Dracula’s Widow 1988

In Hollywood, or as the narrator calls it, Tinsel Town, the story kicks off with Raymond Everett, the owner of the Hollywood House of Wax, nervously receiving a sixth crate from Poenari, Romania—one crate more than he was expecting. That same evening, inside a smoky Jazz bar named The Blue Angel, a lonely, predatory man corners a mysterious dark-haired woman who wanders in. This stranger is Vanessa, and after they slip away together, they head to a secluded park where she unleashes a chilling act of violence, killing the man in a sudden, decisive moment.

From there the night spirals into chaos. Two thieves break into the wax museum while Raymond is upstairs watching Nosferatu, and they soon discover they’re not alone. A creature with webbed hands and dagger-like nails attacks one intruder, tearing his throat and draining his blood with a long, nightmare-inducing tentacle that slides from its mouth. The same mysterious brunette from the bar then enters, and after a short, tense struggle, the man is compelled to renounce his girlfriend. The victimized woman in question is Jenny Harker, who works at the museum and is unaware of the danger lurking in Raymond’s life.

The next day, Lannon and his partner Citrano respond to the grisly park scene. A strange clue leads them to The Blue Angel, but witnesses offer little help. Meanwhile, Raymond tries in vain to break free from Vanessa’s influence, cleaning up the aftermath of the night’s carnage in a way that only deepening guilt and fear can explain. He even fires a desperate, unsuccessful bite at his girlfriend. As night returns, the creature strikes again, this time claiming a night watchman who had been watching a news report about the park murder.

Vanessa returns to pull Raymond into another grim rendezvous, this time in a car. She explains that they must return her to Romania to her husband, Count Dracula. Yet Raymond’s reply is blunt: Dracula is dead, and Van Helsing’s legacy complicates everything. Jenny, watching from afar, sees the two in the car and begins to sense the dangerous hold Vanessa has over him. The police pick up a fragment of the puzzle from a frazzled burglar who witnessed his accomplice’s death at the wax museum, hinting at a dark supernatural truth.

As the plot advances, the elderly grandson of Van Helsing becomes a key voice, revealing a shocking fact: vampires have mostly been destroyed, but Vanessa remains—the true wife of Dracula, described as beauty and beast in one. In a seedier part of town, Vanessa and Raymond encounter occultists who feel the power she radiates. She ascends into her monstrous form, slaughtering almost everyone present and leaving Raymond as the sole survivor.

The morning after, Jenny confronts Raymond over the phone, and he drafts a letter confessing his predicament, hoping for forgiveness. Back at the wax museum, Lt. Lannon calmly checks the premises and confronts Raymond with the burglar’s admission, which he denies. The tension spikes when Lannon is called to another massacre attributed to Vanessa. He and the elderly Van Helsing’s grandson piece together a morgue discovery: Vanessa’s first victim. A wooden stake and mallet, wielded by Helsing, briefly bring the victim back to life as he dies again, sealing the vampire’s threat in a stark, cinematic moment.

Raymond later seeks trust from Jenny, who becomes a cautious ally. She supplies him with a cross for protection, and when night falls again, Vanessa resumes her killings, taking Citrano and Helsing in swift, brutal fashion. Raymond is arrested, and the wax museum is combed for evidence, yet the truth remains elusive to most of the authorities. Only Lt. Lannon believes a factor far more supernatural than mere human malice.

The confrontation reaches a climactic turn when Lannon and Jenny join forces to locate Vanessa and clear Raymond’s name. Raymond is taken to a vacant warehouse for a show of police pressure, and Vanessa prepares to finish him herself. Jenny, aided by a supernatural spark, locates the warehouse, and together with Lannon they keep Vanessa distracted long enough for Raymond to seize the moment. In a final act of courage and humanity, he kills Vanessa, breaking the vampire’s hold and reclaiming his life.

This tale blends noir grit with gothic dread, anchored by a haunted wax museum, a forbidden romance, and a battle that blends science, superstition, and stubborn human resilience. The streets of Hollywood become a battleground where loyalties are tested, love is pulled apart by fear, and a man named Raymond fights to hold onto his soul against something ancient, hungry, and eerily relentless.