Love at First Bite is a 1979 American comedy horror film directed by Stan Dragoti and written by Robert Kaufman, using characters originally created by Bram Stoker.

When Nicolae Ceaușescu's Communist government of Romania ejects the Count from his ancestral home, he and Renfield go in search of the current incarnation of Mina Harker, Dracula's true love.

Comedy ensues when the incurably romantic Count pursues "Mina", but finds himself a fish out of water in the Big Apple during the late 1970s.

[4] The infamous vampire Count Dracula is expelled from his castle by the Communist government of Romania, which plans to convert it into a training facility for gymnasts (including Nadia Comăneci).

The world-weary Count travels to New York City with his bug-eating manservant, Renfield, and establishes himself in a hotel, only after an airport transport mix-up accidentally sends his coffin to be the centerpiece at a funeral in a black church in Harlem.

While Dracula learns that late 1970s America contains such wonders as blood banks, sex clubs, and discotheques, the Count also proceeds to suffer the general ego-crushing that comes from life in the Big Apple, after he romantically pursues flaky fashion model Cindy Sondheim.

Rosenberg's numerous methods to combat Dracula (mirrors, garlic, a Star of David, which he uses instead of a cross, and hypnosis) are easily averted by the Count.

As mysterious cases of blood-bank robberies and vampiric attacks begin to spread, NYPD Lieutenant Ferguson starts to believe the psychiatrist's claims and gets Rosenberg released.

As a major blackout hits the city, Dracula flees with Cindy via taxi cab back to the airport, pursued by Rosenberg and Ferguson.

Love at First Bite has a 70% "Fresh" rating at the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 23 reviews with the site's consensus reading: "Love At First Bite could use some more warm-blooded barbs to liven up its undead comedy, but George Hamilton's campy charisma gives the prince of darkness some welcome pizazz".

[15] Janet Maslin of The New York Times described Love as "[a] coarse, delightful little movie with a bang-up cast and no pretensions at all,"[3] while Dave Kehr lamented the film's "hodgepodge of flat one-liners and graceless slapstick.

"[17] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "It is not quite the coupling of the decade, and Ms. St. James, although sympathetic, looks occasionally distracted, as if she were expecting a phone call at any minute.

"[18] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post suggested that the film "was evidently contrived by funnymen who started to run short of gags right after thinking up the title," also observing that Susan Saint James "doesn't even seem to be trying" and that "Hamilton does an acceptable vocal impression of Bela Lugosi, but the act may have been more amusing when he was just doing it for friends.