This is a Japanese horror film, made in 1971 by Michio Yamamoto. Unlike his previous film, "The Vampire Doll", there's no doubt that this film is about vampires.
When Akiko was five years old she was walking on the beach, when her dog ran away. She chased it into a cave, which opened into a tunnel. At the other end of the tunnel there was a clearing with a European style house. It looks like the same house that was used in "The Vampire Doll". In the house she saw a ghostly woman playing a piano, and there was a vampire with blood on his lips. She fell unconscious, and when she woke up she was lying on the beach, the dog at her side. Her parents told her it was all a dream.
18 years later, Akiko is a school teacher. She lives in a house on the shore of Lake Fukujima with her sister Natsuko. Their only neighbour is the old boatkeeper Kusaku. One day Kusaku receives an unexpected delivery in a large crate. It's a coffin. It contains the same vampire that we saw at the beginning of the film.
Over the next few days Kusaku and Natsuko are acting strangely. Akiko thinks there's a conspiracy against her, but everyone thinks she's mad, even her boyfriend. But there are also mysterious deaths near the lake, young women drained of blood, so he begins to believe her.
This is a very good film. The acting is first rate, and the film is full of suspense. I wouldn't say that the film is terrifying, but it takes a lot to frighten me. It was a solid contribution by Japan to vampire lore in the 1970's. The film's title is slightly misleading. It's about a vampire by the lake, but the vampire isn't Dracula himself.
The title may be a cultural thing. In Japanese and Chinese media, i've often seen the term Dracula used to refer to Western vampires in general, separating them from their Eastern counterparts (Jiangshi/Kyonshi), since they have different lore and rules behind them.
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