Plot summary

In Hollywood, California, elderly actor Conrad Ragzoff (Ferdinand Mayne) plays the role of a vampire in a television commercial, and infuriates his director (Peter Kastner) by consistently making the same error. Conrad defends his professionalism, referencing his theatrical achievements many years earlier, but the director is unimpressed. Believing his honor has been compromised, Conrad murders the director by pushing him off a balcony.Sometime later, Conrad is honored by a college film department and suffers a heart attack while addressing the audience. A student named Meg (Jennifer Starrett) revives him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but Conrad believes he is dying and tells his wife, Etta (Barbara Pilavin), that he needs to plan the perfect funeral.Conrad summons Wolfgang (Leon Askin), his favorite director, and asks him to arrange a funeral worthy of an Academy Award. When Conrad suddenly collapses, Wolfgang assumes he is dead and expresses his long held resentments toward the actor. Conrad springs to life and suffocates Wolfgang with a pillow. Weakened by the strain, the actor hobbles to his casket and lies down to die.At his funeral, Conrad delivers his own eulogy via videotape, advising his admirers that, when they watch his movies on television, he will be returning their gaze. He is interred in a garish mausoleum, wearing his signature vampire cape and red carnation.One night, Meg, her boyfriend, Saint (Luca Bercovici), and their fellow film students Stu (Jeffery Combs), Donna (Donna McDaniel), Oscar (Alan Stock), Eve (Carlene Olsen), and Bobo (Scott Thomson), visit the cemetery. The boys break into the mausoleum where they are greeted by a video message from Conrad, intended to intimidate intruders. Undeterred, they remove the body and bring it to their rented mansion, a former set of several of Conrad's pictures, and hold a dinner party with the corpse as the guest of honor. Though her friends make light of the situation, Meg finds it disturbing and is anxious to return the body. However, Eve reveals her fantasy of marrying Conrad and making love to him in a coffin. She asks Conrad to dance, and Saint holds the corpse upright as Eve waltzes around the room. Afterward, the boys take the body to the attic and place it in a casket.The next morning, a police detective investigates the theft, while Etta consults Mrs. Rohmer (Nita Talbot), a clairvoyant, who conducts a séance and learns that Conrad has returned from hell to seek vengeance on the grave robbers.That evening, while making love to Oscar, Donna is frightened by the sight of Conrad passing in the hallway. Oscar insists that Donna imagined the apparition and goes to attic to prove his point. He is immediately locked inside and assumes Saint is playing a prank. When Oscar happens upon Conrad's open casket, the body comes to life, crushes the boy's throat and tears out his tongue. Donna follows him into the attic, discovers the empty casket, and runs from the house, fearing retribution from the resurrected actor. Conrad intercepts her in the back yard and engulfs her in flames.The next day, Meg, Saint, Eve, and Stu search the house for their missing companions. Bobo revisits the mausoleum, where he is asphyxiated by toxic fumes. Suspecting his students of the grave robbery, a film department professor stops by the house and finds a red carnation near the doorstep, which he brings to the police as evidence.Later, Eve hears voices through the ceiling and investigates in the attic. Conrad's casket levitates and chases her downstairs, crushing her against a wall. Frightened by the disappearance of their friends, the three remaining students realize their safety may depend on replacing Conrad in his mausoleum. Stu goes upstairs to retrieve their flashlights, and is beheaded by the sword-wielding actor.When Stu fails to reappear, they search the grounds for him, but instead discover Donna's charred remains. Meg returns to her room to pack her belongings, but is interrupted by Conrad, who chases her to the attic. As he breaks through the door, Meg impales him with a large crucifix, and Saint returns the lifeless body to the cemetery. The police arrive at the house shortly after dawn and question Meg, but she is unresponsive, staring in silence at the carnage around her.As Saint replaces Conrad in his mausoleum, the body comes back to life and chases him into a mortuary. Conrad forces Saint into a coffin, then burns him alive in a crematorium. Later, when Etta and Mrs. Rohmer visit the mausoleum, the psychic asks for a moment alone with Conrad. She removes the jewelry and money from his body, explaining that he owes her for her years as his mistress. Conrad awakens and shoves the money into her mouth, choking her to death. Etta looks on the scene with approval before leaving.In the final scene, Conrad appears on the video screen in an outdoor setting, surrounded by flames. He describes hell "rather pleasant" and full of interesting people, then reminds the living to "show more respect for the dead."