The film stars J. Carrol Naish as Dr. Durea, a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein who is working on a blood serum with his assistant Groton (Lon Chaney Jr.).

The serum soon becomes sought after by Count Dracula (Zandor Vorkov), who hopes that it will grant him the ability to be exposed to sunlight without harm.

Wheelchair-bound mad scientist Dr. Durea, the last descendant of the original Dr. Frankenstein, works out of a secret laboratory hidden behind the Creature Emporium, a haunted house exhibit and a throwback to the old sideshow days located on the boardwalk amusement park in Venice, California.

With the help of his mute, simple-minded assistant Groton, Durea murders young girls for experimentation in hopes of perfecting a blood serum.

Las Vegas showgirl Judith Fontaine arrives, looking for her missing sister Joanie who was last seen hanging out with a group of hippies led by Strange.

Groton goes to the beach with an axe, kills Rico and his gang before they can rape Samantha, and takes her into Durea's laboratory through a trap door with a ladder.

He explains that the girls who were killed (including Joanie and Samantha, whom Judith finds preserved in glass-fronted boxes) were frightened before their deaths.

He then confronts Mike, who shoves a lit car flare in the Monster's face, forcing him to briefly turn on Dracula in his pain.

She awakens to find herself bound to a chair in an abandoned and desecrated church in a forest area outside of Venice where Dracula's coffin is hidden.

Dracula tears off the Monster's arms and head, but is caught in the sun's rays before he can make it back to his coffin and disintegrates into dust.

It was originally conceived as a follow-up to Satan's Sadists, an outlaw biker film also starring Russ Tamblyn that director Al Adamson and producer Sam Sherman had recently completed.

[2] As Lon Chaney Jr., and to a lesser extent J. Carrol Naish, had been involved with the Universal monster films, the filmmakers decided to make the horror aspects more prominent and to downplay the biker plot elements.

Part of the scenes that involved the biker gang led by Russ Tamblyn's character were deleted[1][2] To play Dracula, Adamson and Sherman wished to hire John Carradine who had already worked several times with them, but the actor proved too expensive.

Roger Engel, a professional fundraiser with some acting background who had helped Adamson and Sherman meet potential investors, ended up being cast as Dracula under the stage name Zandor Vorkov.

[5] Lon Chaney Jr. biographer Don G. Smith stated that the film was "replete with problems" with Regina Carrol giving the worst performance of her career, and that the lighting of the final monster scene was inadequate.