NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: VCI Blu-ray (March 2021): VCI have transferred René Cardona's Santo in the Treasure of Dracula to Blu-ray. It is advertised as the 2012 resurfaced complied color version El Vampiro y el Sexo with nudity in-tact. Like VCI's first 'Mexican Genre Classic' with wrestling heroes - the double feature of The Bat Woman and The Panther Women this is a very compromised image quality. It is surely not from a film-source or original camera negative but a video-bump of some sort. This is despite being advertised as a 4K restoration.) It is a flat presentation with edge artifacts, weak contrast and diluted, washed-out, colors. Like The Panther Women let's hope this is getting a 4K restoration somewhere... and will resurface in 1080P with a significantly improved image. This 1.78:1 transfer is single-layered with a modest bitrate. Thumbs down.

NOTE: We have added 72 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, VCI use a linear PCM mono track (16-bit) in the English DUB. There are some meager sound effects and score by Sergio Guerrero - a veteran of many Mexican genre films. It sounds fairly unremarkable with a humor-inducing, often literal, DUB and subtitle translation. VCI offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The VCI Blu-ray offers a comparison featurette with the original 1969 black and white version of "Santo en El tesoro de Dracula" (Santo in the Treasure of Dracula) that has NO nudity and the simultaneously shot one in color for European markets (on this Blu-ray), adding the female nude scenes (see below.) It runs almost 25-minutes but simply shows a scene and then the corresponding one. There are also trailers for four Santo films; Santo and the Blue Demon vs. Dracula and The Werewolf, Santo and the Revenge of the Mummy, Santo vs. The Riders of Terror and Santo in Revenge of the LaLlorona.

Santo in the Treasure of Dracula is a pure camp classic. I picture Santo in his basement fixing a toaster in full hood and cape costume. The plot isn't really fleshed out very completely but the central idea is there. The Dracula scenes have many of the vampiric conventions that we love with... a few ad-hoc additions that may make you smile. I learned a couple of things watching this; 1) that Santo is pretty intelligent (not just a pretty hooded face) being able to build a time-machine - that looks suspiciously like a very pared-down version of The Time Tunnel - and that, 2) Dracula had a secret 'treasure' at all. I would have much rather seen the black and white version of Santo in the Treasure of Dracula sans shameless, often distasteful, nudity (crotches are covered by flesh-colored bandages.) Being advertised as the "Sexy Vampire Version' is, well, very subjective. Aside from the kitsch value of the film the VCI Blu-ray is a disaster. Ideally we'd like original Spanish audio, from a, hopefully, restored negative, both versions of the film and how about a fun commentary? The VCI is underwhelming but you do get to see the film for those that are curious and less patient.

Gary Tooze