STAGE REVIEW : Chilling It’s Not, but Gore Galore : The ghoulish busyness of ‘Countess Dracula’ has much perhaps unintended comic effect, but the Santa Ana play’s kinky eroticism won’t disappoint.

SANTA ANA —  “Countess Dracula” at the Way Off Broadway theater is a blood-soaked melodrama, crypt-full of vampires, with enough romance and foolishness to please a variety of tastes.

On an elaborately dressed set, to a suitably spooky soundtrack, those tireless vampire fighters--Dr. John Seward and dashing Jonathan Harker--battle again with the bloodsucking creature of the night, only this time, it’s a she .

The story begins 15 years after the destruction of the infamous Count, resurrecting the scene and characters so familiar to fans of Bram Stoker’s novel and Hamilton Deane and John Balderston’s play. Mysterious circumstances have reunited the only people on Earth who can attest to the truth of the vampire’s existence. They convene at the Seward Sanitarium and are posthaste locked in a midnight struggle with the powerful Queen of Evil (whose powers are a bit enhanced in this script by Neal DuBrock). Just one character will emerge alive.

Director Peter Henry Schroeder has no apparent tongue in his cheek, but there are more chuckles than chills in this tale of terror.

Here, we have vampire-fighting veterans who somehow overlook the threat of the mysterious, pale patient who sleeps in her coffin by day and roams freely at night in her bloodstained nightie, wielding a meat cleaver. Then, there’s the holy water that has the Countess snapping and snarling. It seems to evaporate immediately: A veritable parade of the undead waltz through it later without so much as a curled lip. At one point, the parlor is the scene of such a rotation of couples trying to bite each other that one pair scarcely exits here before the next two appears. Intentional or not, the effect is quite comical.

But for those in the mood to be spooked, there’s plenty of gore and kinky eroticism.

As the lustful, slavering Countess, Robin Dunne gives her all. She’s more than a match for the forces of Good, although Tom Pletts and Brian McCoy as Seward and Harker are admirably upright.

Dunne is less successful as the damsel in distress (though the plot provides an excellent excuse), but Heather Eaton brings a beautifully heaving bosom to her portrayal of the luckless young mistress of the sanitarium. Donna L. Getzinger scores the highest fright potential as the Countess’ reluctant accomplice, and Reagan B. Wilks and Bruce Adelsperger live clean and die hard as victims of the insatiable villainess. All in all, “Countess Dracula” fulfills producer Tony Reverditto’s quoted formula for good theater: “sex, violence and humor.”

‘COUNTESS DRACULA’

A Tony Reverditto production of Neal DuBroc’s play. Directed by Peter Henry Schroeder. With Donna L. Getzinger, Tom Pletts, Reagan B. Wilks, Bruce Adelsperger, Brian McCoy, Robin Dunne, Heather Eaton, and Jana Webb. Sound design by Steve Schmidt. Set design by Del DePierro, Peter Henry Schroeder and Reagan B. Wilks. Costume design by Maureen O’Hara. Performances tonight at 9 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. Run continues through Nov. 10 at 1058 E. 1st. St., Santa Ana. Tickets: $12. Information: (714) 547-8997.