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One of the weaker entries in Universal's horror film cycle, Son of Dracula is strictly minor-league, harmless entertainment that never reaches its potential. The only reference to Count Alucard being the son of Dracula comes in the title, as Lon Chaney Jr. is clearly playing Dracula himself, and not doing a very good job at it either. Chaney seems to have taken literally the notion that Dracula is supposed to be a walking corpse, giving a painfully stiff performance that involves little more than staring intently at his victims, enemies, allies, and just about everyone else. But the problems with Son of Dracula are beyond Chaney, as the script never really takes advantage of the juicy potential of the story and lacks the dark humor and beautiful atmospherics that make the best Universal horror films so timeless. Director Robert Siodmak tries to spice things up, but even some of the film's more notable sequences, including Alucard's two encounters with Frank Stanley (Robert Paige), are clumsily staged and fail to generate the necessary suspense. Siodmak would have to wait until the following year, with Phantom Lady, before he would get the chance to film better material. Of the cast, the real star of the film is Louise Allbritton, a stunning beauty who displays a considerable talent for playing dark and mysterious. It also could be said that Son of Dracula contains one of the earliest examples of political correctness in films. Just as Frank is about to say the word "vampire," Katherine cautions him, "Don't use that word, Frank. We don't like it. Say, rather, that we are undead. Immortal." And there is, at least, the sight of Dracula appearing and disappearing as a cloud of vapor, a neat trick underused in vampire films.