Zandor’s Dracula stalked across the screen of virtually every grindhouse and drive-in screen in America in the early 70s and then across every television screen in America for a couple of decades after that. While his Dracula was being elevated to pop culture celebrity, Zandor himself left the movie business and fell out of the public eye for decades. Go to a convention, and bring up Al Adamson, and someone would eventually say “I wonder what ever happened to Zandor Vorkov?”

Like any good vampire, he was just lying in the shadows, waiting to emerge anew!

And on this very special episode, we have asked Raphael to join us to and talk a little about himself, his time working with Adamson and Sherman, and his fascinating take on the horror fandom that he’s only recently learned existed but has embraced warmly.

You can check out Zandor’s website by going to https://zandorvorkov.com or hitting him up on Facebook by clicking HERE.

And if you love Al Adamson and Sam Sherman, check out the next episode we’re going to do, where we dig into three of our favorite films from them!