This wild and clever spoof is based on a melodramatic novel attributed to Thomas Prest, the creator of Sweeney Todd. In 1900 weary vampire Sir Francis Varney shows up at an inn in Italy. He plans to visit a haunted grotto and ask forgiveness from a lost love whose ghost is doomed to roam the landscape wearing a thin veil over her face. Varney forgets his mission and proceeds to snarl and snap at everyone in sight, especially an English damsel. Varney is shot, stabbed with a wooden stake and hanged. Still he survives!